The landscape of late night TV is changing, and Scharff Weisberg supported one of the newest program moves when it supplied lighting equipment for "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon." Lighting designer Christopher Landy, who heads Brooklyn's Vibrant Design LLC, was challenged to mix old school and contemporary talk-show looks for the show based at NBC's iconic Studio 6B.
"Production designers Ellen Waggett (also of Vibrant Design) and Leo Yoshimoura brought me in. "The studio is the same one used by talk-show legends Johnny Carson and Jack Parr and the famous game show '21.' Ellen and Leo's design certainly pays respect to that legacy, starting with the proscenium and the classic curtain," says Landy. "The goal was to create a versitale design that was both contemporary and sophisticated, but did not upstage the comedy."
Landy has extensive TV credits and a strong background in music and live events. He has designed countless series for MTV, including "Total Request Live," "Unplugged 2.0" and "MTV's New Year's Eve;" the "Custom Concert" series for Oxygen Network; Comedy Central's acclaimed "Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn;" as well as the recent hit "Important Things with Demetri Martin". He received an Emmy Award nomination for MSNBC's 2004 Election coverage.
"Jimmy is not a big fan of moving lights. So we kept the moving light package to a minimum and instead went with a substantial package of LED's." Scharff Weisberg supplied all the LED's which included 98 ColorBlast 12s, 18 ColorBlaze 72s and 48s, and 12 Coemar ParLites from. All the lightboxes are lit with colorblasts and the walls are bathed in color from the ColorBlazes.
"The LED's supply us with incredible, dynamic looks, without the movement," Landy explains. "There is so much texture built into the set, it makes it exciting to light. But even where we did need to add texture, we designed our own templates."
Scharff Weisberg furnished VARI*LITE VL2500 spots and VL2500 washes, Studio Spot CMYs, Studio Spots, Studio Colors, Studio Beams and CXI Color Scrollers to round out the automated fixtures.
Landy also specified a large conventional lighting package from Scharff Weisberg which featured more than 100 S4 750-watt Lekos; 30 ETC 750-watt S4 PARs; eight Ianaro cyc lights, 12 6' Ministrips and one Robert Juliat Manon Followspot to complement the studio package of 25 Mole Studio 2K fresnels; 12 Mole Baby 2K fresnels; 75 Mole 1K fresnels, four 650-watt, six 300-watt and five 200-watt fresnels; two ARRI 650-watt and two 300-watt fresnels; 18 Mole 2K and 8 1K Softlights; and Cricket short-throw followspots.
A grandMA lighting console from Scharff Weisberg "easily controls the moving lights and six universes of LED fixtures," he adds.
Landy not only counted on Scharff Weisberg to supply a wide array of lighting gear but also to act as a support team. "It's great fun to use a mix of state of the art gear that we brought in with same lights that were used on the original Tonight Show," adds Landy. "The turnaround was quite quick. None of the connectors were standard and gear had to be retrofitted. John Healy and the folks at Scharff's were awesome. They understand the budget and time restrictions and they work with you. They were not only there on the on the first day of load in, but throughout the process, seamlessly integrating their gear with the studio's."
Chris Komishock and Steve Garner were the grandMA programmers for the show; Pip Biancamano served as Head Electrician, Ken Craig took over as Lighting Director and Matthew Piercy was Landy's associate.
Scharff Weisberg and Video Applications, firms with extensive histories in the presentation and staging markets, recently announced a co-ownership agreement. While continuing to operate independently the two companies work together strategically to provide clients with state-of-the-art audio, video and lighting equipment and services. With a strong presence on both coasts Scharff Weisberg and Video Applications are able to deliver a large array of cost-effective services on a national level. For more information, call 212-582-2345 or visit our website at www.scharffweisberg.com. For more information on Video Applications, visit www.videoapps.com.