Taking place in Africa for the first time ever, The Earthshot Prize rolled into Cape Town in early November, with Prince William leading a weeklong celebration of innovation in environmental solutions. The culmination of the event was a star-studded and spectacular ceremony that saw five incredible innovators recognised for their achievements and awarded grants of £1 million each to accelerate their initiatives. With the eyes of the world focused on the project, event producer Don’t Look Down assembled an outstanding cast of creatives and technicians to ensure that the event was a worthy showcase of the very best that the South African production industry has to offer.
Welcoming TPiMEA on site in Cape Town during rehearsals a day before the big show, Executive Producer and Founder of Don’t Look Down Glenn van Loggerenberg discussed some of the intricacies that went into the creation of such an historic production. “This has been an incredibly complex project, with Don’t Look Down responsible for designing not only the show but also the campus and the event infrastructure to suit the very specific requirements of The Earthshot Prize as well as our strategic partners, Multichoice Group and the City of Cape Town,” he began.
When executing a campaign with multiple stakeholders, a clear strategy and concerted team effort is essential. “As well as designing the beautiful creative, our team had to consider the running order of the programme, the talent, content, and interfacing with all parties who have an interest in the script, including the team who work on the Prize,” van Loggerenberg revealed. “My role in this is chief troublemaker, with ultimate accountability. I’m essentially a cheerleader for the A Team of South African production talent, which we have assembled on this show. I’ve worked with everyone at HOD level on this show for at least 15 years. They’re all veterans of running this kind of production. My job is to tell them the plan, then leave them to be the experts at what they do.”
Describing the project as “the sum of many years of mistakes in making live broadcast TV”, the Executive Producer explained how each element of the show is a response to an issue that has been identified in the past, giving the example of the central LED screen, which is calibrated at exactly the right height, so it is as large as possible without the graphics appearing distorted on the broadcast.
“I’m very focused on the democratisation of what we present. We have a huge public representation, so it’s vital that we have the cameras look everywhere in the room,” he explained. “When you take on staging as ambitious as this, it’s not only about technical workflow; we’re really making a show about people. The technical solution must be robust because people’s emotions and sentiments are volatile and it’s easy to make people feel uncomfortable if anything was to go wrong or overwhelmed if they’ve been pushed too hard.”
Talking of the broadcast specifications, van Loggerenberg outlined the project’s vast footprint. “We’re in a broadcast facility, which is operated by the sporting arm of the Multichoice Group, SuperSport,” he stated. “We have the latest, most beautiful 4K UHD OB van, which is usually reserved for rugby and other major sporting events. Then there’s a satellite news gathering link, as well as redundant links in C band a KU band in different profiles relative to the weather. We’re backlinked to the international control room in Johannesburg, which shifts the signal to the master control for multiple channels across the DSTV consumer platform owned by Multichoice.”
With the programme broadcast live throughout Southern, Eastern and Western Africa and syndicated to the free-to-air UHF broadcasters including SABC in South Africa, the target was to get the attention of as many eyeballs as possible. “The Earthshot Prize has a partnership with Google, so we’re livestreaming the programme to the Google platform worldwide,” van Loggerenberg added. “We’re also carrying a YouTube-only linear stream of Green Carpet activity with press and talent on the same channel as the lead-up.”
The final piece of the puzzle is the “sophisticated clipping scenario” that exists between the OB van, the Green Carpet technical production team and London-based agency, Little Dot. “We use a system called Grabyo, which chops every piece of content that comes out of the linear feed, brands it and puts it into syndication buckets,” the Executive Producer explained. “Digital teams and broadcasters can then take it from there.”
A key element of the production was its venue – a gigantic Supa Dome for the main show alongside a smaller Midi Dome, which was used for the Green Carpet and media area, both from custom portable venue specialist In2Structures. Bearing in mind the coastal location and unpredictable Cape Town weather, van Loggerenberg had no doubt of what approach to take. “I’ve lost count of the number of times that I have asked Otto [Wijnberger, Director, In2Structures] to construct this dome,” he commented.
“My consideration in selecting this approach was because of the highly customised nature of the strategy and the need to manage such complex requirements,” he added. “My choices were to either construct a smaller dome and a more complex artist village, or alternatively embrace the challenge, put everyone under one roof, and create a single operational area, which I feel is energetically better.”
Describing the temporary venue as “incredibly robust”, he added: “Otto’s designs are exceptional and Ernest [Phethla, Project Manager] is the man on the ground and doesn’t miss a beat. Constructing one huge dome is not easy, but when you add in a baby dome, the challenge increases. The team worked day and night in all weathers to ensure the structures were up on schedule, and we could move in and start hanging kit.”
Reflecting on the project, van Loggerenberg was delighted with the level of buzz it achieved. “It has a million positives,” he stated. “The whole town is talking about it. People are climbing hills and peering through the fences to get an idea of what’s going on here.”
Photos: Don’t Look Down
