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Clay Paky Alongside Beauties and Geeks in Reality Show
Six couples made up from beautiful, tall and shapely girls and somewhat ugly and fattish, or excessively skinny, men without any sexual experience - not by choice but due to their own inability - this is the essence of Italy’s ‘La Pupa e il Secchione’, a Mediaset programme adapted from the format of the American ‘The Beauty and the Geek’.
This is a reality show that bucks the trend, with paradoxical and saucy tones and full of sexual nuances: a circus of the absurd where the beauties must improve themselves culturally and the geeks become “real men” through improbable tests of ability, seduction and cultural self-possession.
The idea was that of mixing the American format with the ingredients that work in other Italian programmes. The result is a sort of comedy show with sexy overtones that has gained great attention with the public and press.
In line with modern trends for TV studios, the “La Pupa e il Secchione” studio is staged in-the-round with the actors in the centre. This structure offers more than one advantage: it centralises the scene, gives more shooting points and improves audience participation. With respect to the traditional stage, however, this solution presents certain problems during the stage setting phase. “We had to install all the lighting equipment on the ceiling since there were no other support structures available, while the sound diffusers were hidden inside the set, between one step of the stands and the next,” said director of photography Riccardo Barbaglio.
The set elements that can be seen are all white, so that they can be colored at various times during the show. “It was a precise choice, taken during the design stage,” continued Barbaglio. “We wanted to be able to ‘paint’ the whole set with light, using a different colour each time. I often used unusual colours – acid yellows, greens, mauve – that would normally be outlawed from any TV transmission. But this is a “crazy” programme so the light also has to follow suit!”
In ‘La Pupa e il Secchione’, light is not confined to lighting the scenes, but to assist and emphasise everything that is happening, making it more playful and entertaining. The function of light is an integral part of the story line, it accompanies the stories and turns them into a spectacle as if in a parody.
The lighting system consists of 28 Alpha Spot HPE 575 units, 30 Alpha Wash 575 units and 28 CP Color MH units as well as several halogen and conventional projectors. Barbaglio says: “I chose the Clay Paky Alphas for the first time in 2003, because of the quality of the light and the power. Since then I have asked for them specifically in many transmissions that I have directed. They are very versatile projectors that make it possible to interpret any situation in the best way and they are always very reliable.”
2nd November 2006
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