For the 2007 Miss Italia pageant, lighting designer/DoP Fabio Brera specified over 250 Robe moving lights including ColorSpot and ColorWash 575E ATs, ColorSpot and ColorWash 700E ATs and the workhorse ColorSpot and ColorWash 1200E ATs, all supplied by rental company Mixer di Taietti.
The show was staged at the Sport Palace in Salsomaggiore Terme (PR) and the space was transformed into a large studio. The Miss Italia pageant was presented by Mike Buongiorno and Loretta Goggi and produced by RAI Milano. The pageant was broadcast live on RAI 1, with a viewership of 6.2 million people; about a 32 percent share of the viewing public that jumped to nearly 60 percent as the winner was announced.
Brera has lit Miss Italia since 2003 and also used Robe on many previous occasions. He works very closely with the set designers/scenographers on these large projects, and in this case it was with Sabrina Fontanini and also with choreographer Roberto Croce. Lighting is essential for their work to be integrated into the show as well as for the cameras, and he also had the added challenge of lighting the stage for the live audience.
The overhead trussing was designed so the fixtures could provide the best lighting coverage across the stage, with the aim of evenly lighting all set elements. Brera used the ColorSpot and ColorWash 700 ATs to bathe the set in a series of soft lighting washes and also to “wrap” the contestants in subtle colors as they used the different parts of the set. The large zoom of the ColorSpot 1200E AT was used to create good background looks and textures for the cameras.
The lighting operators were Raffaele Vailatia and Ernesto Mattavelli, with Roberto Corona running the white lights (160 PAR 64s) using a combination of Compulite Sabre and Spark consoles. Chief electrician was Nicola Bianchi.