The Miss American Pageant used Clay Paky lights and gobos for the its 88th annual event in September, hosted in Atlantic City, New Jersey. With lighting design by Allen Branton, Felix Peralta and Kevin Lawson and screens producer and media programmer Laura Frank, the event featured some amazing lighting work to complement the 53 contestants as they took the stage.
"It was our eighth year doing the pageant," Peralta told AV Network. "It's always a challenge to recreate the excitement of the show; we're looking to enhance and improve the previous year's telecast. With three days devoted to pageant preliminaries, which are not broadcast, we got an opportunity to build the show on site. Friday and Saturday were camera rehearsal days then Sunday was the live show."
According to the news source, the designers used around two dozen gobo and lighting fixtures to provide the grandeur and exciting light show that accompanies the pageant. From the backgrounds to the larger-than-life-sized Miss America statue, the team had their work cut out for them to bathe the show in the appropriate color, patterns and light.
Lawson noted that their primary goal was to convey the tradition of grandeur and dignity of the show while making sure the girls looked great and individualized by the lighting, rather than having a standard backlighting design.
From beauty pageants to trade show events, gobo lights have a slew of different uses. Consider custom gobo design for your next event to really add a unique touch and bring your lighting to life. GoboSource offers custom gobo design assistance as well as all the projectors, filters and accessories you may need.
