Flying Pictures

Lasertron – Laser magic

The challenge: To manipulate lasers as though they are solid rods, creating the illusion of bending and breaking light. To build this into an amazing choregraphed performance as a feature act, using a Tron suited performer.

LED strips light the Tron suit, complementing the laser glow. In the dark, he grabs a laser beam coming out of the stage, moves it around, then just breaks it off. Holding the beam like a spear he jams it back into the stage, then bends it to his will, before grabbing it and throwing it into the air, where it becomes a flying bird of light.

This feature works well as a standalone piece, or within a bigger show. We have used Lasertron for shows such as Wearable Arts, Microsoft, Les Mills and others.

Melbourne Shot Tower - Installation

The challenge: To use lasers to tell the story of the Shot Tower history. This unique 1880’s brick tower was used to make lead shot for ammunition and ballast, by dropping molten lead from the top of the tower to land in water tanks inside the base, forming balls of lead. The whole tower is now under a giant glass cone as part of Melbourne Central.

We researched the history, wrote a script, then animated it in 3d, then rendered it to laser graphics. This 4-minute animation was projection mapped onto the faces of the tall tower, using a pair of RGB graphic lasers.

We also installed 12 moving head LED lighting fixtures to light the tower and the 50m glass cone that has been build over the tower.

The laser animation, effects mapping and lighting show are programmed to run on an hourly cycle. The system is accessible via the internet, so we can view the projection, monitor and change the programming remotely.

The system has been running reliably now for four years 24/7 without a break.

Mahurangi Festival of Lights -Warkworth

The challenge: Community based outdoor show, as the highlight to a local lighting festival.

Setup lasers, hazers and sound system for a 12 minute show every half hour for 3 hours, for a dynamic park filling show for 1000 people.

Using a mobile stage and sound system as a base, we arrayed 5 big lasers across the park, and added two others to run graphics onto the hill by the river. With a diverse mix of rock, pop and classical tracks, we filled the park with beams, planes and cones time-locked to the music.

While the weather, by turns, gusted and bucketed down, the show looked great and everyone had a great time. Great show for a moderate budget.

SeePort – Kings Wharf Auckland

The challenge: Build a great show for an outdoor concert on Kings Wharf for 10,000 people, with a live orchestra, and fireworks from the barge in the harbour.

Choregraph three beat perfect music scores to a live orchestra, without the benefit of a rehearsal.

For this we put up 8 high power lasers across the stage line, and 3 more projecting back to the stage. We had 6 hazers and smoke machines on wireless DMX surrounding the wharf, to haze the area, making the laser visible in mid-air over the audience.

Prior to the show, we programmed to a guide track and then built a series of cue points; verse, chorus, guitar break, crescendo etc, which we triggered at the right moment in the live show. This enabled us to be beat perfect with a very complex program, with an orchestra that played at a different tempo.

The weather was perfect, and the show looked great with the fireworks going off high behind the orchestra stage.

World Masters Games Opening – Eden Park

The challenge: Fill a stadium with laser effects for an audience on all sides, and work with 12 show-tracks, coordinating with lighting, sound and performers.

The effect required a laser waving sea across the pitch, plus meshed grids, and high effects, we mounted the lasers low on the field. This allowed us to build those low aerial effects and beam fans, without projecting lasers into the audience. Then we had a high zone above the crowd for intense laser beam work.

We had twelve original soundtrack songs to program original effects to using 24 lasers in the round. A great challenge for a unique show by Inside Out Productions.

Vivid Sydney

The challenge: Create Bradfield’s beacon from the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and laser projection map the 12 buildings of the Circular Quay cityscape.

As part 32 Hundred Lighting’s, Skylark, which holds the Guinness World Record for the largest interactive lighting installation ever, the addition of 18 big lasers expanded the show even more.

Getting the 6 heavy 30w lasers up onto the very top of the bridge was a challenge by itself, as was the mounting of another 12 lasers onto the rooftops of five other sites across Circular Quay.

The low divergence lasers on the Bridge made beams visible for kilometers, while paired with 10 Aquabeam lights for fatter light beams closer in. The building lasers mapped a vertical and horizontal line theme, with some breakout animated moves on the half hour.

The six sites were linked by fibre optic and gigabit microwave links back to control. This allowed us to program eight interactive shows and one showcase, which were uploaded to the Pangolin FB4 units embedded in the Kvant Lasers. This was then controlled by DMX from GrandMA, which was also controlling the rest of the lights. That is; 1800 16ch LED tubes outlining the Bridge, and 200 plus LED fixtures up-lighting all the buildings around the Quay.

In a glass sided shipping container by the Opera House, members of the audience could select their building colour, paint the Bridge, select their laser pattern, and then hit the big Go Button, and all would change to their selection. Great fun.

The show had a two-month production run up, a three week build, and a three-week season. This was the biggest laser system we’d built, and there were many firsts and challenges to solve with a large distributed system like this. We were pleased to solve them and have a great show run.

Dragon Eyes

The challenge: Client: Capital C Concerts Skill: Laser Show design and Performance, Laser build Visit Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock2Wgtn#Rock2Wgtn_2008 8 Meter high Dragon, built and puppeteered by Weta Workshop team, featured between band in the Westpac Stadium, Wellington.

Flying Pictures custom built laser eyes for the dragon, and installed 15w RGB Ion laser behind the dragon.

The Rock2Wgtn Festival was held Easter 2008. The headliners were Kiss[1] and Ozzy Osbourne. The other bands to play were Whitesnake,[2] Lordi, Alice Cooper,[3] and Poison.[4]

New Zealand bands The Valves, Sonic Altar, and The Symphony of Screams played support over the 2 nights.

The special effects were supplied by Weta Workshop who have previously supplied effects for movies such as The Lord of The Rings.[5][6]

Attendance over the 2 days was around 50,000

Wearable Arts Awards WOW – TSB Arena Wellington

The challenge: To create a spectacular laser event integrated with the performers, the costumes, and many complicated stage effects, for Inside Out Productions.

Within the show we had 6 scenes, each with a different style and look.

For example, the Architect (performer) on stage waves his arms and draws buildings and sculptures in space, deletes them, and draws again.
For this, we traced, with the laser, photographs of real buildings, and then with four lasers, projected these on to roll-down gauze screens which appeared in the dark.

Then, Building with Light, where a dancer summons beams of laser up from the floor, breaks them off, then passes them around his body, before casting them up to dance in the air.

The Magritte moment, when twelve suited, bowler hatted performers appear instantly (up though stage trapdoors) into a breathing 3d lattice of laser walls and planes. Very surreal.

Or, a room filling blitz, of colour and movement, showcasing the costumes, with a thousand choreographed beams of light, for an up-tempo finale.

And the final effect, where the architect stands in a tunnel of light, with vertical walls, and then walks upstage and disappears into the light.

For the arena show, we used 10 lasers, on and surrounding the stage, with the audience on three sides. The show was built to a custom written soundtrack and the lasers time-coded to sync with the music and other FX. Built to run a three-week season. Fabulous.

Hobbiton

The challenge: Showcase Hobbiton during a live village event and magic on the lake, for the passengers on a special cruise ship excursion. For this we used the Flying pictures Water screen and lasers over the laser for a magical night.

Imagine a peacock fantail of water 30m wide, 15m high and really thin, just 30mm. That is our water screen. It can be on land, with a recycling catchment, near water for an intake, or floating on the lake, like at Hobbiton.

This reflecting pool is fantastic for creating that magic illusion, with images and performers rising out of the lake, or appearing in mid-air, as the screen is invisible at night until lit.

We edited and masked footage from the Hobbiton movie, then highlighted that with mid-air laser magic. The audience were enthralled and had a great night.

Pride in Print Awards – Sky City Auckland

The challenge: To create a large scale 30-metre-wide audio-visual backdrop for a gala awards event showcasing more than 60 winners at Sky City ballroom

Start with a hard-edge music track and a client theme of a dark dystopian city. Using Aftereffects, we built a full 3D city at night, with billboards throughout, featuring titles and categories for the awards.

Along with crackling thunder and laser effects, the camera flies around the city for a high impact opening show. We then use the same cityscape to present the visuals for the Award winners

For the show Flying Pictures built the AV concept and content, programmed the lasers, directed the show, worked with Multimedia, who supplied sound and lighting and six projector Watch-out system.

Hi-Tech Awards

The challenge: To create a spectacular awards show opening by creating the illusion of a tattoo drawing on to the face of Horo the performer who is then wrapped in a laser cone cage while he performs traditional Maori music before the laser show opening. Using photographs of Horo we produced a 3D model of his face. We then worked with the team to produce a culturally accurate tattoo which was mapped on to the 3D Face.

As Horo on a stage in the centre of the audience his face appeared on 40-metre-wide multi-panel LED screens and the tattoo animated onto his face as though it was happening live.

Vospertron with water screen and lasers

Shown here at Splore festival, we created a custom laser animation from 3ds Max line animations, which were projected onto the water screen behind the performers.

The lasers, dancers and suit LED's were all synced to the music.

Winter Nights Winter Lights -Tauranga

The challenge: This is a community winter festival of lights, which featured Flying Pictures show over two years.

The city foreshore park was jammed for the shows which ran 12 minutes every 30 for two nights.

The second year feature the water screen on a raft in the harbour basin.

Samoa - Blue Sky Apia

The challenge: To produce a free community outdoor product launch show for Blue Sky telco, using the large Government building as a screen with the first ever laser show, in Apia, Samoa.

The client had a big wish list, and a modest budget, so we had to craft a solution that would deliver the exciting show they imagined, while having a realistic cost. We edited a TVC branding video, plus the opening show mapping and laser spectacular and also a two-hour entertainment show. Also, we had to use the smallest amount of equipment possible to keep the budget down for air freight. We had to deal with shipping schedules, customs and paperwork, and a last-minute requirement for a bond the value of the whole system. Cope with slow deliveries, late power supply, and of course, tropical down-pours.

In brief: Video projection on the large building with laser display projecting from the stage After a site visit for client meetings, measurements and photos, we built a 3D software model of the building and site. Using Capture software for pre-visualisation, we then accurately mapped lasers and video projectors together onto the building. This allowed us to program the whole show before we travelled.

We edited a video for the for the client promotion and a special effects show utilising building video mapping and aerial laser effects. This was integrated with the projection mapping software in the laser together to produce an exciting show over two nights with a concert on the second night.

NZ crew of three, with two 20k lumen Christie video projectors (Spyglass), 10 lasers; 6-22w laser power, six wireless DMX hazers. Local sound and lighting.

An excited crowd, and a very happy client.

We then, travelled to American Samoa the next month, for a laser only show as part of the same brand launch.

Laser Shows & Systems

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Flying Pictures are passionate about creating and performing the the most creative and advanced laser shows in Australasia.

Case Studies