STLD_112 pp1-31:TL 85 Spring 2005 23/07/2014 21:11 Page 24
Lighting
Copyright ELP
Copyright ELP Pictured top left: The previous studio at White City. The outside view is dominated by a large tree and two buildings left and right. The window boxes allowed for panels of ND film to attenuate the daylight. Bottom left: LD Stuart Gain and ELP’s project manager Chris Rand at the White City studio just after the ARRI LC-7 was first tried out. Top right: A view of the new studio, camera left of the window, where demonstrations, and performances are televised in front of video screen incorporating internal LED lighting. Bottom right: Another view of the current One Show studio from a low angle showing the grid, some of the key lights and the camera crew before transmission.
A window on The One Show Words: Peter Phillipson Photographs: Tim Warner The One Show is one of those flagship news-orientated magazine programme that busy people may catch from time to time. But there is real know-how when it comes to its lighting. It transmitted its final show from its previous studio in White City just before Christmas, and then moved to its new home at New Broadcasting House a few days later. It is the third studio to house the show, the first being in Birmingham for a brief period. The common thread, from a lighting point of view, is that all three had a prominent window featured behind the main presenters. The effect that this has had on the entire approach to the lighting cannot be overemphasised. Unlike other programmes where a lighting director sets up the main studio lighting at the beginning of the series and then leaves each show to be run by a desk operator and a 24
Set & Light | Summer 2014
gaffer, The One Show always has a lighting director – who also operates the desk – and a gaffer(s). In this way, events within the show that fall outside of the interviews taking place on the couch can be lit by experienced LDs. Dave Evans set up both studios and he and Stuart Gain are the resident LDs, covering all but a couple of programmes between them. This allows them to light other TV shows as well. The White City studio was a converted office space located near the now-closed TV Centre. Its window faced approximately southeast, meaning that by the time the show went out in the early evening, the amount of daylight was diminished enough to make it manageable. The window box frames lent themselves to the addition of a removable, narrow frame mechanism housing neutral density film, which
