A New Look For X-Factor Auditions

A sudden format change for the X-Factor auditions provided LD Mark Kenyon and ELP to show what they can do under pressure.

“Simon Cowell wanted the audition shows to be more like Britain’s Got Talent (BGT) with an audience, stage set and show lighting” remarks Mark Kenyon.

BGT auditions were such a huge success both with the live audience and the viewing public that the usual X-factor audition format (where contestants would perform in a small function suite in front of judges) would look tame in comparison.

Mark was the obvious LD for production company TalkBack Thames as he worked on the BGT shows but, as Mark explains, they did not have long to get X-Factor on the road. “I drew my lighting plan on the Wednesday and the first trucks were being loaded at the ELP warehouse on Friday of the same week”

“Production did their best to book us into similar ‘arena’ style venues across the UK but inevitably there was quite a bit of variation in terms of size and style. So I needed a design that was flexible enough to be customised at different locations” Commented Mark. This was simply down to venue availability and meant that one day the show was in a high ceilinged arena, then into a low roofed exhibition hall or into a more compact theatre setting.

The schedule comprised of two recordings per day each of about 4 hours. Each sitting would have at least two thousand attendees. With a day or two to load in and load outs often the same night, this production operated on more of a rock and roll schedule.

By the same token, LD Mark Kenyon was keen to bring rock and roll styling to his design. For example, encircling the audience were lengths of 3m silver Supertruss. Narrow beam silver par cans illuminated the reflective truss architecture from within while regular wide angle par cans coloured the audience. “The truss warmers looked great! exclaimed Mark

He continues “Originally production wanted search light effects across the crowd but because multiple scenes from the shows are continuously being cut and edited together it would cause continuity issues if beams of light were cutting across the audience. In the end they were very pleased with the solution I presented”

Mark also made the following recommendations for front of house and the stage set. “Originally production wanted lots of moving lights and smoke. But I advised them that it was impossible to digitally programme a ‘look’ as you really don’t have any clue what the acts will deliver on stage… how many of them there will be or even what tempo of song they will perform”

The LD presented a simple but effective solution. Three lengths of silver mini beam trussing were flown, two above the stage and one above front of house to create the lighting positions. All the moving lights were placed at front of house. These consisted of VL1000s, VL3500s and Mac 500s. Primarily, these were placed over the audience as this was the most difficult area to access. These auto-focusable key lamps were used to light ‘specials’, the audience and the judge’s desk.

Over the stage an assortment of par cans, fresnels and Source 4 profiles provided a vibrant but uniform look so that all the contestants had the same equal coverage across the stage.

Set designer Florian Wieder installed a huge video wall at the back of the stage which was framed on both flanks by corner shaped Mac LC video panels. Anna Valley supplied the all video hardware.

“One of my favorite aspects of the overall design was the way we were able to utilise ELP’s Chroma Pars nestled in the truss frames on stage left and right. These were the ideal size and accentuated Florian’s set design very well.” Says Mark Kenyon