Project Description

Liam Gallagher 2020 Tour

Catching up with Creative Director Adam Young from FRAY Studio, we’re looking back at Liam Gallagher‘s 2019-2020 European tour, which gave fans a taste of 70’s punk rock.

FRAY Studio designed the grungy, analogue video effects and visuals that gave the show its attitude. Inspired by the raw and unproduced energy of the Sex Pistols, FRAY wanted to channel a loud and sweaty punk aesthetic and deliver it neatly packaged for digital LED screens. The tour would stop off at arenas and major festivals along the way and needed a technically robust and flexible workflow that could adapt to the changing environments.

Young explored old misaligned printing processes featured in the Sex Pistols campaign artwork. Working with Ana Stefaniak, he created a library of real-world textures; inks, paints, screenprints, roller, scratches and mark-making. The look for this show was all about textures, layering and blending and their library of real-world textures was imported into Notch for layering and blending with the live camera inputs.

Nothing in the show was pre-rendered, and the foundation of every look was a processing chain that could take a beautifully clean HD input and push it back to the ’70s. A subtle balance of blur, colour correction and film grading created a soft, haloed feel that rubbed away some of that digital camera crispness. The textures, handheld cameras and muted colour pallets worked in perfect unison to deliver a unique experience every night of the tour.

“As much as the show needed to feel unfinished, it needed a reliable and well-constructed backbone to make it happen. Notch afforded us the creative process that this show needed and backed it up with the technical flexibility that’s required on the road. For this show, we probably used 1% of the capabilities Notch can offer, but using it as a live 2D workflow tool allowed us to stay poised and flexible. Building the show in Notch meant we could come with our own premade looks and be able to refine and perfect them in real-time instantly.”

Adam Young, Creative Director, FRAY Studio

Credits
Client: Liam Gallagher
Production Design: Cassius Creative
Notch Designer: FRAY Studio
Camera Director: Phil Woodhead
Lighting Designer: Cassius Creative

Animator: FRAY Studio
Video Programmer: Leo Flint
Video Engineer: Conor Canwell
Equipment Vendor: Transition
Media Server: Disguise GX2