76th Annual Academy Awards

For the second year in a row award-winning lighting designer Bob Dickinson turned to the Martin MAC 2000 Wash to paint Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre in shades of well-dressed color for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ annual award show. Held on Sunday, February 29, the season’s premier awards program was broadcast live by the ABC Television Network.

Dickinson incorporated some 140 MAC 2000 Wash fixtures into his design. “When working with a system like this you want to design it in such a way that you have as many options on site as possible,” he stated, “and in the case of the Oscars we incorporated the MAC 2000 Washes throughout the design. We really used them everywhere.”

Two key areas backlit using MAC 2000 Wash were the set design’s multitude of highly visible Plexiglas frames, as well as the Oscar figures stage left and right. “I keyed the show at 5000 degree Kelvin as opposed to the normal 3200 degree Kelvin,” Dickinson commented. “We balanced the cameras into the high discharge color temperature and this allowed me to get colors as they actually appear to the naked eye on television. By adjusting the cameras to 5000 degree Kelvin you end up with the camera acknowledging the true intent of the color. On those two shows (Oscars and Grammy’s), which were both done in high definition, it made a dramatic difference in our color options. On many productions it is not feasible to do this because we have to balance the audience lights and everything to 5000 degree Kelvin, which becomes problematic. But on shows like the Oscars and Grammy’s it really makes a difference in color interpretation.”

On the awards show the MAC 2000 Wash proved to be very reliable, Dickinson reports. “I was introduced to the MAC 2000 Wash about a year and a half ago and was very enthused by it. It’s really fulfilling a vacuum that was left in the marketplace. What’s happened is that wattages have gone up in high discharge units, hard edge units, but there was not a corresponding increase in wattage in the wash units. Wash units need to keep up otherwise you end up with the potential for an out of balance lighting design.”

Dickinson uses the MAC 2000 on almost every show he is a part of now from the Victoria’s Secret Fashion TV Special and Country Music awards to the People Choice awards and Emmy awards (and recent Grammys). “I’ve been using the MAC 2000s as my primary high discharge light source,” he says.

California-based Production Lighting Systems (PLS) of the Fourth Phase/PRG lighting group, and VLPS Lighting Services supplied all lighting for the show.

Tony Ward: Production Manager: PRG