Called the “hardest obstacle course in the world,” American Ninja Warrior runs its athletes through such grinding physical trials — i.e. dangling in mid-air while swinging from one set of sharp spiked grips to the next — that no contestant has ever been able to complete them all and emerge a winner. The big winner has been the top-rated NBC reality show itself. Now in its seventh season and drawing over 5 million weekly viewers, ANW has tackled its own challenge of maintaining edge and excitement by continually affecting new themes as it takes its famed truss course to different locations across the U.S.
A Battleship for a Stage
The retired battleship USS Iowa served as the backdrop for two 2015 military-themed episodes of ANW, featuring a cast of all-armed services members. Anchored in the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro, CA, the 45,000-ton ship is now a floating museum — and arguably the largest set piece ever to be used on the show.
For a lighting designer, the task of illuminating ANW’s towering truss course against the nighttime sky while highlighting the dark, imposing 887-foot battleship from all required camera angles could seem as formidable as conquering the show’s iconic Warped Wall or Salmon Ladder. ANW’s longtime lighting design/direction team of Adam Biggs and Edward Motts met this challenge utilizing a gear package supplied by Aspect Lighting out of Santa Fe Springs, CA. Fixtures included gear from Chauvet Professional (Nexus 4×4, 1×4 and NXT-1 fixtures), Elation (SixPar 100 IPs, Level Q7 Pars, Platinum Beam 5R Extremes and Platinum SBX fixtures), Martin (MAC 2000 Wash XBs) and Vari-Lite (VL4000 Spots).
Modeled after the legendary Mt. Midoriyama obstacle course in Japan, ANW’s truss frame track is divided into four stages, each with progressively more difficult obstacles. The truss, supplied by SGPS Showrig (Las Vegas), is assembled by a crew of stunt riggers from the show’s Los Angeles-based production company, ATS Filmworks, which works closely with the art and lighting staff.
“There’s a lot of communication back and forth,” says Sid Khera of Aspect Lighting. “It’s never easy, but the whole course with truss, lighting and scenic is set up in less than a week. The course is always configured so that it presents a challenge to the contestants but also brings out something iconic about the local setting. In this case the course was configured to showcase the battleship from every angle.”
A Lighting Challenge
Going beyond ANW’s standard touring truss/lighting package, the need to illuminate and add definition to a shadowy background object almost the length of three football fields required the installation of vertical truss and truss banner arches and supplemental lighting fixtures aboard the USS Iowa “to fill in the dark spots for camera,” explains Motts. “The biggest challenge was the massive area we had to cover.” To light up the colossal battleship, he chose Chauvet Professional’s NXT-1 moving head LED panels, each equipped with 25x 10-watt Quad-Color RGBW LEDs.
The Next NXT-1’s pixel mapping capabilities and tight 6° beam angle, which emits maximum punch at long throws, provided the LD with the brawny output he needed, along with flexibility to use the fixture as both a wash and pixel effect. Motts positioned some of the moving head panels on the USS Iowa so that “they would be right over the audience’s heads in jib shots.” The vivid colors produced by the NXT-1s “filled in the dead zones and brought out its beauty for the live audience and TV viewers,” he explains. “We used them in cool tones and ran them in 10-channel DMX mode.”
Other NXT-1 panels on the ship, run in 109-channel mode, were aimed at the crowd and TV cameras and used for eye candy. Programmed to display pixel-mapped effects, they amped up the level of the lightshow, adding intensity and excitement that matched the episode’s super-charged military combat theme. “We had a lot of pixels chasing each other, which helped create the sense of drama that makes this show special. Seeing these panels in action just kind of swept you up in the excitement,” says Motts. “The NXT-1s were the perfect complement to what we had on the show’s rig.”
The show’s standard touring rig includes two other Chauvet LED panels — Nexus 4×4 and Nexus 1×4 — that are used to highlight the truss on the course itself. Motts hung two rows of four Nexus 4×4 panels across the top of the tallest truss tower, which boldly displays the show’s logo, creating a beacon-like marquee against the night sky. Other Nexus 4×4 units, along with the Nexus 4×1, an LED “strip” version of the square-shaped 4×4, were truss mounted at key points along the obstacle course. “The Nexus units were used at the start line background and the Warped Wall, which is the finish line for the first day of shooting,” details Motts. “The tower itself is the final finish line after the completion of the second day’s shooting.”
Nocturnal Production
Two days is the typical amount of time required to shoot an episode of ANW. The issue of having to deal with different gradients of ambient lighting on camera is avoided by doing all of the shooting in the nighttime darkness. “We begin shooting once the sun goes down and rush to finish before sunrise,” says Motts.
Because of their extreme brightness on camera, the Nexus panels were run at 50 percent, according to the LD. “We don’t really place (the Nexus panels) for the live audience,” he says. “We place them for camera flares and eye candy, and we luck out with audience enjoyment.”
Regardless of the locale of any given episode of American Ninja Warrior, certain aspects of lighting the show’s obstacle course are always the same. Along with the stunningly brilliant lights, color and mind-blowing effects designed to give it the appearance of “a giant video game,” the track must be lit evenly so that it’s safe for contestants and not so bright as to blind them. And while the cameras may be focused on the specific obstacle that’s being tackled, the entire course must always be spectacularly lit to look impressive in wide angle and aerial shots.
The veteran ANW LD has put together a collection of fixtures that work together to fill these demands. In addition to the Chauvet panels, he is using Elation Platinum Beam 5R Extremes and Platinum SBX for eye candy. Martin Mac 2000 XBs function as key lights and backlighting, while Vari-Lite VL4000 Spots are used for texture and key lighting the host. Elation SixPar 100IPs are positioned as truss warmers all along the course. The lighting is controlled with Martin M6 and M1 consoles.
Of course, there is always a need for flexibility when the demands of a particular locale call for it, noted Motts, such as bringing in extra fixtures to light the USS Iowa. “We’re always looking to push the lighting rig further to keep up with the intensity of American Ninja Warrior,” he commented. Having the grit and guts to keep pushing the envelope — whether a ninja warrior or a lighting designer — is what this show is all about.
For more information on Aspect Lighting, visit www.aspectlighting.com.
Crew
Lighting Designer: Adam Biggs
Lighting Director: Edward Motts
Lighting Co: Aspect Lighting
Lighting Rep: Sid Khera
Set Supplier: SGPS Showrig
Rigging: ATS Filmworks
Gear
2 Martin consoles (M6 and M1)
400 Elation SixPar 100 IP fixtures
200 Elation Level Q7 Pars
50 Elation Platinum Beam 5R Extremes
16 Elation Platinum SBX fixtures
38 Martin MAC 2000 Wash XBs
24 Vari*Lite VL4000 Spots
100 Chauvet Professional Nexus 4×4 LED panels
24 Chauvet Professional Nexus 1×4 LED panels
36 Chauvet Professional Next NXT-1 moving head LED panels
