Roger Williams has been the lighting designer for Top of the Pops for two years now and has learnt where the camera gets the most out of the lights. As this was the final music show he filled the studio grid with as much as he could using various lamps and manufacturers, but not trying to, "make it too much like a trade show!".
The lighting design is usually left to Williams once the positioning of the set pieces has been decided on in the Monday meeting. Williams has two preferred rigs, Martin MAC 500 and MAC 600s beams and washes alternately to provide strong vibrant colours and sharp beams. He used the MAC rig on the two upstage stages and on the main stage 40 mini scans and 15 pixel pars, to give two different looks. Most of the TOTP set is internally lit with LEDs.
The rig for this show consisted of 30 MAC 500s, 15 MAC 600s and two brand new MAC 700 Washes, which were lent to him for that night. Williams used the MAC 600s and MAC 700 Washes on the various set pieces.
Williams says: "I used them to light two of the irregular set pieces, I usually use MAC 600s for this, and one of those isn't quite wide enough to light the whole thing but with the MAC 700s they were perfect. Great zoom, smooth colour changes and a very bright and even output; just what I would expect from a lighting manufacturer with a proven history in TV. It's another lamp I look forward to having a lot of use from. I can't wait to have a rig of MAC 700s, both washes and profiles. I'm a huge fan of the profiles and have used them quite a lot."
All the equipment came from Richard Martin Lighting (RML) and the control system was two Vector Greens supplied by Roger Williams and operator Andy Dobbs. The RML kit is well maintained and they had had no problems with fixtures going down.
The TOTP lighting crew consisted of Williams, Andy Dobbs, Mark Smithers, David Bishop and Tom Sutherland. For this show Andy Dobbs operated the main stage (Miniscans) and David Bishop the two upstage stages (MACs). Mark Smithers was the generic board op.
Williams started at the BBC in 1984 as a studio lighting electrician until 1991. He then got an attachment to the department as a vision operator becoming vision supervisor in 1996 where he quickly became involved in moving lights, and became an LD in 2000 before going freelance in 2002. His credits as a programmer include; Come dancing, Dance Fever, Just the Two of Us, The Brits and the Royal Variety Show. Credits as lighting director include; Top of the Pops, Wogan Now & Then, Departure Lounge and Killer shark Live.
(Chris Henry)
