April 2006 saw me at the green field site of
Lumiere TV studios in the village of Pyrga, just off the Nicosia to
Limassol highway. LTV is a satellite Broadcaster whose speciality is
sport. Football, in particular, is very popular in Cyprus. LTV has its
official web site
here.
Our brief was to
run a five day Director training course for staff of LTV. There were
also camera, sound and lighting staff present at all the seminars.
The building, photographed in December 2005, is
compact in layout and set in a very rural environment.
This is the very 'English' view out of the office
windows.
I think I could live with a view like
this!
There is even a pool for staff use.
A battery of satellite dishes indicate the nature of
LTV's work.
Inside the OB unit, a few pics of the operational
areas.
Alan addressed issues of programme
making, but I was also showing different ways of lighting a person.
Rembrandt type lighting here on Anastazia, a freelance director working
at LTV.
Alan is stressing the importance of shooting on
peoples eyeline and creating greater depth to shots by using the 'over
the shoulder' deep three shot.
Christos [lighting] is checking the angle and direction of the key
light.
We also address the problems of shooting a sit com
within high set walls and actors who are often too close to the
backgrounds.
Alan writes himself into the script as an extra!
Anastazia rewards him with a laurel wreath a la Nero!
Clearly, training is not always deadly serious!
For my part, I try and get some direction into the
lighting and get lamps down to a lower height.
We do now have some 'hazy sunlight' coming from the
right of the picture. We have removed all the camera mounted lamps which
were creating a multitude of shadows. We are down to one shadow now and
I am much happier with that.
Inside the cafe, we have rigged a piece of
polystyrene to give softer, more realistic light quality.
