Bakerlite.co.uk
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Bakerlite.co.uk
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Cyprus 2000 Continued Week 2 Monday Had to talk all day, as the studio was not available to us. Resolved to do a Drama workshop choosing one of the many sets crammed into Studio 3. My plan was analyse how it was lit currently, and then do a complete relight, one lamp at a time, recording a wide shot on a locked off camera. Tuesday I chose a shop set with a window and door in the camera right flattage. This enabled me to build a lighting progression based on utilising the window as a light source. This impressed the students (and snooping bystanders, of which there were several - mostly producers and directors) with the lifelike look of the finished result. I was very pleased with how it went, and I think it gave them much food for thought. Best of all, the techniques used, with which any drama LD will be familiar, utilised floor lamps, reflectors and polystyrene boards.
The session was good for more discussion than any other that I ran. A sound man remarked that there wouldn’t be any boom shadows with this kind of lighting. A remark that was welcomed by the director alongside him. All very well, but would techniques change and if so, when?
That evening, I was invited to meet some of CyBC’s younger cameramen with a view to giving them some more specialised location lighting training. It seems that CyBC doesn’t actually train cameramen; they learn ‘on the job’ from more experienced, but still mostly untrained (in lighting) cameramen. It was refreshing to listen to these youngsters (mid 20’s!) actually were keen to learn. CyBC weren’t prepared to stump up the cash, so I was asked whether I would do it directly for them. And my response? Is the Pope a Catholic? July was deemed to be a good month for their collective availability. Dates were to be confirmed. Wasn’t it hot in July, I had heard that 35C was not unusual for Nicosia in high summer? “Yes, Mike, it was very hot”, came back the answer with a sympathetic smile. Ho hum. Little did I realise just how hot it was actually going to be. Wednesday Studio 2 CyBC. My self-imposed brief was to try and sort out some of the very strange lighting in the shoebox shaped Studio 2, where there was a succession of sports and current affairs programmes done in rapid succession. Reluctant squeaking barn doors moved today, possibly the first time for decades! Many lamps would not focus. Some would not move. Some were in danger of falling off their pantographs. I was warned not to stand under the pantographs (this studio had just 5 or 6) because one had dropped onto someone’s head in the recent future. (At times like this you realise just how much you appreciate the Health and Safety at Work Act!) We only had a couple of hours to change things, in view of the state of the kit, it just wasn’t enough. However, we managed to relight part of the studio to some effect, before we had to move to Studio 1.
After some discussion, we moved the huge glass topped (!) desk about half a metre only to have a row from the scene hands, because they thought that it might be damaged (by them) whilst bringing scenery in and out. After more than an hour of tweaking and squeaking barn doors and pantographs, we had to put it all back, resulting in over steep backlights. Black wrap helped reduce the reflected light from keys spilling on to the background as well as minimising hot spots on the glass top.
Here, the guys are contemplating the various inter relating problems The ground row only had one working circuit out of
four. Eventually, the guys made another channel work. Two circuits out of four
seemed like quite a good deal; how my standards had slipped. We put blue gel on
it and surprise, surprise made the background look pretty good. In fact, the
news director of the day was ecstatic. “Please, please please, can it always
look like that?” However, without delving into CyBC internal politics, suffice it to say that persuading the lighting technician (whose studio he felt it was) to adjust the balance of the lamps was an impossible task, as he was too busy consuming a plate of food. I had been warned that some of the lighting ‘people’ had been in the job but without any form of training for a long time, and were also very influential in union circles. Mmmmmm. I walked away in disgust. There were clearly those who wanted to learn, and those who did not. Back to the classroom for a session about location lighting. More handouts. Have used three trees so far. Hewlett Packard have probably doubled their exports of printer cartridges to Cyprus in a week. Tomorrow we will do a window exercise somewhere on site. Whilst looking for somewhere suitable, I found CyBC’s ‘redundant plant’ store. All outside and slowly being bio degraded by the Mediterranean sun. Here was to be seen all kinds of broadcasting memorabilia, ten-lights (when did you last see one of them?), EMI BTR 2 reel to reel recorders, mixing desks and best of all, a fully functional front silvered B.P. mirror! Well, it might need a bit of work on the base. When I was a new boy at the Beeb, in 1962, I used to record and edit programmes on the EMI BTR2 tape recorders. Lovely machines with lots of valve amplifiers hiding behind those green enamelled doors under the deck.
Later, I was taken out by some of the CyBC managers for a super meze in a tavern with totally non atmospheric lighting. It seems that the best food comes in places where the ambience is worst, and vice versa!
Here, Chrysanthos Hadjiannou, Head of Resources and I toast the occasion.
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