Aktuelle News & Schlagzeilen

Corona: Music fans show solidarity for backstage workers in Tel Aviv

A star-studded line of music stars and artists performed during a protest concert in Charles Clore Park, Tel Aviv, Israel, titled “Behind The Scenes: An Assembly of Solidarity” to draw attention to the plight of freelancers, backstage technicians and all the zero-hours contract workers in the Israeli event industry whose livelihoods have been decimated as the music and live event industry has been paused in the fight to control Covid-19.

 

This solidarity rally was initiated and produced by Tali Yaacobi Events Production and backed by Inbar and Marius Nacht who made a generous donation to all the crew working on the show. The lighting and audio were supplied by Argaman Systems - including a large Robe moving light rig which was designed by Cochavi & Klein and operated by Eran Klein (of Cochavi & Klein) and Ronen Najar.

 

When Eli Cochavi (CEO of Cochavi & Klein) was asked by Tali Yacobi to join the production, he assembled the design team, with Eran Klein as head of design and Omer Israeli as lighting designer. Concerts in Israel are still banned under state of emergency and social distancing laws, however contained protests are not. This gig took place with the backing of the Israeli police and the city of Tel Aviv.

 

The 14-metre-wide by 8-metre-deep stage was supplied by the Stage Design Group - with video from Clean LED and all the onsite health and safety delivered by B-Safe. The stage design - by Avi Fahima of Forma Studio - featured a series of Layher structural cubes offering a fragmented and broken look, and the visual design including video and lighting followed this concept. The actual performance space was smaller than normal as it was a protest rally rather than a concert.

 

The lighting design was based on the fact that the occasion was to highlight behind the scenes workers, so some fixtures were placed literally “behind the scenes” and in inaccessible places to aesthetically emphasise this fact and in doing so actually representing the backstage community. “They shone through the metal structure - bursting out, almost struggling and highly symbolic, but at the same time giving depth and meaning to the stage” says Eran Klein.

 

Everything on the stage apart from assorted generics, strobes and a couple of other wash lights was Robe. Forty MegaPointes were used in multiple positions - eight each on the two upstage trusses above the band which where outrigged for different levels for enhanced depth. There were two additional L-shaped trusses mid-stage, each with six MegaPointes, and another four on each downstage truss outrigged from the inner PA towers and facing the crowds. Four more were on the upstage risers.

 

The Spiiders were grouped together for side washing across the stage and in two clusters in between the MegaPointes. For key light - because there was no time to install a ground support system as the police allowed only one day setup - they used six BMFL Blades a side in two rows. Sun Strips downstage produced a tungsten cross light glow and follow spots were boosted by two Robert Juliat 2500s.

 

The rally lasted two hours with a combination of speeches and music. Best moments included halfway through, when the sound was cut out, the lights blacked out and all eyes fell on the FOH position as sound engineer Lior Tevet grabbed a microphone and made a speech about the value and contribution of all the technicians, designers and production people behind the scenes.

 

Heading up the production team was Ofer Gover, working with director Rubi Cohen of the Rosh Hutsot Group. The production manager was Lea Buskila, the operations producer was Adva Mainz, Eran Mitelman was the musical director, and the sound design was created by Yair Goren (with live audio operated by Lior Tevet). The live camera/IMAG mix was cut by Ido Kagan, video content was produced by Asaf Diamabt and the VJ was Dorian Natan. All the technical production was co-ordinated by Eyal Katz and Yochai Tamir, with Guy Sadot as the official videographer.

 

(Photos: Eran Be’eri - Photographers)

 

www.robe.cz

 

© 1999 - 2024 Entertainment Technology Press Limited News Stories