American illusionist and stunt performer David Blaine’s latest feat this past fall had him suspended 50 feet in the air over a parking lot near Times Square in Manhattan while strapped by shackles inside a giant gyroscope. His goal was to escape from his shackles after spinning for 16 hours.

Scott Wolfeil of the lighting design group in New York City was tasked with "popping him out of his surroundings” as he dangled high overhead. He comments, “The client in our first meeting actually said, ‘We envision Mr. Blaine being hit with four really big lights.’ My concern was that he stand out—not only at night but in broad daylight—in the middle of one of the busiest areas in the world.”

Scott took his client literally and used four high-powered BigLite™ 4.5 units to highlight the performer. The 4500 W BigLite™ 4.5 offers real-time color mixing and diffusion with electronic strobe effects and energy saving standby modes.

“The ability to dim these lights was essential, especially at night, when they became overpowering,” Scott states. “Mr. Blaine was also moving in and out with the crane and we needed to follow him.

“He loved seeing his shadow cast on the 50th floor of buildings on the other side of Manhattan. The throw of these units truly was unbelievable. Luckily we didn't receive any complaints from apartment dwellers. The strobe feature really came in handy for the big finale.”

The BigLite units were located on each corner of the parking lot that was rented for the event. Scharff Weisberg of New York supplied the fixtures.

Martin Professional is the exclusive distributor in North America for the BigLite product series. BigLite products feature high powered Xenon lamp sources in a single arm moving head format and is the most technologically advanced large format intelligent Xenon fixture on the market today.