RED BULL BC ONE World Final, Seoul, South Korea
Live HD TV and Cultural Event
Location: Seoul, South Korea
Customer: Red Bull GmbH, Austria
Fotos: Florian Schreiter, Dean Treml for Red Bull Media House
Project Background:
The Red Bull BC One World Final is considered to be the most important hip hop/breakdance event in the world. Once a year RED BULL BC ONE crowns the world’s best B-Boy as World Champion. In front of 5000 spectators the highlight of the international B-Boy scene takes place in a 360Ëš Arena in alternating cities. Since 2012 I’ve been responsible for the lighting design and also work as director of photography for this event.
Conceptual Challenges:
The particular challenge here lies in how to translate breakdance, hip hop and B-Boy culture into the 21st century. To create a style that’s neither mainstream or try hard, but works as an expression of a culture with its own roots. A style that’s both striking and full of energy, but restrained enough to let the B-Boys shine in the limelight.
Technical Challenges:
The Jamsil Indoor Arena was built as a sporting arena for the South Korean hosted Summer Olympic Games in 1988. There are no suspension points and as an Olympic venue it is correspondingly conceived on a grand scale. The construction of a visible ground support (a free-standing traverse construction) was considered aesthetically unworkable. For this reason the decision was made to install the scaffolding into the uppermost (unsold) seating, most of which was taken up with TV lighting, leaving the other levels for effect lighting. Because of this set-up, it became necessary to import 5 and 10Ëš spotlights especially. As well as this, the equipment and the crew were Korean. With the help of an international crew, made up of technical and lighting leads as well as operators, a seamless and successful collaboration with the Korean team took place: allowing any cultural and technical differences to be effortlessly overcome.
Take a look at the RED BULL BC ONE WORLD FINAL Seoul 2013 Highlight Video