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Television Lighting Routines
By WILLIAM R. AHERN
The lighting installation of NBC Studio 8H features convenient facilities for setting up the many and varied lighting routines required by today's television shows. Efficient operation of these facilities reduces studio usage for lighting purposes, and consequently increases the number of shows which can be staged each week. This paper describes the installation, and provides a documentary account of the process of lighting a typical dramatic show.
I
N THE SHORT SPACE of less than a decade, television lighting has gone through a complete revolution. The older camera tubes required extremely high light levels of 800 ft-c or more. Terrific heat from the lights poured onto actors and scenery, and was accepted as a normal part of the television operation. Little attention could be given to the nuances or delicacies of lighting when the main problem was one of getting enough light. The photographer who came to the studio for some publicity shots often preferred to set up his own lights to produce the type of picture his public had come to expect. Today, the same photographer is running into trouble at the other end of the scale. Quality is excellent, but light levels are getting too low. On finding a low key or dark scene, the photographer is now likely to ask, "Is
Presented on October 7, 1953 at the Society's Convention at New York, by William R. Ahern, National Broadcasting Co., 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York 20. (This paper was first received Dec. 9, 1953, and in revised form Jan. 14, 1954.)
there going to be more light in here? I've got to get a picture."
It would seem, offhand, that the lower light level means chiefly that shows can be lighted quicker and with less trouble; but progress in lighting has steadily improved the pictures in their quality. We are now portrait painting with light. We are pinpointing areas and there are close-ups to take care of, just as in motion-picture work. Actually more careful lighting and, consequently, more lighting time are required to give the type of picture at home that the public has come to expect, and that the client has a right to expect.
The client has two good reasons for wanting to keep lighting time down. One is the direct cost to him for the lighting director's time, the electricians, and so forth. The other is less obvious. If a show ties up a studio for two days (one day to light the show, and another for rehearsal and air time), the studio is out of use for other shows. This, of course, means that the TV station or network must have more studios, and hence make greater charges to clients.
March 1954 Journal of the SMPTE Vol. 62
189