A couple of years ago, I had the opportunity to be interviewed by Ms. Terry Chan at Fairchild Radio Station, FM 94.7. This one time opportunity extended two more years. Earlier this year, Terry emailed me to ask if I would be interested in designing the stage for the New Talent Singing Awards – Calgary (NTSA). I remember the day that I got this email I had to read it over a couple of times. I was so excited. The NTSA is a big deal in the Calgary Chinese community. Youngsters (I only say this because I am no longer eligible) compete in a singing contest in Calgary. The winner gets to compete with other winners from around the world in Hong Kong for an opportunity to get a recording contract. (A little longer process than American Idol, but hey, the opportunity is still there.) NTSA is held at the Jack Singer Concert Hall every year and broadcasted in Calgary, Vancouver, and Toronto through Fairchild TV.
I had always thought that I would expand Wishahmon beyond the wedding world but I never set a date for it. (I never did a business plan either.) Terry’s email and suggestion to do the stage design was a huge hint for me that this is the time to expand to Wishahmon – Event Creations. I am so grateful for her email and faith in me.
The design itself was fairly simple (I thought). The installation of the design took five hours. I wanted to incorporate lots of color and really work with their theme of “Young and Active Youths.” The concert hall was huge with really tall ceilings, in order to fill up the stage I knew we had to get huge décor items. As a result, I rented huge spandex panels that spanned 19 feet tall. I don’t know why but I was actually surprised by the weight of these panels! Luckily for me, I didn’t have to install these panels myself. The awesome crew at the concert hall assisted me. We had some back lighting to produce silhouettes onto the panels. These silhouettes were of youngsters jumping. To accent the silhouettes, I also made some grass silhouettes, flowers, and butterflies. My crew and the concert hall crew all laughed at the butterflies but I ignored them and up the butterflies went.
I attended the NTSA that night and thought the stage design was awesome. Of course, I might be a little biased. What are your thoughts?
