Dave Mann serves as lighting designer on live events for E!, including the Grammys Red Carpet, as well as special moments at the Golden Globes, Oscars, and E!’s People Choice Awards. This year, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the schedules and production elements were different than in the past. But for Mann, his main task is "to manage the flow of information between our producers at E! Networks, our creative producing team at Den of Thieves (whom E! contracts to produce), and the electricians and programmers that help us light these shows," he says.
"We usually begin production meetings six weeks prior to a show and we’re often discussing three shows at once," he says. "The Globes are usually early January, Grammys three weeks later and Oscars three weeks after that. The Emmy Awards can either be in August or September, followed by E!’s People Choice Awards in early November. This year was obviously very different."
Another difference with year was the actual production values: "Normally our productions would be right on the red carpets," Mann points out. "We would carve out small areas with the help of the Globes or Grammys organizations, and broadcast from the middle of the action. Due to Covid, the Globes and Grammys decided to forgo traditional red carpets. And of course, with social distancing, we would have needed more room than either organization could likely provide. Thus, the biggest impact was that it was essentially up to E! to create its own location from which to broadcast."
At both the Globes and Grammys, the productions were under tents on a roughly 30x30 stage. "At the Globes, we were right on Merv Griffin Drive outside of the Beverly Hilton Hotel, where the red carpet would normally be. At the Grammys we were in Gilbert Lindsay Plaza, adjacent to the Los Angeles Convention Center with Staples Center as our background," notes Mann. "For the Grammys, we had a two hour Countdown show live-to-tape in the morning (from 9:30am to 11:30am), that was time-shifted to 1pm to 3pm. The production design was three talent behind desks, socially-distanced, interacting with one another and setting up the award show with taped packages on current nominees, past winners, and expert predictions. Social issues have become more of a recent focus as well as the pandemic itself."
Social distancing meant a lot of virtual content as well: "We redressed the stage—florals and small items—for our Live From E! production from 3pm to 5pm that led directly in to the main award show, which would normally be red-carpet time," explains Mann. "During this show we had virtual interviews, spending time with pre-booked guests, who interact with our hosts via Zoom. We also had a host from inside the LACC/Grammy Press Room during this time period. She was able to conduct some live, socially distanced, in-person interviews with Grammy talent as well as some Zooms."
Mann's biggest challenge was exposing for daylight during our Countdown and Live From E! shows while protecting our set and talent from direct sunlight. "We used a combination of HMI fixtures to key light and LED ETC Lustrs to wrap around and define the talent. LED movers like MAC Auras and FR1s were used to provide visual movement for the camera lens and create some effects for bumpers in and out of breaks," he notes. "We were constantly adjusting levels during the day as the sun tracked or as cloud cover dictated. We protected the set and talent with large lighting silks and solid blacks in order to prevent sunlight hotspots; we didn’t just add light, but we had to take it away as well. I refer to our daytime lighting as ‘blunt force’ lighting. The high level of ambient sunlight makes it difficult to subtly light the set; instead we focus on diffusing the sunlight and using it to our advantage as soft light."
The pandemic continued to provide challenges this year: "While the main award show was in progress from 5:pm to 8:30pm, we turned around our stage to a nighttime look for our live, one-hour After Party production, which was three talent in a more intimate, still Covid-compliant, seating arrangement. We refocused the ellipsoidal keys to new talent marks," says Mann. "We didn’t need the punch of the HMI fixtures at night so the units were struck. In the darkness we were able repurpose the moving fixtures from camera flare to scenic highlights, popping florals and even edge lighting the talent to create a high-contrast ‘night club’ look. Whereas our daytime looks started from white, at night we were able to work from black."
Mann gives props to his lighting director, John Hoffma, saying: "I rely on John to handle protecting the talent from sunlight with silks and solid blacks. I have a theater background, so I’m used to adding fixtures. He has a film background; he is fantastic at controlling available light." Tyler Sanderson was the programmer.
Selected Light Plot
Selected Lighting Gear Lists
2021 Grammy E! Red Carpet Equipment List_Livestream
2 ARRI M-18
2 ARRI Skypanel S-60
4 LED Dedo Lights
12 V2 Color Kinetics Colorblast 12
2021 Golden Globes Equipment List E! Preshow
1 Five-Ton Grip Truck
11 ARRI M-40
6 ARRI M-18
8 ARRI Skypanel S-60
8 ETC Lustr Series 2 6x 36 degree lens 2x 19 degree lens
16 GLP Impression FR-1
8 Martin MAC Aura 10
8 Chroma Q Colorforce 72"
24 Martin Mac Viper
21 GLP Impression X4S
24 V2 Color Kinetics Colorblast 12