In mid march I was asked if id be interested in lighting Ravensbourne's Convocation Ceremony. After having worked as a gaffer on the 2009 convocation, I knew that it wouldn't be an easy task and that there would be some interesting challenges to over come. I want away and had a think about what would be possible in the space and once I was confident I could make something work I accepted the challenge. 

So what challenges did I face? Well, to start with, the event was being held on the new Ravensbourne Campus. This was to be the first convocation to be held onsite in the "Big Space", a large atrium on Level 4 of the building. The second challenge was the tight budget constraints, and the third, and possibly the most difficult challenge to over come, was the enormous windows flooding the space with sunlight/daylight. 

So how did we do it? The fact this was the first convocation to be held onsite meant that I could create something original and different. I wanted to create a set which was simple yet sophisticated, and incorporated LED video. After meeting with the client I decided that Hi-Res video would be too distracting and the a simple low-Res product would suite the occasion much better. I went for 4 x 5Meter Columns of EvenLed, spaced evenly apart, which allowed the graduates and audience to see the rest of the building and the iconic O2 Arena in the background. This gave the set a sense of depth and a 3D feel.

The problem with daylight was overcome by utilising it and incorporating daylight into the design, rather than blocking it out, something that would have meant blacking out windows spanning over 20x15m and wouldn't be possible with the budget and time constraints we had. 

That budget constraint was  a more tricky obstacle to overcome,  As Ravensbourne has built up a strong relationship with Stage Electrics over the last year, A sponsorship deal was purposed which utilised the budget we already had and Stage Electrics would donated the rest to us with additional future benefits. This was a mutually beneficial deal and will hopefully build on our strong relationship and allow us to work together on future ventures. 

I'd like to thank Sarah Cox at Stage Electics, for her support and for securing the equipment required to put on convocation. It has been a pleasure working working with Sarah, and without her and the team at Stage Electrics we wouldn't have been able to make convocation such a success and memorable day for the Graduates.

With all the main challenges overcome I got down to finishing the design and equipment.  
My final kit list consisted of:

8 x Martin Mac 2000
8 x Martin Mac 101
20 x Martin EvenLed Panels
4 x ClayPaky Alphabeam 700
8 x Arri 650W Fresnels
2 x Source 4 19 Degree Profile12 x Source 4 25-50 Zooms Profile 
Along with all the necessary rigging and staging, 

Although I was Lighting/ Set Designer, I was also the console operator, and the lighting was controlled by Jacquesolie Lighting's Ultra Violet.

Rigging and Technical Support was provided by Fix-d Media Ltd, who sent in Johnnie Blows and Oli Breffit with additional help from Jacques Batchelor. The equipment was dropped to Ravensbourne on Monday morning and rigging commenced around 14:00. We'd completed 90% of it by 01:00 Tuesday morning, when we returned after a nights sleep and completed the final 10%.

Wednesday was a remarkable day all round and it was a delight to take a seat back and watch the students graduate and their proud parents congratulate them. The day flew by and it was great to hear positive feed back all day from the client and students. On Thursday came the de-rig, which took around 8 hours all together and was rather tiring, but the whole week has been worth it. We've had really positive feed back, and we hope you like the outcome too :)

More Images from the event can be found here: http://gallery.me.com/davidoxberry#100541


Until the next update, Take Care
Jacques 

I would like to take this opportunity to Thank Sarah Cox of; Stage Electrics & Johnnie Blows and Oli Breffit of; Fix-d Media who gave up the time to help with rigging and provided technical support throughout the event