‘It looks more like a big city and less like a stage,’ Florian Wieder explains. By Gil Kaufman Chris Brown performs at the 2011 VMAs Photo: Jeff Kravitz/Film Magic When you settled in on the couch at home on Sunday night to watch the 2011 Video Music Awards , it probably felt like you were going back to the future. As in years past, the main stage for the show was a visual spectacle. This year the theme was time travel, and the stage’s designer was intent on making you feel as if you were on a mind-tripping journey. “We met up half a year ago and [VMA Executive Producer Jesse Ignjatovic] came up with the idea to create a time tunnel,” explained VMA main stage production designer Florian Wieder of the psychedelic set that looked like a cross between an alien landing ship, the floor of a 1970s disco and the baddest midnight laser-light show ever. “That’s one of the reasons why the whole design is based on a tunnel that is right in the center of the stage.” Like the pre-show , which shared some of the same curvy, intergalactic whimsy, the main broadcast mixed undulating wave forms with bright, pop-art-style colors and a black and white theme to set the stage for a galaxy of performers, including Adele, Lady Gaga, Jay-Z and Kanye West, Beyonc
