Lighting for television in today’s production environment can be a study in interoperability. Tight production schedules, shrinking budgets and high expectations require today’s lighting departments to integrate with the rest of the production on many different levels.
In Dennis Leary’s television show Rescue Me, a post-9/11 dramedy about firemen in New York City, the production crew relies on a number of technologies to take the design from concept to realization. About 65 percent of the show is shot on location, typically using two cameras in a single-camera style. The other 35 percent is shot in studio sound stages in Long Island City, Queens.
The daylight scenes are frequently shot using HMIs and Kino Flos (anything from 18kW down to 200W), or shot with tungsten-based lighting projected through gel-corrected windows. The nighttime scenes are usually shot using tungsten 9- or 12-lighter Maxi-brutes for “global scene light” and tungsten bounce sources for keys and fills. Tom Houghton, the DP (Emmy nominated in 2008), likes to shoot using low light levels both because it makes the depth of field very shallow, adding a cinema-esque style, and because the talent isn’t fond of overly bright scenes.
Moving data around between the departments allows creative information to flow multi-directionally and provides everyone with the opportunity to contribute to the show as a whole. On Rescue Me, files originate from the design department on Vectorworks and they are distributed as DXF files. They go to the gaffer, Mark Schwentner, in Sketch-up, and then they are plotted in WYSIWYG. During shoots, the lights are driven by a Figment 5.1 handheld, Light Factory PC-based controller, Wholehog III, or an Expression console. Without the ability to exchange information, creative idea sharing would be far more cumbersome and time consuming. In a show that frequently shoots from the hip, information sharing often saves time, money and unnecessary work.
File integration has improved over the last few years to the point where it is the exception when a file can’t be picked up by another program and manipulated to some degree. This integration will only improve as technology matures. With the advent of handheld computing devices like the iPhone, Blackberry’s Storm, or the Google Android, data management will enter the hip pocket and be available to a wide-ranging network created for each show or production. Remote network computing will allow that data to be translated to lighting cues via consoles and control interfaces from different locations and inputs. In Light Factory, the interface can be completely manipulated allowing the user to design his or her own control console. Most current console manufacturers have software-only consoles that you can download to allow lights to be driven by laptop interfaces running VCN (virtual control network) software. This allows the user to remotely access their control setup from another laptop, or more recently in the case of the Hog III, with an iPhone.
For Rescue Me it is WYSIWYG, Cast Software’s lighting design software, which has proven to be the central informational hub for the show’s lighting department. While it was designed as a lighting visualizer, WYSIWYG’s inherent ability to manipulate lighting information quickly and efficiently has shown its strength in the high-pressure environment of television production. The program’s ability to import different file types, translate them, and output drawings and reports has proven to be invaluable. It can read DXF files, DWG files, and SKP files and import a host of graphic files, both for use as a rendering tool to illustrate to production lighting needs and as a ground plan to scale an otherwise difficult location. The software has proven an invaluable tool. While not without its difficulties, the process has increased the informational flow between departments.
Some of the simplest capabilities of WYSIWYG have had a powerful effect on the production. During season five, a bar set has been central to the story line within the narrative. During pre-production our art director, Clay Brown, output design drawings in Vectorworks 12. Those drawings were imported into Sketch-up, Google’s free drawing program, and the central lighting concepts were outlined by gaffer Mark Schwentner. Those drawings were then imported into WYSIWYG and re-plotted using its CAD capabilities, library templates, text labeling and output functions. On a typical day, 15 to 30 lighting setups are created and broken down by the crew. During production, routine changes are plotted immediately and a letter-sized plot can be produced before the shot is in the can.
All this is generated in a 2D environment. While the 3D capabilities of WYSIWYG are renowned, the speed with which a 2D plot can be generated by a moderately skilled operator is conducive to the high-speed environment of movie and TV lighting.
The studio lighting for the entire show is maintained on hard disk and the whole history of season five can be seen through the different updates to each set. This data management has been maintained throughout the shooting season, and flows bi-directionally. While information is primarily generated in the art department and disseminated by the art director, there are times when information is generated in the lighting department and distributed to other departments.
In one particular episode, one of the characters is involved in a high school play. Scenery was created by the art department and mounted in a New York high school drama department. Drawings for the stage were said to be non-existent. During the scout, a copy of a building ground plan was discovered in the booth of the theatre. It was only 11”x17,” and it was a copy, but the scale was visible in the corner. After scanning the picture to a bit-map image, WYSIWYG was used to trace the ground plan, creating a 2D CAD drawing of the stage. This was output in DXF and sent to the art department to plan the hang of their soft goods. Another copy was imported into Sketch-up and e-mailed to the gaffer so he could grasp the scene and develop the lighting concept for the “play.”
Finally, after the backdrop was painted, it was photographed and the JPG was attached to a surface created in 3D showing what the drop would look like in relation to the rest of the theatre. While the rest of the theatre was still 2D, the 3D image of the drop conveyed to the production designer what his actual drop would look like. Given enough time, the entire theatre could have been drawn in 3D; however, the typical production schedule crunch that we all face meant that no one, least of all the production designer, would have had more than a minute to admire the drop in its location. This technique, at least, gave him the information that he was looking for regarding playing area and shooting space.
On location, WYSIWYG’s tracing ability has enabled the planning of large exterior shots. One exterior shot envisioned by the creative team encompassed a large college green at Wagner College in Staten Island, ¬an area of about three acres. Using Google Map’s satellite capabilities, a screen shot was copied to MS Paint and a JPG of the campus was created. This was then imported into ‘WYG as a ground plan and the pertinent structures and roadways were traced, creating a CAD drawing of the location. Using this drawing, the lighting and lift positions were plotted, cable runs and distribution were planned and equipment schedules were created. Additional manpower issues were resolved using the drawing as justification for the large workforce needed to put the shot in place.
In the diagram on page 28, the generator and lift positions are marked in blue, 4/0 feeder runs are marked in red, 2/O runs are marked in yellow, and #2AWG banded in orange. Distribution box positions and cam-lock “T” positions are also marked in this scaled drawing. This process has been used extensively on location to plan lighting lift locations. Frequently man lifts (usually 80-foot boom lifts or 50-foot scissor lifts) are rigged to carry either 20kW tungsten units or 18kW HMI units. Lift locations and truck positions are plotted using the technique described above, and maps are generated for the transportation department giving precise locations of the equipment and parking.
It is not an exact science. Programs often have a limit on the amount of information that can be exported to another, often depending on what parts of the information the importing program can read. This can lead to drawings coming in with no labels, or with different layers that are blank or unavailable. Frequently a JPG of the original drawing, sent with the drawing file, can clear up some of the confusion. In 99 percent of the cases however, it’s better to get some of the drawing in CAD form than none. Still, setup and plot updates, as well as frequent schedule changes and location moves, have been handled with relative ease by the use of WYSIWYG and other programs that aid the lighting department in keeping track of the looks and equipment on the show. This can easily be seen when a hand drawn drawing makes its way into the informational flow.
In future episodes the traditional visualization capabilities of WYSIWYG will be utilized. The ability of the program to hook up to an off-line version of the Hog and program prior to renting the gear will be a huge benefit in scheduling while giving the creative team an accurate look at what effects they will be getting and what looks they can get. But, by and large, it has been the lesser known WYSIWYG features, specifically its abilities to export to other programs and platforms, that have made the most difference in Rescue Me. WYSIWYG’s ability to “play nice” with other programs has enabled the lighting department to stay ahead of the curve.
