Jordan O'BrienHow does one upstage a superstar like Beyoncé? Well, Holo-Gauze found the perfect trick by creating multiple holographic Beyoncés which stalked the real deal around the stage.
The holographic Beyoncés appeared during a charity concert organised by the singer’s husband Jay-Z. Taking place at the Barclay Center in Brooklyn New York, in association with Robin Hood, Tidal X: 1015 played host to a number of chart-topping artists, but it was the Beyoncé performance that garnered the most attention.
The special effect-laden performance took place at the beginning of the former Destiny Child’s six minutes-plus rendition of Lemonade. A huge transparent Holo-Gauze screen created the illusion that there were multiple Beyoncés, which eventually disappeared by entering the genuine article. She then leaned back to create visual echoes of herself, which was strangely reminiscent of the ‘bullet time’ sequence from The Matrix.
Parkwood Entertainment – the Beyoncé-founded entertainment and management firm – instructed design studio The Experience Machine (TEM) for this project, and producer Mark Logue approached Holotronica to supply a 10m x 5m Holo-Gauze screen for the Beyoncé set. Mark had previously specified Holo-Gauze for Lady Gaga’s Grammy Awards performance – designed by TEM and Intel – earlier this year.
Production Resource Group, the entertainment and event technology solutions experts, was contacted by Holotronica to assist with the front-of-stage installation, and was also responsible for the projected interaction of the multiple Beyoncé content.
“I was delighted when Mark said he wanted to utilise a Holo-Gauze screen for the TEM-designed Beyoncé set,” says Holo-Gauze inventor Stuart Warren-Hill. “Holo-Gauze is ideal for live events such as this, allowing live performers to be situated behind our near-invisible gauze while visually stunning holographic effects appear to float in front of them. Usually effects such as these are expensively added in post-production – ruling them out of live events. However Holo-Gauze makes the seemingly impossible possible.”
“We worked closely with Beyoncé’s creative team to educate them on how to achieve optimum results,” explains Dan Hammond, senior account executive, business development for Production Resource Group. “First was the need to produce images which were to be projected on to the Holo-Gauze screen. We discussed projector types and placement, where she should perform in relation to the screen and how to light her without taking away from the effect on the screen – special attention to lightning details are needed when shooting content to be displayed on Holo-Gauze. It’s really about how to best blend all these elements together to create a spectacular and memorable presentation of performance.”