THE ROAST OF TOM BRADY

The Roast of Tom Brady has been one of the principle show of Netflix's shows, the production designer James Pearse Connelly tells us about his project. 

Originally this project was developed two years ago, with a much different setting.  A smaller audience of VIP attendees in an intimate exclusive venue where it would shoot over the course of an evening and be edited into a clean comedic hour.  However, the Greatest Roast of All Time: Tom Brady developed into a spectacular event for the Netflix is a Joke's festival and brought along three new challenges, fit intimate comedy into a massive arena, shoot it LIVE, and air it over two hours. Oh and put the production together in the course of 1 month and install it and shoot it and strike it in 7 days. 

James told us that he has been inspired by Tom’s superbowl rings and the grandiosity of a gladiator in an arena. In this way has been built a space to emanate championship, pressure and resilience. The team used faceted marble, sculpted gold and incandescence with pigskin leathers to finish the architecture. The space and layout were studied and revised over the course of a month in a real time previs engine. The production and the design studio worked to study every on camera relationship as well as back of house relationship to get timing correct.

James said:

We designed a built a massive custom Jumbotron in the shape of a diamond to make sure that everyone in the forum could watch the relationship from the podium to the dais. Our audience was built to surround Tom in safety so the comedy could be loud and unapologetic.  Super VIPS were elevated close to the dais in custom banquettes to engage with the comedy as well as allow for access up and down onto stage.  Tom was also surrounded immersive video screens and wrap around content along with a fraternity of football brothers in a secondary dais row of seating. His throne was cut into marble slabs and the upholstery was inspired by a private jet interior and adorned with custom embroidery.

The Greatest Roast of All Time was live for nearly 3 hours and has continued to be successful and one of the most talked about event of the year. 

Every project has its own design part with rendering visualizations. This aspect is always an important component of a project, as in this case.