After months of hard work and dedication, Live Legends opened their first “own” Chinese club in Beijing: One Third 1/3. Where did it al start? Why Live Legends and what did they do? How did they experience working in another environment and culture? You can read the full story here.
Where it al began – Can you design a club?
Daan (one of the Creative Directors and Director LL Asia) was introduced to the owners of the club who belong to The NOA Group in January 2017. They asked Daan if he and his team were able to design and install the next best club in Beijing within’ 3 months. A crazy deadline, but with a dedicated team of creatives and technicians, who above all know the local market, this could be possible!
The job – Something challenging
Only a few days after the first meetings Daan and Stefan (Concept Designer) were invited to China to present their drawings, moodboards and concept for this new club. Everyone was amazed by their presentation and fresh ideas. So they closed the deal!
From that moment on things started to roll and more and more it came clear what the job really entailed and how big it was. They would be responsible for the whole installation, light-, video-, interior-design, and creating/directing six different themed shows. Something different, something new, but definitely something challenging.
A Chinese production – East meets West
As probably most Chinese productions will face, several people from the clients side, are looking to find a way to influence a project. Especially on the practical things like, planning, technical facilities and budget control, which was a very challenging process within the restricted time there was.
The biggest struggle was to let the visual experience not being overrun by the desire make money and to put as much VIP tables there can fit in a square meter. For your information, these lounging area’s are the most popular spots to visually spend money and to get attention from other guests. This system gives the club the opportunity to run crazy turnovers, so we needed to find a good balance between being creative and supply a good business flow at the same time.
Guanxi – The founding father
Guanxi describes the basic dynamic in personalised networks of influence (which can be best described as the relationships individuals cultivate with other individuals) and is a central idea in Chinese society.
‘Business as personal’ as the Chinese like to say!
After years of hard work and dedication in China, Daan is the face of Live Legends, and the so called “founding father” of club 1/3. This was also shown during the opening night. He was given the role to host the big opening ceremony of the club, which was something totally unexpected and different from what he is used to in Europe. Someone who is working behind the scenes, is not likely to present himself on the stage. But either way, it worked out well, and the opening was epic!
The big opening – Deadline
During the period before the opening, the creative team already programmed the general lighting, video looks and special made themed shows in their Amsterdam based studio based in a full 3D VR environment. It was because of this preparation that there was time on location to focus on the details and the performers. Also the video content, played out on screens that count more than fifteen thousand pixels in width, needed to be rendered and programmed in a touchscreen system so the local operating team could easily control the shows for daily operation.
After a delay the construction and installation team finished everything in the beginning of October and rehearsals could start. 27th of October was the big day, and club One Third opened it’s door for the first time!
