# 2010 JUNO AWARDS......Welcome to St. Johns NL !!!!!!!!!!!!



## faracaster

HELLO ALL !!!!!

It’s Thursday (barely...almost gone).......I know I usually get these emails out as soon as we get into the arena we do the show in but......I have to tell you. This year has been chock-a-block with nothing but work, work, work from 8am till..?????? I mean I’ve been in St. John’s since Monday morning and I haven’t even come close to a hangover. But I am sipping or some Rum while I type.......just to feel a bit....maritime so to speak.
So tonight (Thursday) I’ll try to get you all caught up in the journey so far.........

As usual, this past July we came to the host city of the next year’s Juno awards. That would be St. John’s NL this time. A magical and fantastic place. Like no where else in Canada......and I have to say, I think my favorite place in this country. The land can take your breath away. Brutally beautiful and soft as a bed of clover all in one. The architecture is unique even by maritime standards and as warm and inviting as it is precarious. But the people are the jewel on this rock. There are everyday things said everyday by everybody here that I hear completely differently than I’ve ever heard before. There is just a twist and a sway to the language that draws you in and makes you feel like you have been conversing with these islanders for your whole life. 
I started doing the Junos the first year they started making it a road show. That first year was right here in St. Johns. That was in 2002. We have gone coast to coast and now back to coast across our country.
However for me that meant the pressure was on to be bigger, better, and more creative this time (as a matter of fact in the 6 TV and radio interviews I’ve done since being here, that’s the first question out of everyone’s mouth) with less money than ever before. So in July we soak up the culture, travel the area, sit in the arena and......draw. I was completely stymied on that trip. You see it would be very simple to just use any one of the iconic images of this province. They have a boat load (pun intended) of these . But we never want to be THAT obvious in our set design. The design is the gunpowder that sets off all the CTV Television ads, print ads, posters and merchandise. So you want to have something that you are not sick of or worse by the time the event rolls around. 
Come September, nothing had presented itself to be THE idea, the seed to jump forward on to making the set. Then at the end of the month I was doing another show with the Lighting Designer (Alex Nadon) from the Junos and we were discussing show various angles to attack the show from this year. He showed me a clip on YouTube by some European projection designers. They had projected manufactured images on the exterior of building. But instead of just using the building as a canvas, they embraced the architecture and made the projection work in a way that I had never seen before.
We later found out it was called 3-D bit map projection. They would photograph and measure every inch of the façade and calculate the distances from the projector to the walls. It was a revelation. I looked at Alex and said, “WE have to TRY this”.
We didn’t know anything about how to do it, or how involved it was or betting that we could figure it out, how expensive would this process be? But before all that.....we needed a subject of interest and relevance to project onto. I wasn’t sure till just a few days later, I had dinner with Louise wood the producer of the show. Now I had not mentioned a thing that Alex and I had discussed regarding the 3-D projection, but the first thing out of Louise’s mouth was. ....”I don’t how we would do this but, I’d really like to see icebergs of some kind in the set this year. Do you think we could do that Pete?” 
ICEBURGS !!!!! PERFECT !!!! I just about jumped over the table to kiss her. She had given us the perfect thing to project onto !!!! 
Just the like the icebergs that travel to the mouth of St Johns Harbour every spring, the Juno Awards are traveling to some place in Canada .￼ 










So I started to gather reference. 

I really liked this configuration of Icebergs. I thought this arrangement would work well for us.









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I was taken with this shape.









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But, I was also looking to not replicate the exact anatomy of an iceberg.....I needed to it to serve what we were doing with it and make it our own. So I started looking at artists interpretations of these mobile giants.
Like one of my hero’s,,,Lauren Harris .









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## faracaster

I put pencil to paper and did these rough, rough sketches in the first 20 minutes......which is where everything came from subsequently.









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I emailed those to Louise, who was little unsure but gave me the go-ahead to do some more detailed renders. 
I wanted the ‘burgs to have a “faceted” look. Like sculpted ice or a diamond. That would give the projections something to land on that would make each facet like a movie screen of it’s own.




























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## GuitarsCanada

Pete, this one is looking damn good. Lasts years set was pretty darn nice and its going to be a tough assignment to better it. I will be keeping a close eye on the progress here


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## faracaster

I presented these to the producers along with the Youtube reference to explain the type of projection and they bought it !!!! Imagine that !!!
So next was more detailed drawings and an animation of what this might look like

Juno Awards 2010 :: movie2.flv video by Petefaragher - Photobucket
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We built a rough model of the set. This was really an experiment to see how crazy I could get with my angles and still have the thing stand up !!! LOL !! You can see the pencil marking (and drippy glue) that numbered the facets on each ‘Burg.


















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After we built this then we had to start putting this into CAD drawings (3-D computer rendering of the set) to work out details like......can this actually be built.....cheaply. And how does this fit into the arena itself
The other very important aspect of this type of projection technology we wanted to use was, that the set in the arena HAD to to the EXACT size, shape and in the EXACT position that we were rendering in the computer program. Because all the content that we would be producing for the show, would have to be started on months before and all mapped out onto our 3-D renders and detailed model (that we were now going to build)
So as the computer drawings were being done, literally panel by panel, I would be cutting them out of white art card to the exact scaled down measurements that were provided.











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## Rugburn

Man, you have a very cool job. Those stage sets looks wild. Thanks for sharing.

Shawn.


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## Hamstrung

I just heard about this years show and was wondering if/when this thread would appear. Fascinating as always! Thanks Pete! (now I hate my job even more!)


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## Mooh

Very, very good work.

You see, *THIS* is why it's so cool to hang out here. Every so often something infinitely cool happens!

Peace, Mooh.


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## faracaster

*Days 2 and 3 in Mile One Arena !!!*

You may wonder by the title what happened to Day 1. Well it was there, but I wasn’t. I was doing the Genie awards in Toronto and also wasn’t really needed on day 1 because all that happened was our heroic and fantastic riggers were putting in points (206 in all) for us to hang many tons of audio and visual gear from in Mile One Arena.
Got to say it’s much nicer working in an arena where the ice has been taken out and not just covered over....like just about every other year we have been doing this. However.....the concrete floors makes my dogs bark !!!! LOUDLY !!!

So here we go, early Sunday it’s all hands on deck as many 53’ ft semi’s of lighting, PA, and video support and loaded into the arena.
These large lifts are still putting in the remaining rigging points









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You notice the all the chain falls in the previous picture? There are tons and tons of gear that will be flying (safely) above the heads of everyone in attendance.











Here’s an angle that you will see a lot of through the week. It’s just above the FOH/Lighting/Video area in the back of the arena



















(above) hundreds and hundreds of feet of trussing will be used.


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## faracaster

(Below).... the dozens of electrics work on assembling the cabling for the more than 20 moving lights that will be used in the show.










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Here’s a shot of the platforms at FOH that are being installed.









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The amazing Ian Donald our Staging Manager (Coldplay, Justin Timberlake, Leonard Cohen) supervising the assembly and installation of our stage
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Ah...the first set truck arrives (there were three 53’ ft. semi trailers with my set in it that came from Toronto









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## faracaster

Rolls and rolls of Lift-Lock tape are the first thing off the truck. This is used to adhere our shiny black floor to the stage deck
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Oddly enough, lifting the set out of the trucks was largely a white glove affair. We set is constructed like sail basically. With painted canvas stretched out on custom aluminum frames. So we had to be careful that we didn’t rip, tear or put any marks on our pieces. That needed to be pristine (or at least as close as possible) to allow the projections to work their magic.









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Here’s the room again with more stuff up in the air and the platform a little more finished.











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## faracaster

Here are the four pieces that will make up the “crystal”. That will be the inverted spinning Iceberg make of mirror (like) material.
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PA is hung, lighting rigs in place above the stage and the stage itself being constructed.












Leveling and construction of one of the camera platforms









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Subs for the Pa being placed under the staging while they can.......cause there we be no getting at them once the stage is complete.









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## faracaster

The lighting desks are now up in place on our FOH crows nest.









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Constructing the Presentation stage just north of Centre Ice.









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Stage hands bringing in more of the set.









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Stage is almost complete and ready for building the set on.









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## puckhead

wow, that is so beautiful. it almost doesn't look real.
thanks again for walking us through the process!


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## faracaster

Jeff Moss...one of our board ops for lighting sets up his desk









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Haulin’ that truss into position.........that’s what happens when you assemble the truss in the wrong position !!!!









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Moving lights fired up for the first time.









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WHOA !!!!! That is one full ceiling of lights and PA
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## faracaster

*Day 4 !!!!!!*

Building, building building !!!!!!
We got the set off loaded now comes the daunting task of putting it together.
I have to mention my builder Benchtop Scenery, Dave Bracken and Dan Mucha Who have done just a FANTASTIC job, figuring it out, then executing the build with absolutely not one issue. 
They were able to put together about half of the set in the shop. But the other half was not even assembled.........till now.

Here is an interesting picture..... it shows two things. On the left, a projection technician is holding a small facet of the stage up and it is being projected on from up in the truss. And center, Dan, our head builder is pulling out our building drawings, and getting the crew rolling.
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And so it begins....first pieces of our stage right “iceburg” start to assemble......here are a few pix of the progress




























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## faracaster

Here’s a couple of the boys up in the scaffolding putting the third storey on.










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Iceberg #1 complete !!!!!!












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## faracaster

Moving onto stage left ‘berg. Here’s a shot of it in progress. Same construction procedure.










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While that was going on, we moved over to the “Crystal”. This piece flies in and out to provide a background for the presentation stage. It’s basically an inverted variation of one of the icebergs that will rotate and fly. The construction is of aluminum and a product called alumi-panel. That is a plastic core laminated onto a mirrored surface. They are cut to our dimensions then applied to the aluminum skeleton. The ladder-like piece I’m looking at is the core. All facets are bolted to the core.









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Here is the riggers bolting the mending plate to the core. The mending plate attaches to the motor that turns the Crystal.









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Here’s the first quarter of the Crystal being presented to the core. Each quarter is picked up by another motor then manhandled into position.









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Here’s Courtney (yum yum) Woo, our head rigger drilling out a bolt hole.









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## faracaster

Here’s the final quarter being put in place and yes.....Yum is still inside !!!! Don’t worry he can slip out the bottom before the point is put on. Or go out the top LOL !!!!









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Two icebergs in position from da’ back a da’ house
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LED Video screen being flown in behind the crystal 









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Beginning the upstage middle ‘Berg.










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Half done !!!









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## faracaster

All the ‘Bergs completed and focusing the projectors begins. Hence the green facets and the grid pattern on the ‘Bergs




















End of Day 4 !!!!!!!!!!

More to come
Cheers
Pete


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## davetcan

Pete, I'm blown away. When you're talking CAD you're talking my language. Hopefully you used laser technology and "point clouds" to define the surfaces for the CAD drawings. This could have been done from your model and scaled up.

Either way it's fascinating, keep the pics coming.


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## GuitarsCanada

Fantastic work, and it all has to come together without too much error it appears


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## faracaster

*Thursday !!!!*

Hi All
Well here we are back in the ice rink for another set up day.
Things have gone remarkably well. We got the set altogether a little ahead of time (UNHEARD OF !!!!). But the days are still long and filled with things to do. The weather worsened through the week and things that production needed were either delayed or out right postponed in arriving.


We started the day with a little more projector focusing on the ‘Bergs



























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Here’s a shot from the back of the arena with the ‘Bergs completed and the Jewel hung up. Must be on lunch break ‘cause the arena is virtually empty.


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## faracaster

Here’s a pic of Dave and Dan putting point on the bottom of the jewel.










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Voila !!! The completed jewel......still needs to be leveled though and the protective plastic taken off. 










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Yum (our rigger) leveled the jewel. We flew the LED screeen in behind to check the distances from each other.
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Here’s Dave starting to peel the protective film off the mirrored surface of the jewel.









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Another one of our hands taking the covering off.










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And here is the virginal piece revealed.



















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## faracaster

Here is a series of three photos showing the LED video wall flying in



























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After dinner we started balancing the output of the projectors with the lighting levels and camera’s.
Here is a series of shots showing solid colour and some designs all on the same ‘Berg.


















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There you go.....that was Thursday. Friday coming in a few minutes.

Cheers
pete


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## Mooh

Holy crapoly, those are amazing, especially the multi-coloured one!

Great work!

Peace, Mooh.


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## GuitarsCanada

Exactly how are the bergs being lit Pete? Is it lighting that is being projected onto them or is it from within the model? How can the color be so sharp on the edges? I dont know how you are doing it but they are as crisp as anything


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## Sneaky

Amazing Pete. Looks like a small room for those big 'bergs.


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## faracaster

*JUNOFOUNDLAND......Friday 1st rehearsal day........sort of.*

Hellooooooooo
Well the weather got crazy with this spring storm and we had about 6cm of snow that turned slush and then turned to rain.....a downpour really. Then as if that wasn’t enough, the fog rolled in......then the winds picked up.
All this shut down St. Johns airport. So artists we not getting in. Not only not getting in, but getting all the way to St. Johns. Wheels down to land and then pulling up and told they are going back and landing in Halifax, then wheels down to land there and pulling up and being told they are going back to Toronto because they couldn’t land anywhere on the east coast. The reason, take your pick...high wind, snow, fog, sheesh !!!! Then to add to the problems, they get rerouted to Ottawa because they don’t have the gas to get to Toronto. Land in Ottawa at about 1am. The airport is closed so no ground support to refuel the plane. They get the guy out of bed finally and they arrive in Toronto at 4am. 
What a ride.........welcome to Canada in the spring.

At any rate.......Metric and Great Lake Swimmers made it in before all the kafuffle and they were able to rehearse.


*Great Lake Swimmers........*




























*Metric !!!!......*


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## faracaster

*JUNOFOUNDLAND.....SATURDAY........finally a full rehearsal !!!*

Hi Guys........when you read this we will be in full-on DRESS rehearsal on sunday afternoon so I'm just going to let the pictures do the talking because......I'm swamped. Air Canada put extra flights on to get all the musicians out here once the weather cleared. So we had a Loooooooong day yesterday 8am -1:30am.
Thanks to everyone that reads and enjoys this thread every year. I hope I will on next year's show as the show returns to Toronto for the first time in 10 years.
Cheers All
Pete










Billy Talent......(I love these guys)


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## faracaster

Drake.......





































Michael Buble....


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## faracaster

K'Naan @ 1am this morning !!!!








































Cheers !!!!!!!


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## bscott

This is awsome, fantastic, and everything!!! Thank you soooo much for taking the time to post all of the photos and commentray. I really enjoy it and look forward to it every year at Juno time - as I am sure many others here do. Its like we belong to this exclusive club that gets a sneak preview to the Junos every year.

Brian


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## greco

faracaster said:


> Cheers !!!!!!!


Many, many thanks for all the pics Pete...enjoy the show and the remainder of your time in Newfoundland

This specific pic is worthy of an award in a photography contest IMHO....seriously !!...Congrats!

Cheers

Dave


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## Rugburn

greco said:


> This specific pic is worthy of an award in a photography contest IMHO....seriously !!...Congrats!
> 
> Cheers
> Dave


Yeah, it's as if you were some sort of artist/designer or something?  Very cool photo!


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## keto

I find these annual 'blogs' very interesting and entertaining. Thanks for taking the time to do them Pete.


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## Starbuck

Once again Pete, thanks SO much! That is an amazing job you do! I'm especially excite as the Good Lovlies won! YAY!


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## dwagar

outstanding man. You got BIG skills!

Thanks for all the pix, it was great.


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## GuitarsCanada

Hey Pete, no Juno thread this year?


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## faracaster

GuitarsCanada said:


> Hey Pete, no Juno thread this year?


HA !!!! It's comin' Scott
We have one less day to set up this year.....so you can image the f*cking chaos that is happening right now.
soon come my friend, soon come.
Petey


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## GuitarsCanada

faracaster said:


> HA !!!! It's comin' Scott
> We have one less day to set up this year.....so you can image the f*cking chaos that is happening right now.
> soon come my friend, soon come.
> Petey


Knew you would not let us down Pete, looking forward to the magic you have created this year.


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## faracaster

Thanks Scott.........let me just say, even I am in awe at the scale this year. It's more than twice as tall as last year and spills over the ice surface about 20 ft. on each side. 
Figures.....one less day in and I make it twice as big.
But it looks freakin' awesome....if I do say so myself.


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## Chito

Amazing job Pete. This is as closest as anyone can get into the production of the Juno Award Show. Thanks!


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