Sunday February 11 was a great day for royalty as The Queen and The Last King of Scotland scooped the BAFTA Film Awards at London’s Royal Opera House. Vertigo Rigging gave the stars a suitably glamorous entrance with a specially designed and built roofing system that spanned the breadth of Bow Street outside the theatre’s main entrance—commissioned by event production company West Design and Production on behalf of BAFTA (the British Academy of Film and Television Arts).
Briefed to create a glitzy grand entrance to the red carpet evening at London’s Royal Opera House, the Vertigo team designed and built a 660-sq.-m roof on Bow Street, using Vertigo’s UK-exclusive Libera Flat Truss system to create the roof and supported on 68 Thomas Supertruss legs. The structure had to be designed to allow access room for the public to buildings on Bow Street.
The temporary structure, designed by Vertigo’s technical director Tim Roberts, extended beyond the entrance area to cover specially designated areas for the media and television camera platforms, and carried an array of television lighting equipment. The roof’s gable ends—which were pre-fabricated from aluminum at Vertigo Rigging’s London specialist aluminum fabrication workshop and lifted into position by crane—were adorned with branding from BAFTA sponsors Orange. Final assembly was carried out on site.
Directly alongside the roof, Vertigo was also commissioned to drape the entire façade of the Royal Opera House with five giant 9m x 3.5m front projection banners. The installation was run onsite by crew chief Paddy Burnside.