FEATURES: ENTERTAINMENT
Creating a legend
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Pan Gu appears on the 960m2 Cascade Screen
ECA2 pushes the creative boundaries of multimedia shows across the world, with a growing number of permanent spectaculars opening, many in China. Caroline Moss reports on The Legend of Pan Gu FOUNDED IN 1974 AS ECA, THE PARIS-BASED FIRM initially focused on architectural lighting and graphics before adding a “2” to its title 10 years later and shifting into the design and production of sound and light shows. To date, ECA2 has conceived and brought to life more than 60 multimedia spectaculars across 17 countries, including Olympic ceremonies, World Expos and, increasingly, permanent shows for theme parks and tourist destinations. Since 1994, ECA2 has staged sound and light extravaganzas in Asia, starting with the Encore Garden theme park in Taiwan. Today, the company has offices in Dubai, Hong Kong and Shenzhen with partners in Shanghai and Singapore, plus local freelance talent that it has worked with for up to three decades, who cooperate on projects with staff based in the Paris studios. ECA2’s latest Asian project is The Legend of Pan Gu in Lanzhou, China, the company’s ninth permanent show. Indeed, five of these have opened in China, including Lake of Illusions at OCT Shanghai Happy Valley, Eastern Sunrise in Rizhao Olympic Park, Wuyishan’s Fountain of Dreams, OCT Bay’s Mangrove Groove in Shenzhen and The Big-O Show that opened in 2012 for the Yeosu International Expo and is still running. Like many contemporary Chinese attractions, The Legend of Pan Gu aims to bring tourists to a remote part of the country and extend their stay in the region. Drawing on a popular legend, ECA2 has crafted an immersive spectacle to bring the story alive, wrapping the audience in sound and visuals using video projection and audio as the base for the narration and adding in lasers, lights, water, mist, flames and pyrotechnics. The 26-minute show takes place twice a night in a theatre in Lanzhou in Gansu Province, Northwest China, a city on the ancient Silk Road, today an important element of the Belt and Road Initiative.
Clément Rabréaud, ECA2’s technical director on The Legend of Pan Gu The ECA2 team was approached by Gansu Xirong Cultural Tourism Development, which is responsible for cultural tourism development and construction projects in the region. The French company had come to its attention in 2016 with Eastern Sunrise in Rizhao, Shandong Province. Among its innovations, Eastern Sunrise featured “wave water screens” – jets shooting columns of water into the air, creating a wall of water to project onto.
Representatives from Gansu Xirong travelled to Rizhao for the opening of Eastern Sunrise and to meet the team behind the show. “They wanted to create the same appeal in the region to attract Chinese tourists, duplicating the concept of having a permanent nighttime attraction to entice crowds throughout the year,” explains Julien Causeret, ECA2’s global sales and marketing executive. “This would accompany the renovation of the Hekou Village, an old district close to Lanzhou, and they wanted us to work with them on this new creation.” The ECA2 team started development work in early 2017. Creative and artistic director, Olivier Ferracci, and executive stage director, Nora Matthey de l’Endroit, travelled in the Gansu region, conducting research for visual and musical content to create a strong link to the region’s culture and history. The Legend of Pan Gu is an ancient Chinese creation myth. With some guidance from his grandfather, the hero Pan Gu creates the universe through the division of a giant egg with the help of a phoenix and a dragon, separating the earth from the sky and eventually transforming himself into elements of the planet, including the wind, clouds, thunder, sun, moon, stars, minerals, flora, fauna and rivers. “We handled everything but the construction of the venue,” recalls the show’s technical director, Clément Rabréaud. “We analysed the location and did a site visit to see how we could implement a show and came up with three design ideas. They chose one that was similar to the final result because one of our strengths is to suggest ideas that are technically feasible. We have three in-house departments to carry this out – the artistic department, the space design and architecture department and the technical department – so we know we can make our ideas happen. We procured the equipment, some of which was invented
60 PRO AVL ASIA Januar y–Februar y 2021
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21/12/2020 11:52