www.kgw.com: One of the highlights of the Super Bowl halftime show was the giant, gold lion singer Katy Perry rode on to kick off her performance. A Scappoose team of 40 designers worked on that secretly for weeks.
Employees at Michael Curry Design say when Perry first met the lion, she called it the "dopest thing she's ever seen."
13 comments:
As I was watching the Super Bowl with some of the other freshmen, we saw this lion come out with Katy Perry and immediately were wondering how it was built and used. The enormous puppet-like lion set a tone for the entirety of the show in terms of production. The lion was craftily made with attention to detail it seemed like from what we could tell. I was wondering about a couple things though as the lion moved down the field. It appeared as though there were operators at the front but I couldn’t tell if there were operators in the rear. Secondly, it was visible that there was a pole that was supporting Katy but how exactly was she attached to it? I wish the video would have detailed a little more of how it was made and more people behind it considering the article listed 40 people, but that may be because they want to keep their production methods under wraps.
I was with Ben in studio watching this performance. We were all very impressed by this giant moving lion. I too wish the video told more about the construction and operation of the lion. It seemed like a very complicated process in making it, since there were so many functions and visuals that had to be precise. It is one thing to make a moving lion that is controlled by people, but it is a lot more difficult to do that while there is a person. The fact that she was singing and performing at the biggest football game of the year in front of the entire country put even more pressure on the operators to do a perfect job. Even though Katy was strapped in to a pole on the back, there is still a chance that she could get hurt especially when the lion stood on its back legs. This was a very good spectacle that really increased the quality of the performance. I wish I knew more about how it worked.
I remember watching the Super bowl for this year and the halftime show had to be one of the best halftime shows I've seen. All of the media, costumes, and animatronics were incredible. And it's awesome knowing the main lion was created by 40 outstanding Scappoose artists. These creators have made so many prop/set pieces. They basically make the "spectacles" of any event. The Olympics made the right choice to higher this company for next year. I loved that the lion had a geometric/ futuristic form and moved swiftly as if it were real. However, my one critique is that Katy Perry's song "Roar" is talking about a tiger. And even the creates said lion. I would love to know why they made that choice because this is something that seemed to create a lot of controversy on social media after the super bowl. I really hope there is a purpose, but I also think it was a detail they just missed.
I never cared for the Super Bowl, but I did watch the halftime show after my classmates told me about a giant lion puppet which Katy Perry entered on. Upon seeing the performance, I was intrigued as how it worked. I assumed it was animatronics, but alas, it being a puppet was much simpler. I’ve seen other large sculpture animals that move in a realistic manner also be puppets with puppeteers at each leg. I always find it impressive how well puppeteers move large objects so that an audience cannot see how it is done. I wish that the article went more into the actual process of designing, building, and performing with such a gigantic piece. Like Ben and Sam, I am still slightly confused as how Katy Perry stayed standing on the lion with only a pole to support her. That stunt was extremely dangerous if there was only a pole to hold her onto such a massive structure. I also want to know how it supported her weight if it was only made of foam. I feel like there had to be a metal frame of some sort otherwise I think she would break the foam. I wish that there was more information on how this was created.
Regardless of the blatant exaggerated attempts being made by this article, I do think that they really nailed this performance. The design wasn't cohesive, which I think was very intentional just because they were going for as much spectacle as they probably good while still attempting to provide a themed scenic experience for each individual song of the medley. I watched the stop motion video of the load in as well, and I can only imagine the scope of design challenges when a set has to be loaded in so quickly for the performance, and then also immediately broken down. In terms of the lion, I feel like it was a really cool piece that really hasnt been done before, and I totally thought that it really was a giant animatronic robot. The geometric style was definitely homage to Prism, Katy Perry's newest album, so I thought that it was very fitting for the style of the lion. Overall, very creative and interesting.
Im not completely sure how I feel about the production design of the half time show...while there were some aspects I liked, there were also some features I felt were over the top. With that said, the technical design was unbelievable. There was so much production value (which is partly where some of my distaste comes from) that required some ingenious design. The Lion might have been over the top but it was so cool. When it first appeared on the little tv screen in my room the potential technical director in me went crazy. How did the automate that? Are those people at the feet actually carrying weight? what is the anatomy of this thing? did the dudes from war horse make this? Because I have had these questions in my head ever since then and I was hoping this article would answer them but sadly all I really learned was it wasn't those dudes from war horse.
Okay I have to say I wasn't necessarily thrilled by the design of the lion, although it did fit the song very well. The production and easy with which it was handled, however, was amazing! the fact that they got that thing on the field with her on the back, no injuries, no techs seen, all incredible. The materials they used were ingenious, i know many people who were wondering about the weight of the thing. And the way load in progressed seemed flawless. Congrats to the team and I am excited to see more of their work in the future.
Like all of the other Freshman DP’s before me, I was amazed by the media, technology, and equipment put into making Katy Perry’s Super Bowl Halftime Performance amazing. At the beginning of her performance, with the giant lion, I think that everybody in studio took a step back to think about everything that went into making and operating it with so much grace and precision. Although, personally, I did not think that it was the most beautiful thing in the world, I was and still am interested in how it works and the process of making and creating the lion. As for the rest of the performance, I really enjoyed the media aspects more than anything else and have grown to have a new appreciation for it now being in the media mini for stagecraft. The lighting was also amazing and I was amazed at the final songs element of rigging as they flew Katy over the stage and field.
Big puppetry is a part of industry just like big oil and big banking is a part of the American economy. In school we talk about puppetry in terms of abstract and creative artistic purposes, but most times that I see puppetry being practiced professionally, it is being used for its spectacle and awe value, rather than its semiotic meaning as an inanimate object. I don’t think that this is bad thing, for our industry, the money and the really big productions are in it for the spectacle. The Olympics, Broadway, Cirque, and one offs like the Superbowl, make really great use of puppetry. To the most of the audience, it doesn’t really matter that there are people behind the lion, for all they care, it could be an automated robot, but with todays technology, Robots just arnt up to snuff for large, life like movement.
Wow! I wasn’t expecting anything like this at the Superbowl, to be sure. I was very impressed with the scale and operation of the lion. I wish the article had answered more of my questions about how it was made, however! If it was carved from foam, how did it support Katy Perry? It must have been supported by a frame, so where was that connected to the ground? Watching it happen, it almost looked as if it was rolling on a cart until I could get a view of the people operating it from below. It is difficult to see from the model shown in the video how it would move/how it was controlled.
One of my favorite Ted Talks of all time is by the puppeteers from War Horse. They explained their process and how the puppet horses were designed to be operated from within by the performers. On such a different scale, how did they manage to create something that was so fluidly moved by the performers at the legs? As a whole, an outstanding achievement that was pretty “dope”.
I actually have yet to see the halftime show, so I had no idea how the lion was used, but it was really cool to be able to read about how this giant puppet was made and operated. It looked great, although I haven’t seen the rest of the halftime show other than the clip in the video so I’m not sure how cohesive the overall design was. I wish that the video had gone into more depth on both the creation of the lion and the company itself. They wrote a bit about how it was made in the article that accompanied the video, but I’d be curious to see what sort of internal framework there was and how exactly it was controlled. Also, the company itself seemed really cool but they only spent a few seconds talking about their past work. I would have wanted to see more of it, as well as where specific things came from. Just seeing them in the shop wasn’t as exciting as it could have been. Either way though, this is a cool company and their work is pretty awesome.
Although I usually watch the super bowl for the time I spend with my Dad this year 1 wasn't home and 2 didn't have time. I did however see parts of this half time show and was entertained. This clever use of puppetry reminds me of the horses featured in War Horse. The way every movement is thought out and carried out beautifully is an art in and of itself. these techniques I think could be easily implemented in parades around the country. A parade such as the rose parade or Macy's day parade could benefit quite a bit if they used these various effects. I think what added to the experience of the lion was the use of sound, timing and lights. All of these elements made for a thrilling super bowl half time show this year
If you could have heard the shouts of the freshman class during the halftime show (which you did if you were in any part of Purnell that day), you would know exactly how excited we all were by not just the lion, but every technical aspect of the show. We were all discussing the logistics of the lion and the media and the lights and costumes like crazy, comparing it all to the things we've learned this year and the projects our teacher's have done in the past. I wish that this video had gone more into detail about the actual construction of the lion, rather than just telling us that there was a 3D model and then it got built. I do appreciate the fact that the video was made, though, since we don't always get such a cool insight into the behind-the-scenes type things.
Post a Comment