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Version 2 supplies lighting for EE BAFTA Film Awards

Hosted for the first time by David Tennant, the 2024 EE BAFTA Film Awards took place on February 18 at London’s Royal Festival Hall, and was broadcast internationally on BBC One, iPlayer and BritBox International. Attended by the President of BAFTA, HRH the Prince of Wales, twenty-five Awards were presented, voted for by over 7,500 BAFTA creatives and film industry practitioners.

TV, broadcast and event lighting specialist Version 2 was, for the first time, the official lighting supplier for the EE BAFTA Film Awards. Version 2 supplied lighting and manpower for the live Awards ceremony, artists performances and the traditional obituary tribute, as well as the audience lighting and the live event broadcast. Also involved in designing for the Awards for the first time were lighting director Tim Routledge of Tim Routledge Lighting Design, and set designer Julio Himede from Yellow Studio New York, in a partnership first formed for the Eurovision Song Contest in 2023.

“It’s a tricky show as you are only in the venue for a short time with a very short load in and load out”, explains Routledge. “The live show starts at 6 p.m. and is broadcast as live on television around 8 p.m., so there is a super-quick turnaround to get it out that night with editing happening on the fly.”

The centrepiece of Himede’s set design was a series of outlines of the BAFTA Award mask, arranged in a circular fashion and backed by a large, semi-circular gauze around the back of the stage. The show was lit using a mix of the Royal Festival Hall’s house rig and lighting from Version 2. “We used 310 x 1 m long Martin VDO Sceptron 10s rigged vertically behind the sculptural set piece, back-lighting the semi-circular gauze to add a load of sparkle and give the appearance of a giant zoetrope”, says Routledge. “This involved a lot of work in the framework and the rigging of all those Sceptrons overnight.”

Version 2 chose gaffer Sam Healey, who has a track record working on the BAFTAs and with Routledge, to keep everything on track. “We were able to collect the truss for the Sceptron in advance and spent a good couple of days pre-rigging them onto the framework, labelling and patching them so we were able to install it all within the short timeframe”, says Healey.

With the central set piece predominantly washed in reds, blues and golds, the Sceptrons provided a twinkly backdrop behind the presenters. This changed to more vibrant, dynamic effects and content for Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s performance of “Murder on the Dancefloor”, with more sparkles added for comedian Nick Mohammed’s appearance. The mood was later transformed to a serene, ethereal monochrome during Hannah Waddingham’s rendition of “Time After Time” as BAFTA paid tribute to artists who had passed away this year.

Version 2 supplied Robe Forte fixtures for Routledge’s key lighting on the performers and presenters, with more Robe Forte units, in conjunction with a Robe Robospot system, as follow spots. Martin Mac Aura XBs were rigged on the front truss and bridges, and more Mac Auras on the floor upstage by the drape. A half circle of Robe Megapointes were rigged around the curved onstage truss completed the onstage lighting inventory, while Astera Pixelbricks were rigged on stage facing outwards to light the audience. Version 2 drafted in freelancers Tom Young as operator for the moving lights and Seb Williams for the key lights. 

“The Royal Festival Hall is a tricky place to light because, not being a particularly modern venue, there’s not many rigging positions”, says Routledge. “It’s a modern-looking show however so, for the first time this year, we added in more lighting features around the room, on the balcony fronts and down the walls to make it pop more on camera than in the past.” To add definition and interest to the room, Routledge mounted 2 m Astera Hyperion tubes horizontally on the front of the auditorium boxes. He also added Robe LED Beam 150 fixtures to the back wall of the stalls and dress circle for eye candy effects during the walk downs.

Also on Version 2’s kit list for the EE BAFTA Film Awards 2024 were Astera HydraPanel, Litepanels Gemini 2x1 Soft Panel, Fomex FL-1200 2x1, Fomex FL-600 1x1, and Prolights Smart BatPlus. V2 Project Manager was Nick Edwards.

(Photo: Richard Murgatroyd Photography/BAFTA)

www.v2lights.co.uk

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