UK – Clay Paky’s advanced hybrid Mythos fixtures have beamed a variety of effects for the Sunday for Sammy ‘entertainment extravaganza’ in Newcastle, England, which featured some of Britain’s best-loved performers.
Celebrated lighting and set designer Eugene O’Connor, who has worked with an incredible number of high profile artists including Metallica, Usher and Katy Perry, specified 30 Mythos fixtures for the show, which was performed to a live audience as well as being filmed for DVD.
Held in memory of the late actor Sammy Johnson, Sunday for Sammy features a galaxy of stars from the worlds of TV, theatre and music. The shows sell out in minutes, raising funds for creative, talented and enthusiastic young performing artists from the North East of England.
“As set designer I decided to rig three circular screens at the back of the staging: a main six metre screen in the centre and two three-metre circles either side, plus two six-metre half circle trusses at the side of stage for cross light for the cameras,” explains O’Connor. “We rigged 12 Mythos in the ceiling truss, eight on the centre screen, four on the outer half circle truss and six on the floor.
“The Mythos worked really well in this show because of the variety of looks you can get from them, from a sharp, defined beam to a nice wide profile beam and good gobo looks.”
Clay Paky designed the Mythos to offer a sharp powerful beam with perfectly defined edges, from the first millimetres after the front lens right along its entire length. Mythos is capable of very versatile looks, as a spotlight and also as a projector of visual effects.
Sunday for Sammy 2016 was held at Newcastle’s City Hall and featured Tim Healy, Denise Welch, Kevin Whately, Christopher Fairbank and Charlie Hardwick, among others. The events, which started in 2000, have raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for un-and-coming performing talent in the North East.
The fixtures were supplied by Shaun Moore at Nitelites, which is based in Newcastle.
The event marked the third time O’Connor has served as lighting designer for Sunday for Sammy. He was originally brought in to design it by Geoff Wonfor who was directing the DVD shoot.