Summit Had a Back-Up Plan

Summit Steel played a vital role in the action and excitement for the UK movie premiere of The Back-Up Plan, which took place at the Vue Cinema, Leicester Square, London.

The film sees Jennifer Lopez’s return to the big screen in this romantic comedy co-starring Alex O’Loughlin.

Summit was asked by production company Premier PR to “float” a double sided screen 4 metres in the air outside the cinema on the north east corner of Leicester Square. This allowed the crowds of fans waiting outside, gathered on both sides of the road, to clearly see all the red carpet action as celebrities and beautiful people rocked up for the screening.

Summit’s team starred project manager Jay Call. He has worked on two previous events for Premier PR in Leicester Square, both which involved hanging a single sided LED screen in a similar floating fashion, with no visible lifting frame or support structure.

The procedure devised for this was to use an L-shaped ground support with the horizontal at the back at 7 metres high linked with 2 uprights and verticals at the front which were about 1 metre higher than the final trim height of the screen. A T-piece was attached over the tops of the verticals, with hoists run over that and then down to pick up the screen, which was usually achieved using the 2 points coming off the uprights.

So the screen was then raised to above 4 metres in height, a 3 ft x 16 ft wide Steeldeck with 4 metre high legs inserted below, and the screen lowered until it landed on the support structure. After this it was braced back to the trussing, fixed in position, and the lifting frame and T-piece detached – leaving no trace of the rigging.

This time, with the screen being double sided, the operation was more complex.

So, with a bit of lateral thinking, Call decided to utilise one of Summit’s SmarTmast 3s instead of the usual 30.5 cm truss as the tower – making the width of the mast narrower than the screen. The cross piece of the SmarTmast was extended upwards with the addition of a 52 cm section of truss on top, forming the T-piece, so the screens could be rigged back-to-back on both sides of this, then moved up into position and the Steeldeck positioned below, etc.

When the screens were secured in position on the SmarTmast, the T-pieces were removed via a cherry picker, the Steeldeck was dressed, and there it was, hovering in the air!

The two 16 x 9 ft screens were made from Barco OLite modules and were supplied by Creative Technology. The dressing and finishing was done by Starlight Design.

It was a hectic build schedule. The Summit team of 3 started work at 6 a.m. and the screens had to be in position and ready to go for 1 p.m. The show started about 6.30/7 p.m., and they were able to start the de-rig as soon as the movie was rolling. There was a brief pause in tear-down while the VIPs exited the building after the screening, after which they resumed and were clear by the stipulated time of midnight.

For more press info on Summit Steel, please call Louise Stickland on +44 (0)1865 202679 or +44 (0)7831 329888 or Email ‘[email protected]’. Contact Summit Steel direct on +44 (0)1622 745977or check www.summit-steel.co.uk