The musical Billy Elliot arrives in Barcelona with lighting from Chauvet Professional

Lighting designer Carlos Torrijos explains his experience with the lighting equipment Chauvet Professional in the musical Billy Elliot, produced and presented by I AM Produce in Madrid and now in Barcelona.

Carlos Torrijos He started his professional career with his own rental company – The Light Factory– more than thirty years ago. He later went on to work as a musical coordinator in companies in the sector and, In recent years his career has shifted towards lighting design.

Along with Juan Gomez-Cornejo, Torrijos is the lighting designer of Billy Elliot, the Musical, whose material is supplied by the audiovisual company Art Project for the Barcelona assembly.

Although a little over a year ago the project produced and presented by I AM Produce from Madrid to the Catalan capital, The interruptions due to the pandemic prevented the musical from being performed until now.

Although the technical part has been similar both in the Alcalá theater of Madrid as in Victoria of Barcelona despite the complexity of the project, one of the challenges has been the difference in size between both theaters, since the sets have had to be cut, lower heights and adapt all equipment.

As far as the lighting environment is concerned, The main change has been the passing ofand conventional LED light, which has required a change in design approach and adaptation.

Among the advantages of this transition to Led, Torrijos points out that, although he loves the color temperature of conventional lighting fixtures, when Proyect Arte lent him the cuttings E-910-FC of Chauvet Professional to test them in your studio, was pleasantly surprised, why they were bought 52 units that were mostly for the musical.

“Billy is a show more about color temperature than about color itself”, says Carlos Torrijos. For this reason, the CTC parameter stands out, which has color temperature Chauvet Professional, of 2.800 a 6.500, and that allows very agile temperature changes. The use of lime color seemed like a great success for the musical, as well as the regulation of 0 a 100 progressive and skip-free unit from this manufacturer.

During rehearsals and programming, intensities have had to be varied to achieve the desired effect., but the configuration has been very fast and intuitive. Besides, Torrijos highlights that the maintenance and operation of the LED compared to the conventional one is much more agile, along with the advantage of making all changes remotely, without having to lower the luminaire every time, which has meant a significant saving in time and breakdowns due to handling.

Although this lighting designer had known the equipment of the series Maverick y Ovation from the manufacturer, highlights how silent these luminaires are compared to some moving heads, something fundamental when a work is represented.

Specifically, Torrijos uses many moving heads with blades in musicals and considers the Wash hybrid systems a great success., Beam y Spot, as they allow you to have all possible functions and more space in stage positions.

In parallel, this lighting designer has organized, as director and producer, he Umbra Lighting Festival from Vitoria, that celebrates from today until 14 November, its second edition after the pandemic.