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Axel Melchior adds new dimension to Circus Knie with Chauvet

This year, Circus Knie presented itself as offering “a mixture of fantasy, poetry and magic”. Adding an extra glow to this mix and intensifying the fantasy and poetry at the show was a lighting design by Axel Melchior, featuring Chauvet Professional Colorado PXL Curve 12 fixtures supplied by Dushow.

“In our previous design, the light was very good from FOH, but I reworked the show so that it encompassed all the spectators more by multiplying the beams. This allows everyone in the audience to have a similar experience”, explains Melchior. “I also added 25 Colorado PXL Curves controlled with sACN, around the scene, which dramatically changes the whole design. In addition, we stopped the waterfall, and replaced it with kinetic spheres on over 500 winches hanging from the ceiling. On top of this, we had eight other Colorado PXL Curves on a motorized platform. In order to control them easily, I simply took the fixture profile for the Curve and created a new profile with an additional 4/5 parameters.”

“As far as the PXL Cures are concerned, their individual zoom and tilt allowed me to create very varied looks and to multiply the beams without multiplying the sources”, he adds. “I decided to mount eight of the units on a platform, so I could add infinite rotation movements to the tilt effects. Also, I really needed an IP65 projector because even though we don’t have the waterfall anymore, there is still a lot of dust and dirt in the atmosphere.”

The circus’ design and production team, which also included project manager John Masson from Dushow, artistic director Géraldine Knie, and lighting director Julien Lhomme, added a video floor in the second part of the show. “We needed powerful fixtures to complement this element”, says Melchior. “I also set up the PXL Curves around the floor screen so that they did not light the screen from above which would have been inconvenient. Also, by having the Curves around the scene, I was able to light faces properly. I also had all the liberty I want color-wise to adapt to the costumes and the protagonists on stage.”

(Photos: Chauvet Professional/Circus Knie)

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