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Stage Electrics on Celebrity Big Brother
Stage Electrics supplied all moving and intelligent lights for two locations at Celebrity Big Brother – in the studio and the outdoor set – plus additional kit for the finale, sensationally won last week by Chantelle Houghton
Darryl Noad was the lighting director for the high profile Endemol produced series recorded at Elstree Studios, which drew record viewing figures for Channel Four.
Stage Electrics’ project manager was Simon Baker. The contract to service CBB followed on from Stage Electrics’ supply of intelligent lighting to the normal series last summer, which was also the first time Noad took over the lighting design/direction role.
Simon Baker and his team first worked with Noad on the Most Haunted Live series. It proved a winning combination, so Noad ensured that Stage Electrics went on the Big Brother tender list, and from there, they won the pitch.
The studio element of the rig consisted of 19 Martin Professional MAC 2kW washes, used for the regular bi-weekly broadcasts. Sixteen PixelLine 110ecs – their debut on a UK TV production – were also supplied by Stage Electrics to the Little Brother chat show.
The weekly show’s exterior rig included 15 MAC 600 NTs in inflatable domes, eight MAC 2kW profiles, four MAC 2kW washes and 16 JTE PixelLine battens under-lighting the stairs. These were used extensively to light and project graphics and gobos onto the wall of the Big Brother house, which formed one side of the exterior compound, and also illuminated the evictees’ walkway.
The show’s generic lighting was supplied by Park Royal based Film & Television Services, who also dry hired four 48-way Avolites ART2000 dimmers from Stage Electrics to power their kit. Baker and his team worked very closely with Film & TVS’s Malcolm Bray and Adrian Portinari.
For the finale, the whole production was stepped up a level.
An Orbit stage from Serious was added, where Davina McCall interviewed the ejected housemates as soon as they exited. The runway was built up in height and extra lighting was added to boost the atmosphere and excitement of the occasion.
Stage Electrics added ten 2kW Space Cannons for the finale; five were located on the house roof and five outside the front entrance to the stage, creating some razzamatazz and looking fabulous in the snow which fell just before the finale went live. Twenty MAC 300s were rigged around the front lip of the Orbit and three extra PixelLines were added to the front of the house. Four 2.5kW City Colors placed on floor-based flight cases were used to flood the side of the George Lucas Stage building, for the high crane, wide camera shots of the whole site. The wash lights were overlaid with gobos from an additional six MAC 2kW profiles.
In the roof of the Orbit were eight more MAC 2kW Washes, joined by another five 2kW Washes and four 600 NTs and on the deck.
All intelligent lighting was programmed into a WholeHog II by Pryderi Baskerville, and operated for the shows and the finale by Greg Fairfield, located in the lighting control cabin inside the George Lucas Stage. Baker’s crew for the in were Jayney Bell, Ivan Ellison and Marc Henry. The weekly show was run by himself and Bell, and for the finale, the crew was back up to four people, with Henry rejoining the team and Ben Grashoff replacing Ellison who was on another job.
Noad comments: “I really enjoy working with Simon and his team, they are always cheerful, hardworking, knowledgeable and make everything as smooth and stress free as possible.”
Simon Baker, the crew – and much of the kit – moved directly from lighting the London Eye for New Year onto Celebrity Big Brother, which loaded in on New Year’s Day, and had to be ready to roll for the launch on 5th January. “It all went like clockwork,” said Baker. “This crew work together a lot anyway, and particularly because we all did the New Year’s Eve, it was a completely seamless transition – even down to working in sub zero temperatures which we were all used to by then!”
All audio-visual equipment and services were supplied by Creative Technology.
1st February 2006
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