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Wednesday
February 7th
Just
one week after leaving Turkey, I was on my way back again. Phase two was to
start with a few days in Istanbul. This was pleasing to me for various reasons.
TRT Istanbul had more of a relaxed, regional feel about its TV set-up, and
little did I realise what lighting surprises it had in store for me. The city
itself is also a visual delight.
My
accommodation was to be in a hotel just off Taksim Square, the Piccadilly Circus
of Istanbul. It was called The Grand Star, and was complete with my favourite
accessory, an en suite bath! We were here because TRT’s hostel, where Tim
Wallbank and I had stayed in Presidential quarters in 1999, was closed pending
inspection following the recent earthquake.
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| Moonrise somewhere over Turkey
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People
had kept saying to me ‘are you still going after the earthquake?” I
patiently explained (having read the broadsheets in depth!) that most of
Istanbul was actually quite well built, it was just the dodgy building standards
of cowboy builders on the northern fringe of the city who had used sand straight
off the seashore, complete with salt, and often ‘forgotten’ to use steel
reinforcement, or used badly rusted stuff. Suffice to say, not only was most of
Istanbul untouched by the damage, but also buildings up to 2000 years old stand
unaffected by the periodic movement of Africa ‘rushing’ northward into
Asia. However, I thought I might go
and check out the damage in the TRT hostel when I got a chance.
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| A corner of Taksim Square,
Istanbul |
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Thursday
February 8th
I
enjoyed an excellent breakfast with Ahmet, my interpreter. It was a warm sunny
day and there were good views across the Bosphorus from the breakfast room. We
took a car up to TRT, met my old friend Hayri ‘Schumacher’ who had now been
promoted to be chauffeur to the Head of Istanbul TV, a striking blonde lady
whose eyes pierced straight through any male ego. No glass ceiling for this
lady.
I
was taken on a short tour of the TRT studios where I was able to see some
lighting of a simple ‘talking head’ setting. The intensity of light was
about right, but the angles and relative balance could have been improved.
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| Asia across the Bosphorus, from the Hotel Grand Star |
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I
set up my computer in the seminar room and did some preparation with a projector
and a VHS player. In the afternoon, I presented a seminar for Design and
Production personnel, which was very well attended. I think the split was about
75% Production, 25% Design.
I
tried to cover many of the issues that affect programmes in both Istanbul and
Ankara, and also what I was proposing to do about it. We looked at various tapes
of programmes made in Istanbul which I was able to use for analysis of the
lighting. There seemed to be a lot of interest, some were making copious notes,
even copying my quick lighting sketches symbol by symbol!
Ebru
met me at 7.30 and took me to a nearby restaurant and set up an eating agenda
for me with the manager.
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| One of TRT's
Hitachi tube cameras which by now will have been replaced with new digital cameras. |
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| The
view, the food and the pleasant Turkish wine induced a pleasant semi trance like
feeling in your correspondent which was promptly ruined when someone switched on
a huge video screen showing the ‘big (?) match’ which did nothing for me,
with a life long disinterest in sport. Such is life.
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Ebru, one of my interpreters sat in at this
portraiture session for me. |
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Friday
February 9th
I
held a small workshop for some girls from makeup in the studio with just four
lamps. Two 1KW fresnel lamps, 1 ‘redhead’ and a ‘soft’ light, all on
stands. Just getting that kit together took some organising, I can tell you.
First
a demonstration of the nature of light, hard and soft. Then on to gradually
build up portrait lighting, using Ebru as a model, explaining step by step what
I was doing. Very simple, but very effective. The potential problem here was in
enabling non-lighting staff to have more of an idea about lighting than some of
the lighting men!
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The
session started in the seminar room but quickly changed to the studio where we
proceeded to relight an existing set to ‘my’ idea of good lighting practice.
I carefully explained the position and purpose of each lamp and how and why I
focussed it.
Some of the softs were antiques, and none of them had ‘egg
crates’. |
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A 'talking head' situation in one of Istanbuls
studios. A monopole lighting rig. |
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An antique ARRI soft, still in use and much liked by
TRT's lighting men. |
