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Sky Elements' Drone Show Puts the Judges Faces in the Sky (WATCH)
Have you ever wanted to see your face stretched 400 feet across the sky? The AGT Judges got that treatment from Sky Elements' drone show.
America’s Got Talent Season 19 has seen a wide variety of Acts from magicians to musicians and everything in between, but the aerial light shows from Sky Elements are truly “next level.” The crew arrived on the AGT stage during the Audition phase, wearing what looked like simplified flight suits, the type you might see astronauts wearing on their way to the launch pad.
After introducing themselves, they promised the Judges a sensorial spectacle 300 feet wide and 400 feet tall, too large to fit inside of the AGT Pasadena Civic Auditorium. Sky Elements was created by a couple of college besties who combined their love of coding and light shows into musically themed holiday light displays. Later, they transitioned that skill set from domestic decorations to drones.
The Judges and the assembled crowd migrated outside for a mystery show that took place not on the AGT stage but in the sky overhead. It began with a 20-second countdown and a rocket made of light-covered drones hovering overhead.
RELATED: Why Simon Cowell Broke the Golden Buzzer Rules for Sky Elements
“5, 4, 3, 2, 1,” recited a prerecorded countdown, before the rocket took off. It cut through the clouds and into space, eventually flying over the curve of the Earth. The drones, each equipped with a series of brightly colored lights, act like individual pixels painting pictures on the sky, accompanied by music and mission control recordings.
“This is not like anything I’ve ever seen,” said Howie Mandel, before the show even ended.
Finally, Simon Cowell’s face appeared in the visor of a spacewalking astronaut before the drone swarm transitioned into a giant AGT logo 1,000 drones strong. The audition earned Sky Elements a Golden Buzzer.
What did the Judges say about Sky Elements’ AGT Live Performance?
By now, everyone knows what Sky Elements is about and in order to stay in the race, they needed to up the ante. Hundreds of drones took the sky, all flying in a constantly evolving formation. Their Live Show performance began in the shape of a castle, multicolored and brilliant. Then, fireworks exploded into a giant aerial bobble head of host Terry Crews.
The giant floating head went through several transformations, morphing into Judges Sophia Vergara, the head of Howie Mandel coming out of a magician’s hat (complete with signature smile and sunglasses), Heidi Klum, and Simon Cowell reaching a giant flying hand out toward a Golden Buzzer. Finally, the drones exploded into a swarming star field set to Katy Perry’s “Firework.”
By the end, Cowell was on his feet in a standing ovation.
“That was honestly incredible, Cowell said. “I thought the first time we saw you, ‘how do you top that?’ You did. Honestly, I think in terms of how difficult this was, and all of the acts we’ve seen in the Live Shows so far, this is by far the best.”
"It is very exciting when you see yourself on Sunset, in a big billboard poster, but this is next level, being in the sky like that,” Klum added.
"It's amazing, I don't even understand how you guys can pull that off. It's really, really impressive, creative. I can tell this takes hours and hours and hours of practice. I really love it,” Vergara said, before remarking that she wasn’t sure her drone face actually looked like her.
Mandel picked up the thread, saying, "It looked just like me, it looked just like you [Crews], it looked just like Simon, it looked just like Heidi, and it looked exactly like Sophia Vergara's second cousin. I don't know how they do that."
The only problem with upping the ante from one performance to the next is that you run the risk of hitting a wall. Sky Elements isn’t worried though.
"We're going to tell an emotional story that's close to my heart and it's going to be incredible, I can't wait for everybody to see it,” said Preston Ward, Sky Elements’ chief pilot.
Watch America's Got Talent on Tuesdays at 8/7c on NBC and the next day on Peacock.
