Waxing Lyrical at Madame Tussauds - Museum Exhibit Lighting
Posted by Kerri Galgano on Tue, Sep 08, 2009 @ 10:21 AM
One of the newest tourist attractions in Washington DC, Madame Tussauds provides visitors with a full sensory experience: they can see, touch and hear major historical events and celebrities in a way unlike any other. Within the 27,000 sq ft space, visitors to the Spirit of Washington DC can travel through history, from the Founding Fathers to modern politics, rubbing shoulders with the people that shaped America. Experiencing history through the eyes and ears of the politicians and icons that lived it, they can stand next to Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, listening in on phone calls as they strategize during World War II; learn about Watergate by researching actual press coverage and background information with Bob Woodward at his desk; and sweat it out in an interrogation as J. Edgar Hoover glares at them as he searches for communism in America.
Lighting this premier wax attraction required detailed planning and forethought, so when the attraction was being organized, the owners approached UK lighting designer David Hurst of Full-On Lighting. A long-time designer to Madame Tussauds, David understands the particular requirements of lighting wax figures, as he explains: "Tussauds is neither a museum nor a theater, but the lighting approach is definitely theatrical - there is a show element to it. There is no restriction in terms of lux levels as there would be in a museum, only in the placing of the fixtures, both in relation to heat output and the actual lighting of the figures themselves. It's important to find a balance between close lighting and over-heating, as the wax figures could be at risk of softening and distorting."
At Washington one of David's main challenges was the ceiling height. All the fixtures are track mounted, with the height of the track - just 8 Ft- 8 Inches - governed by the ducting for the air conditioning. This meant that all the fixtures would be in full view of visitors, so David was concerned with the look of the fixtures as well as functionality.
The Washington DC attraction is open 365 days a year, from 10am to 6pm and, being located in the business district of the city, is also a popular venue for corporate events. Lamp life is therefore an issue, and so using the AR-111 lamps, which have an average life of 3-4,000 hours, made perfect sense.
As well as the wash and spotlights for the figures and the graphics, Tussauds makes use of quite a lot of effects: patterns through image projectors provide the slatted blinds on the floor of the FBI room for example, while break up patterns give depth to the graphics and American flag projections provide the back-drop for several political figures. The finished exhibit lighting uses dichroic glass, but David did the focusing using colored gels. This technique allowed him to fine-tune the color selection quickly, prior to ordering the exact colors that give the exhibits their character.
Madame Tussauds Washington D.C. is a "must do" attraction that provides guests with unique opportunities to create memories with some of the country's most historic icons and its success is adding countless thousands to the 500 million people worldwide who have already visited a Madame Tussauds.
Please click here to view the lighting fixtures used in Madame Tussauds DC