Activision Signs Masterworks Lighting to Design LA Studio

Activision, Inc., the international publisher of interactive entertainment software products, recently signed Paul Dexter's Masterworks Lighting to come up with a new lighting scheme for their 14,000 sq. ft. LA film studio.

The company that brings gaming such as Guitar Hero, Spiderman, and Tony Hawk's Project 8 for media giants Xbox 360 and PlayStation3 creates all the games' character movements with actors, and sometimes animals that wear sensors detected by surrounding 48 strategically positioned infrared cameras. The actors perform movements on life size sets that are all graphically enhanced and edited to loop with animation responses to the player's commands.

The studio technique, among myriad computer development ideas designed to improve the game production process is ground-breaking and needed time to prove validity to Activision that it can stand on its own financial merit.

Looking for a lighting equal to match the studio's ethos, the producer, Nick Falzon, surfed the net, found The Masterworks Lighting website, and decided to call. "I liked the way this guy thinks," he said, when asked what led his choice. "Dexter came to the studio and soon after developed 3-D images of our studio, merged his lighting suggestions and involved us in his processes."

"When I walked into the space, it was lit by 8 industrial warehouse Mercury vapor lamps," says Dexter. "The color temperature was equal to street lamp, so I thought it amazing they carried on as long as they did -- we were standing there together, all looking a pale shade of green!" No longer are the Activision design team and visiting actors working in pale green light. The lighting design divided the space into zones with individual control, highlighting the acting area with HID ETC Source Four PARs, emitting their light through milk-plexi panels and the computer stations and director's platform was the crowning jewel, using two custom built trusses with recessed lighting.

The set custom light pieces were built by The Set Shop and the electrical install and rigging was conducted expertly by LVH Entertainments Systems.

Watch for the full story article in May issue of Lighting&Sound America.