Marisa Davis—Excelling at the “Bastard Child of Film and Theatre”

Two-time Emmy-nominated Marisa Davis started a recent weeklong hiatus from The Ellen DeGeneres Show by speaking to PLSN about her career. Prior to her current gig, which is in its third wildly-successful year, she was with the Oxygen network where she honed her skills by lighting talk, variety, game, cooking and even workout shows. Later, she worked in sketch comedy, including Mad TV, Primetime Glick and The Hollow Men. In July 2005, she became a partner at Design Partners, Inc.

PLSN: When did you first decide to pursue a career in lighting?
Marisa Davis: I was pre-law at Berkeley and I needed an after-school job, so I answered a “scenic shop helper” ad. They said no experience was necessary, and I said, “I’m your gal.” The first day I came in, I thought I’d be spending four hours sweeping dust off the floor, but they handed me a disk grinder, showed me how to distress two benches made of two-by-fours and antique them and I’ve never looked back.

After Berkeley, I went to grad school at UCLA. Then, I had been designing in theatre for a couple of years when a friend of mine knew that TV designer Bob Dickinson was looking for an assistant.

Did you set out to work in TV?
It just kind of happened. But one thing that appealed to me about TV is that I could stay in L.A. and not travel a lot. Everyone designing in theatre travels so much and that did not appeal to me. And I have to admit that I sold my soul. [Laughs] I could see that I could make a better, more consistent living in TV.

What were some of the things you worked on with Dickinson?
I assisted with a lot of the award shows and specials he was doing in the 1990s; the Grammys, People’s Choice Awards, David Copperfield specials…it was great. Working on the really big shows was a fantastic introduction to TV lighting.

Those are stressful situations—the stakes are very high.
Maybe I was young and stupid, but I didn’t feel the stress. I could see how Bob would be stressed, but I felt confident that if I did my job I would be okay. It was just all new and exciting and wonderful for me.

Were there any special challenges in being a woman in such a male-dominated field?
I actually had someone ask me once, “Did you ever not get a job because you were a woman?”

I said, “I don’t know—they don’t call me up and say, ‘We didn’t hire you because you’re a woman.’” [Laughs] The thing is, if you go to New York, there are a lot of women lighting theatre. But my theory about TV is that a lot of LDs come up through the ranks. They start as electricians, gaffers and then make their way up to LD. For some reason, it just seems like most electricians are men.

In addition to the not-traveling aspect, what else about TV appeals to you?
It’s kind of the bastard stepchild of theatre and film. Film is like a continual tech rehearsal. You’re just setting up, and getting that shot, and going on. The tiny bit of film I did, I just never got the payoff you get from theatre on opening night.

The kind of TV we do, I’m always working toward a show. Right now, I’m working on Ellen, and every afternoon at 5 o’clock, there is a show to do in front of a live audience. And TV is a little more exciting than theatre in that the pace is just faster. There’s always a time crunch.

Is it ever so much of a time crunch it’s frustrating?
Oh sure. There are times I think that if I had more time, I could have done this and this and this. But what I have really learned is to prioritize what I can’t live without and what I can live without.

You were able to do several sketch comedy shows—Mad TV, Primetime Glick. What was that like?
It was a lot of fun. In a sense, it’s a little closer to theatre because you have a set that is supposed to be realistic and you’re trying to create an atmosphere of some sort.

How did the Ellen show come about?
Through Bob Dickinson; he brought me in.

How do you approach your work?
I’m always lighting for the close-up. You have to remember that you are lighting for essentially six cameras, so technically, that’s very different. So you have to make someone look very good from about six feet away or even closer. And the camera is not as forgiving as the eye, just in terms of wrinkles and blemishes…I never had to think about that in theatre.

Ellen is such a diverse show—you’re dealing with the movie stars, celebrities, but you’re also dealing with people pulled out of the audience. How do you prepare for everyone?
What we do is have the optimum lighting situation in the guest chair so that all we have to do is tweak levels a bit. There are little tricks… if I see someone with light hair or a bald head coming up, we pull the backlight way down. If someone has no makeup and very light skin, we pull the lights down. We just had Evangeline Lilly from Lost on. She’s beautiful, and what is going to work is not going to work for an older lady pulled from the audience. So it’s a matter of balancing it when they get in the chair. The beauty of television is when we’re on a close-up of Ellen, I can be adjusting the levels for the guest off-camera.

There was skepticism that the Ellen show was going to fly—now it’s a huge hit. Did you know?
At this point, I honestly can’t pick ‘em. I know that now. I’ve given up trying to predict. When I saw this first show, I thought this will run forever. Then I thought, “Oh no, I jinxed it!”

She has some big stars with big egos on her show. Anyone try to push you around?
I would not describe anyone as getting in my face at all. Certain stars will come in with their lighting person with them and that’s fine. My goal is to make everyone who comes on show in terms of lighting want to come back. That’s my contribution. I don’t want people to say, “I don’t want to go back to that show because I looked awful.” If someone else can add to a star’s comfort level, I’m happy to have them.

What kind of technologies you’re using these days and what has changed since you got into TV?
I would say not much has changed in terms of the conventional stuff. Fresnels, Lekos—it’s all pretty standard. Kinoflos are being used more now. For lighting this kind of show, it’s always been about how best to make the close-up look good and that’s always been about soft lights.

There’s quite a bit of music on that show…
There is. Because of that, we bring in some Vari*Lite VL5s and 6s from time to time. We own a moving light package of 54 VL 5s and 6s. And we’ll bring in some LED things; the Color Kinetics Color Blazes, the VL 2500s. We use a VLPS Virtuoso board.

It’s a lot of fun—a different musical act every day. We had five music acts last week—everything from R&B and hip-hop to a solo singer with an acoustic guitar. So it runs the gamut.

Now that Ellen is a big hit, are you settled in? Or are you looking ahead?I totally take it season by season. I think, given Ellen’s talent, and the writers and producers working with her, it could be around as long as she wants to do it. In terms of my involvement, it works for me in a lot of ways… What they have almost created is more of a variety show than standard talk show. I’ve done talk shows when it is people sitting and talking for an hour and that can lose its challenge quickly. Ellen will throw in a green screen act from time to time—there’s just always something new. So it doesn’t get boring for an LD.