The biggest, boldest and brightest show on television this year has to be X-Factor lit in fantastic style by Ian Anderson.
The lighting rig, supplied by Chameleon Touring Systems, is heavily dominated by Vari*lites including 50 x VL3000 Spot, 12 x VL2000 Spot, 14 x VL3500 Wash, 30 x VL2000 Wash, 16 x VL3000 Wash and 14 x VL500 Wash.
“The Vari*lites are my preferred light for television,” stated Ian. “Their optics are very clean and their light output is bright and crisp particularly out of the VL3000.
”We have replaced five of the standard gobos to allow some different break-up looks and a couple of old favourites like the cone gobo which we’ve used heaps. The zoom range on the VL3000 Spots is great from very narrow up to a nice wide for soft gobo looks. They offer great flexibility, the colours are good and they are quick. In terms of the creative look for the show, the VL3000 Spots are definitely the workhorse.”
Ian continues his lavish praise, this time on the VL2000 Washes which he describes as a great light that is quick with great colours and brightness.
”They do all the base colour wash everywhere,” he said. “As for the VL3500 Washes, well they are way too bright for television but the big beam look is what I was after. I run them at 30% most of the time. I use the VL3000 Washes for the audience lighting.”
Ian also has twenty-six ETC Source Four Revolution fixtures in his rig, a fixture he won’t leave home without!
“I’ve been using Revolutions as key lights on television shows for a while,” he commented. “They’re reliable, bright, the shuttering works well and they get the job done. I can’t imagine doing a television studio show like this without them. The pressure on us to deliver solutions quickly means we don’t have time to get in the rig to refocus lights, having the twenty-six Revolutions saves so much time in focusing particularly with a live show – we can cover everything with them.”
The VL500 fixtures also help cover the white light during the show and Ian describes them as great for backlights and kickers.
Ian also has plenty of ETC Source Four profiles, which were chosen to match the Source Four Revolutions, lighting basic positions that don’t change often.
Forty Chroma-Q Colorblocks LED fixtures are situated along the sides of the audience from where they’re not really lighting anything but look damn pretty.
“They’re a good little hole-filler, nice and bright,” added Ian. “All of our dimming is Jands HP12 and they always dim up and down when we tell them to so that’s a good thing!”
Photos: Mark Bedson
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