Luis Torres Creates Spacey Aura at Red Rocks with CHAUVET Professional

	"Our show was very high energy and very intense. Therefore, we used as many strobes as possible. The Color STRIKE Ms were invaluable in this respect," says Torres.

It is one of the most distinctive stage backdrops on the outdoor touring circuit in North America. A trio of 300-million-year-old monoliths called "Ship Rock," "Creation Rock," and "Stage Rock" tower over the stages at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, reflecting red because of the iron oxides inside them.

Fans who turned out to catch the show by EDM titans ATLiens at Red Rocks on May 17 couldn't see the famous rock formation during their performance due to the size (36' trim) of the stage. Instead of gazing at the familiar prehistoric background, they got a big video wall and intense variations in light, lasers, atmospherics, and pyro effects, evolving around a space theme.

Luis Torres, of HiLite Designs, orchestrated the looks using a flexible rig from Brown Note Productions that featured a collection of 28 CHAUVET Professional Color STRIKE M motorized strobe-blinders.

"The concept behind this design was to emulate the artist being on a spaceship," Torres says. "Having a circular booth and the video pillar underneath allowed us to create some visuals of a spaceship. We wanted to create looks that made it seem like the artists were being taken up into the spaceship as if it were an abduction.

"Our show was very high energy and very intense," he continues. "Therefore, we used as many strobes as possible. The Color STRIKE Ms were invaluable in this respect. We positioned them in the diagonal towers behind the video wall and in the circular spaceship DJ booth to maximize their impact."

Torres also executed dramatic color changes throughout the show, washing the entire stage in saturated reds, blues, and fiery orange-yellows, coordinated with pyro effects. For added dramatic impact, he silhouetted the artists against bold, monochromatic video backdrops. The center stage video wall, with a large triangular LED ribbon over it, often displayed space-related imagery.

As part of their vision for this project, Torres and his teammates (tour director Malcolm Waldek, tour manager Jared Hallal, VJ Tyler White, Griffin Haddrill and Wilcox Weaver (of The Media Team); and Gabe Bandrill wanted the biggest wall their budget would allow.

"Our content is made for large video walls," says Torres, who acknowledges that fans weren't really able to see the upstage rock formation." That may be true, but in its place, they were able to lose themselves in an incredible light and video show that gave "Ship Rock," "Creation Rock," and "Stage Rock a real run for the money when it came to creating dramatic impact.