On December 19, 2019, a grand gala celebrating the 20th anniversary of Macao's return to the motherland, "The Love of the River in China" was held at the Macau East Asia Stadium. The entire visual team assembled in May and began to create. The party was composed of chief director Xiao Xiangrong, literary director Zhu Hai, and music director Guan Xia. The visual team consisted of stage art and visual consultant Sha Xiaolan, stage art director Ren Dongsheng, stage design designer Gao Wenjun, lighting designer Wang Jichen, and video designer Hu Tianji.
1. Dance director: Ren Dongsheng
Under the leadership of the Central Propaganda Department, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and the Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Macao Special Administrative Region Government, the design plan has been revised many times. A bold attempt was made on the basic principles of characteristic performance methods:
According to the site conditions of the Macau East Asia Stadium, a panoramic display method was determined.
The main colors of red, gold and blue are determined, among which red represents the motherland, gold represents Macau, and blue represents marine culture and open ideas.
The multimedia image is composed of an arc-shaped main background screen, three ice screens that can be combined up and down, the stands on both sides of the stage and the projection area in front of the auditorium.
The huge golden lotus curtain at Taikou is open to gather together and Macau elements are refined from the movable skyline formed by Macau landmark buildings.
The 500-square-meter orchestra in the front area of the stage is composed of a huge team of Macau Symphony Orchestra, Macau Chinese Orchestra and mainland musicians, and is conducted by Li Xincao.
The lighting system adopts the surrounding hanging point arrangement to form an effective lighting rendering effect.
2. Stage design: Gao Wenjun
Macau, a former wanderer, a small golden lotus blooming in the southeast of the motherland, finally celebrated the 20th anniversary of its return to the motherland at the end of 2019. In this important festival, the author was fortunate to participate in the design of the entire evening party, as well as the stage installation and rehearsal work.
The stage design plan went through three drafts and the process progressed smoothly. The final plan was approved by the leaders of the Ministry of Culture.
2.1 The overall idea of stage design
The visual elements of Macau: the St. Paul's Arch-Macau's architectural skyline, Golden Lotus (Macau's city flower), Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. These few major elements constitute the main image of the whole party.
2.2 The composition of stage art space, artistic expression and satisfaction of functional space
The composition of staged space, artistic expression and functional space of Macau East Asia Stadium, commonly known as "Macau Egg" by the people of Macau, the venue is 90 meters long and 50 meters wide. Such an area of venue can satisfy the performance schedule of thousands of actors. At the same time, it is a big challenge to meet the requirements of a double band consisting of nearly 400 symphony and folk music.
The stage design is a huge orchestra of nearly 600 square meters. The huge orchestra should form a coordinated scale with the main stage in proportion. The plan was finally determined in the discussion of the main creators: the main stage is a concentric circle with a circular lifting platform in the center, spreading outward. Taikou are two fake piers based on the piers of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. At the same time, this image resembles two sails, symbolizing Macau's sailing in the new era.
The opening scene is composed of imaged nasturtiums, each petal can move independently. The edges are outlined by color-changing LEDs. With the perfect cooperation of lighting and multimedia teachers, Golden Lotus presents brilliant effects and various levels of change. As the nasturtium slowly opened, the petals fluttered slightly. When the golden lotus landed on the left and right sides of the sail-shaped fake proscenium respectively, they formed the same shape as the symbolic wings together with the sail, completing the final form of the proscenium.
The sky curtain is a set of large curved LED screens with a height of 18 meters and a span of 40 meters. In front of the large screen, there are eight landmarks of Macau constructed by LED luminous lines, which form the skyline of Macau, which overlaps with the large screen and can be opened and closed left and right under the movement of Wia.
The stadium is very large, which causes great inconvenience for the actors to get on and off the court. For this reason, in the back area of the stage, under the big screen, a waiting podium that surrounds the stage is designed. The floor of the platform is flush with the main stage, with a height of 3 meters and a width of 5 meters. There is a 4 meter opening at the entrance and exit, which greatly facilitates the waiting of actors and props, as well as the scheduling of actors for different shows in time.
The stage is the stage for the actors and the artists. What we provide is a stage for them to show their unparalleled talents, rather than overwhelming guests. They are the protagonists on the stage. Finally, pay tribute to all the staff and artists in various departments who have worked hard for this celebration party!
3. Lighting design: Wang Jichen
The party kicked off with a song "Welcome" and a lion dance performance. The whole evening party was themed around the great achievements of the unity of the two places and the "one country, two systems", and was connected through various forms of rich performances such as song and dance, language, kung fu, opera, and musicals. The lighting design is mainly based on the concept of grandness, simplicity, integration, and high integration. Different scenes and situations are created by combining the changes of light, shadow and color with ice screens.
Video link：http://mpvideo.qpic.cn/0bf2o4aaoaaabeajvgecqzpfa56da53qabya.f10003.mp4?dis_k=2765994f313c1547842c56815ceca553&dis_t=1596768852
3.1 The integration of lighting and stage art: combine stage art and extend it
The integration of lighting and stage art: combining stage art and extending it out. The stage art design of this performance is beautiful and generous. A large range of performance areas form the front, middle and long-term perspectives, providing a good foundation for the entire performance. The lighting is mostly attached to the whole stage structure to install lamps, which will not damage the image of the whole stage beauty, but also allow the rendering function of the light to play a greater role. There are two main performance areas: one is the main stage, including: the main performance area and chorus on both sides. The second is the performance area in front of the main stage, including: orchestra pool, curved stage, ramps on both sides and chorus stage. The whole party has various forms and rich content. In terms of lamp position layout, comprehensive consideration of the needs of each area, according to different performance forms to choose the corresponding suitable lamps. In the preliminary design, the basis for the erection of the lamp positions is mainly derived from the construction of the rehearsal framework of different performance areas and different forms of performance.
The total number of lamps used in this performance is more than 700, and the main surface light part uses high color rendering index LED light source lamps. The relative uniformity of illuminance, color temperature and color rendering also provided basic guarantee for this live broadcast.
3.2 Lighting design ideas at the scene creation stage
In the synthesis stage of the party, based on the principle of holistic design ideas, through scheduling or program music segmentation, etc., each program needs to be expressed through different lighting means to show the unity of each program. He also controlled the overall rhythm of the lighting changes in the party, and gradually pushed the entire performance to a climax.
The application of multimedia accounted for a large proportion of the performance. According to the changes in the virtual, real, light and dark, and color of the video material, the lighting will be adjusted accordingly, and it will also be integrated with the costume props.
Thanks to Beijing Fengshang Century Culture Media Co., Ltd. and Beijing Glux Art Technology Co., Ltd. for providing and guaranteeing equipment. At the same time, I would like to thank the stage art and visual consultant Sha Xiaolan for his strong support.
