Scharff Weisberg Lighting Has News For You on Bravo

Television lighting designer and frequent Scharff Weisberg Lighting client Bob Hickey of BJH Lighting Associates in Sparta, New Jersey, called upon the Scharff Weisberg to supply a pilot based on a game show from England, Have I Got News For You, for the Bravo Network. Teams of comics, who act as the contestants, tackle headlines, current events, and topical humor in the pilot that was shot at NBC Studios.

"You can’t do an old-style game show anymore," Hickey says. "When the show opened we silhouetted the talent, the lights came up with a flash, the camera panned around and zoomed in on the host announcing, ‘Have I Got News For You.’ We used atmospheric lighting in and out of commercials and shot into the camera lens with star effects to exaggerate rays of light. The look of the show had to be entertaining to the audience, but the lighting couldn’t be the star of the show. It had to complement it."

"The set was created primarily through lights," Hickey continues. "We created a [feeling] of depth and spaciousness with lighting and color."

Scharff Weisberg provided Hickey with a Flying Pig Systems Whole Hog® Console, 30 ETC Source Four® PARs, 18 MAC 550 Spot fixtures, 20 6’ MR-16 Striplights and 12 Source Four® Lekos.

The Source Four PARs with blue gels, were placed on the floor shooting up through smoke to create atmospheric effects and color the cyc stretched across the back of the studio. The Striplights–placed on stanchions on the floor–washed the cyc with three colors displayed sequentially. "Because the Striplights were thin and long, I was able to put them close to the cyc we were projecting on," Hickey explains.

The MAC 550 Spot moving lights, which created their own colors, shot through a transparent serpentine-shaped set piece enfolding the host and contestants.

Source Four Lekos were employed as talent key lights. "They’re very controlled keys," Hickey says. "They work especially well when people are sitting close to each other as the contestants were."