Aktuelle News & Schlagzeilen

Corona: Elation helps fill void on new season of “Dancing with the Stars”

Tom Sutherland was back on the set of “Dancing with the Stars” recently, lighting his second season of the American reality dance competition for the ABC network. Lead designer at DX7 Design, Sutherland, who used Elation lighting on last season’s show, again turned to Elation fixtures to light the myriad of dances while finding a visual solution to fill empty audience space.

“There were some challenges this year as there was no audience, which usually plays a big role in the show. Nobody, especially in television, likes black holes”, says Sutherland. “So we added more lighting and extra video screens.”

Filmed at CBS Television City in Los Angeles, this year’s Season 29 premiered on September 14th with Elation fixtures again a key component, including Dartz 360 LED moving heads and - new to this year’s set - ZCL 360i and SixBar 1000 luminaires. Lighting vendor for “Dancing with the Stars” is Felix Lighting.

Sutherland looked at filling all of the floor seating space with the ZCL 360i, a single beam RGBW moving effect with zoom and continuous 360° rotation. He lined three rows of fixtures along the dancefloor, 90 fixtures total, to create a runway of lights left and right of the stage.

On 2019’s Season 28 of Dancing with the Stars, the LD used Elation’s Dartz 360 beam/spot LED moving head as a principal luminaire in an immersive 360-degree lighting environment. This year, he upped their number, using 104 in his design for soft looks that blend with the set before coming to life for dance performances.

“Lots of the camera work on the show is done on a Steadicam and is 360 degrees around the dancers”, Sutherland explains. “Of course we’ve got nothing at one end of the room so we use the Dartz to completely fill that space. The director’s been opening a lot of the shots in a reverse look, pointing to the back of the room so you see the Dartz as a backdrop.”

“Originally we had 80 fixtures because we thought that the added video screens on the bottom of the set would extend up to the top of the lower balcony but there was a gap there and we decided to fit Dartz fixtures there”, continues Sutherland. “I talked to account manager Nicole Barnes at Felix Lighting and she was able to get us another 60. We completely filled out the lower balcony with those.” The rig also includes other LED and discharge-based moving heads.

Another Elation fixture new to this year’s show is the SixBar 1000 with 110 of the meter-long six-color LED battens used for expanded color and sparkle. The SixBars fill the void where the audience normally sits, frame the judges’ close up shot, and occupy the gaps between the added LED screens, including on the middle balcony where contestants wait. “We extend the content on the screens into the SixBars and blend everything out into the room”, says Sutherland.

Lighting was programmed by Joe Holdman and Nate Files, Hunter Selby was the Assistant Lighting Designer. AJ Taylor was the Gaffer, Best Boy was Danny Vincent.

(Photos: Hunter Selby)

www.elationlighting.com

© 1999 - 2024 Entertainment Technology Press Limited News Stories