Hollywood Glamour At The Oscars, Part 2: The Lighting

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The lighting designers are longtime veterans of The Oscars. Robert Dickinson of Full Flood, who designed the stage looks, says there was an added challenge this year. “The producers decided to acknowledge the importance of music in the film industry, so there were more musical numbers than usual,” he says. “‘Romantic’ was a concept the producers gave me. I had never worked with them before, but they said The Oscars should be an allusion to the romance of movie musicals.”

Dickinson found set designer Derek McLane to be “a fantastic production designer, intelligent and insightful, especially as this was his first major television broadcast. I worked closely with Derek and Joe Celli, who has done a lot of The Oscars and served as creative tissue between Derek and the realities of TV.” One of the challenges was the proscenium of 1,000 silver Oscars. “The question was how to light them without casting shadows and make sure they could be seen,” says Dickinson. The solution was internal lighting inside the proscenium as the foundation, with a nuance added on the surface.

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“We relied heavily on instrumentation we might not have had if it wasn’t such a music-based show,” Dickinson explains. “We used primarily the same instruments in different ratios, more reflective to the music, rather than soft-edged instrumentation and washes, to gently light the scenery as usually seen on The Oscars.”

As a result, the PRG-supplied rig comprised Philips Vari-Lite automated fixtures (150 VL3500 Spots, 115 VL3500 Wash units, 40 VL2000 Wash units, and 95 VL5s), 20 PRG VL6C+s, six Strong Super Trouper followspots, 75 Philips Color Kinetics ColorBlasts, 52 Arri 300 Fresnel, 45 Arri 650 Fresnels, and 20 Clay Paky Sharpy fixtures. LED tape was embedded in the proscenium, and household puck lights, used for under-counter kitchen lighting, turned out to be a perfect incandescent source for boxes with the Oscar statues.

The crew included lighting directors Jon Kusner, Andy O’Reilly (programmer, PRG V676 console), Travis Hagenbuch, and Patrick Boozer (programmer, ETC Eos console), gaffer Alan Sisul, and project supervisor James Beaghan. The Eos was used to program more than 250 ETC Source Fours, primarily for audience lighting; the V676 controlled the automated lighting.

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“Derek explained his concept of stalactites and stalagmites of bulbs at different heights and random elevations,” notes Dickinson. “We worked out what size the elongated bulbs would be. They were on chrome poles, but after some tests, I suggested it would be better to use a surface we could light, since chrome acts as a mirror. By painting them silver, they took external light and were even lit alone when the light bulbs weren’t on. Sometimes the simplest solution is the best one.”

Bob Barnhart, also from Full Flood, lit the audience and theatre architecture. “The lighting and scenery worked very well together,” he says. “With 13 acts, the physical reality of the theatre allowed for very few electrics over a big stage with so much scenery. The lighting ladders were squeezed in, with many scenic looks that wanted to be lit from different angles.”

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There are many facets of the production to light: the scenery, the audience, the performances, the production numbers, the nominees, and the winners. “This year the theme was ‘old Hollywood musicals,’ and the overall production approach was to bring that look to the stage,” Barnhart continues. “We didn’t want cold LED but more of a tungsten look overall, and the light bulbs added to the old Hollywood feel. Each act was as unique as possible. For the sound stage wall for sound editing, there were old-style microphones on the back wall, and we added shadows as if the work lights were on.”

Barnhart notes that, of the many shows he and Dickinson design, this is the most difficult audience to light. “It’s an elegant show from an audience point of view, especially the nominees, and we do a lot of close ups,” he says. “The audience needs to be as pretty as possible, but sometimes the scenery takes away the lighting positions or angles we might want, which means more focus time and more noodling to get it right. We balance the audience light to the color temperature of the show, as we can always adjust with the followspots, rather than more CT gel in all the Source Fours for the audience faces and someone standing on stage. Those are the two main places for reference, so you make a color prediction as you are focusing.” The Source Fours are placed behind, in front, and around the proscenium for keylights and fills.

Photo Gloria Lamb

“The biggest challenge,” adds Barnhart, “is working within the constraints of the set, the building, and the schedule. You make your adjustments as fast as you can. It’s rewarding when the end result is what we started out to achieve. Another thing that made this year a little more unique or difficult was that we had multiple locations, which added to the demands of the show.”

Barnhart wraps by noting that collaboration with screen content is a big part of what his team does. “With that large a screen upstage, the images have a large impact on the color palette for that act, and we adjust the lights and images to best enhance the scenery,” he says. “Everyone is very cooperative about it. It’s not an ego issue. Everyone is trying to make it look as good as possible.”