Day-to-Night drop flying the audience into the 1970s New York City

Imagine stepping into the 1970s New York City.

“Company” is a musical taking place in the middle of New York City in the 70s. When set designer Alejandro Andújar worked on his most recent project at Antonio Bandera’s theatre – Teatro del Soho and the stage design for “Company” he wanted the audience to feel like they were in New York which made them come up with the idea to integrate the drop with, not only the stage, but also part of the audience.

No detail is too small when making it big.

New York captured back in the days

Alejandro together with the design team always had in mind that the stage design would be of photographic realism of a great urban landscape. The inspiration was from a photo taken in New York in 1972. Their colleague and the photographer Rocío Segura had taken a new, almost 360 degree, photo for the set design. With inspiration from the photo taken in 1972, the colors were adjusted towards sepia to make it look more as the original photo to capture the right feeling.

Finally realizing a Day-to-Night dream

Alejandro had known about the Day-to-Night effect created in backdrops for a while but so far never had the opportunity to integrate the idea into a set design. Finally it was time and in Big Image he found an excellent partner to achieve this dream. Thanks to the almost 360 degree photo and the specially built stage it made it possible for them to install the premium printed image into the audience allowing them to experience New York as a citizen.

“The most difficult part of the project was to test the possibility of projection onto the printed image, but thanks to the quality of the fabric we were able to achieve this.”

In the final composition projection was involved to be able to show various meteorological changes such as clouds, snow and storms. This was the most difficult part of the stage design, but thanks to the quality of the fabric they were able to achieve it as visualized.

“My experience with Big Image has been excellent. Big Image’s great professionalism and flexibility when approaching this complex project has been flawless.”

To learn more about our work with set designers for theatre and opera, or how we can help take your idea from imagination to installation – please get in touch!