Martin illuminates Shân Cothi Show for S4/C

Martin illuminates Shân Cothi Show for S4/C

April 15, 2009

The “Shân Cothi show” hosted by Shân Cothi was produced by Presentable Productions for S4/C, recorded at Omni Studios in Cardiff over 2 blocks in January and February 2009, and involved the big names from opera and musical theatre for chat such as Rebecca Evans, Catrin Finch, Gwyn Hughes Jones and many more and musical pieces.

Elstree Light & Power were contracted to install the lighting for the show. They supplied Martin lighting to do this. The lights used were MAC 2000 profile, MAC 2000 Wash, MAC TW1, MAC 700, MAC 500, MAC 600 and MAC 250.

The concept behind the lighting set up was, to create a different mood for each song. Some were light classical or operatic, others were from musicals. Some songs were up-tempo whilst others were gentle ballads. There were guest singers and instrumentalists too and even a couple of choirs. Each show had ten musical numbers so a total of 60 ‘looks’ were required, as well as lighting changes within each song.

Lighting Director Martin Kempton explained why he chose Martin lights in particular, “ELP are an excellent hire company and were my first choice to supply equipment and crew for this job. They have a good range of fixtures available, many of which are from the Martin range. I always try to choose the right lamp for each position within the studio but of course cost and availability are factors that affect my choices. Although a ‘sumptuous’ look had been requested by the production, I had to fit my ambitions to the budget available.

Martin explains further, “I found that when I had drawn my plot, almost all the fixtures were Martin lamps. They ranged from MAC 2000s to good old workhorses like MAC 500s and MAC 600s that can always be relied upon. MAC TW1s are particular favourites of mine to provide subtly coloured backlights or kickers on artists. I was particularly impressed with the MAC 700s. I have used them before but on this show they gave me a huge range of options regarding coverage of the floor. In fact, I used some MAC 700s again on a pilot I lit for the BBC shortly after this show.”

Darren Fletcher from ELP commented, “We used quite a range of fixtures from our current range to the favourites of old which still perform extremely well. Martin Kempton requested his own gobos from the DHA range to be put into the MAC 2000 Profiles therefore putting his own artistic stamp onto the production.”

Martin Kempton was very pleased with how the show looked, “I think we achieved the brief within the available budget and I certainly hope the production team and broadcast channel agree. I was particularly pleased that we didn’t seem to repeat ‘looks’ despite having so many to conjure up over the series.”

Darren concluded that, “The show went extremely well. The fixtures were very reliable, with only 2 faults from the 100 lamp rig over the two record periods.” He would also like to thank Andy Dobbs, moving lights operator and Gill Hersey, generic light operator for all their efforts to help make the show a success.

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