Najafi Design Group Transforms Historic Scoot Inn With FLEXCurve LED Video Technology
Gail Chiasson, North American Editor
With offices in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, Najafi Design Group prides itself on creating designs that truly complete the experience while immortalizing the moment.
So when they were approached by Cleft Clips production company to create an entirely new technical design for ‘Funny or Die’, lighting and event designer Sohail Najafi was confident his team could completely transform The Historic Scoot Inn. Funny Or Die is an Emmy-winning comedy video website and film/TV production company founded by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and Chris Henchy.
The website Funny Or Die contains exclusive material from a number of famous contributors.
Wanting to consolidate two main elements of their typical production design, a detailed scenic backdrop and high resolution video wall for connect playback, Najafi found a new cost-effective and dynamic solution, the FLEXCurve 8mm high resolution curved LED video wall from PixelFLEX.
“We started designing for Cleft Clips in Los Angeles for various comedy specials over the past few years,” says Najafi. “When they brought us back this year, they asked us to manage the technical production for Funny or Die’s venue in Austin. In the past, they had used a traditional goal post truss structure with a suspended LED wall, but this year they challenged us to be more creative. The solution was curved LED wall, which we were able to do using the FLEXCurve LED.”
The award-winning FLEXCurve from PixelFLEX offers an innovative dual wing curving LED tile. Designed with a 4mm – 12mm pitch that’s ideal for both indoor and outdoor applications, the FLEXCurve exceeds the needs of any live production event looking for a high-definition LED display.
“With a more creative use of LED video in mind, we started looking at how the production typically used painted scenery with lighting inlays as its scenic backdrop, so I decided to combine the two elements and integrate the LED wall in a scenic way,” says Najafi. “Since The Historic Scoot Inn has a wide quarter round stage that goes upstage to a 90 degree point, we wanted a high-resolution LED product that could create a beautifully, curved viewing panel that spanned the whole stage seamlessly. When we started looking, we found most solutions were significantly out of our client’s budget, weren’t offered with realistic rental options, and we were about to abandon the idea until we found PixelFLEX and the FLEXCurve on the LDI (Live Design International) show floor.”
With the LED wall identified, Najafi and his team turned their attention to the load-in planning of the show as it would need to happen during an overnight load-in as quickly as possible. Featuring top-mounting ‘Rig and Click’ vertical interconnects, along with horizontal interconnects and curve setup, the FLEXCurve provided hassle-free alignment and setup with rigging flexibility in mind.
“Our load-in time was very tight because we had another project performing and striking the previous day until 2 am, immediately after which we had to start loading in ‘Funny or Die’,” says Najafi. “The producers wanted to open their doors by noon on Sunday, and we had to be ready to receive artists and vendors by 9 am. To do this, the LED wall had to go up exceedingly quickly. With its simple connection system, the crew built the 30’ wide x 10’ high FLEXCurve extremely quickly, giving us a smooth and beautifully curved surface.”
Now loaded-in, the wall could present beautifully designed custom graphics and animations that would bring the room alive. With a full day of musical and comedy performances, the FLEXCurve would not only provide the event producers an opportunity to create more dynamic scenic elements for the show, but it also provided them a canvas to apply their own branded content as well.
“The FLEXCurve really gave the venue a visual richness,” says Najafi. “Having that big, expansive, curved canvas was a tremendous advantage because no matter where you were, you had screen serving your perspective with the animations playing well to all the sightlines. All of the custom content created by Jekyll Works looked absolutely fantastic, plus it provided the producers the chance to have all these wonderful brand activation moments to highlight upcoming events for ‘Funny or Die’ and its affiliates.”
It all worked.
“During the show everyone in the audience was energetically reacting to the LED wall and the overall environment we created for the production,” says Najafi. “They were constantly taking photos and recording video, and the producers were extremely happy with the final design commenting that it exceeded all their expectations. PixelFLEX really did a great job of supporting ‘Funny or Die’ to make sure there were no issues, and we really appreciated their commitment to the events success.“
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