CNN and PRG Set the Stage for Verbal Fireworks at WRLC Debate
Debates among Presidential candidates are an American tradition and an important part of the democratic process. And ever since TV first brought the images of Senator John F. Kennedy and Vice President Richard M. Nixon into American homes, visual imagery — how the candidates look and sound — have played a key role in the electoral outcome as well.
It’s impossible to know how differently the world might be today, for example, if Nixon was lit by cool LED lighting instead of warmer incandescent bulbs. It was a very close election — and those few extra beads of perspiration as he was facing off against a seemingly more-relaxed Kennedy certainly didn’t help Nixon’s chances.
A 360-Degree Event
Today, of course, televised debates take place in an environment far more complex than a TV studio starkly lit for black and white TV.
“It’s designed much like an event, or award television show, in terms of it’s scale,” says Michelle Poley, LD and CNN lighting director for the Western Republican Leadership Conference Debate that was held Oct. 18 at the Sands Expo Convention Center in Las Vegas during the Western Republican Leadership Conference, held at the nearby Venetian Hotel and Casino.
“CNN’s production is a 360-degree event,” Poley adds, noting the need to add texture and color not just to the stage, but for audience cut-aways as well. “We have audience questions, multiple remotes sites and social media questions projected on large screens on both sides of the house,” Poley says. “The moderator [in this case, Anderson Cooper] is walking from one side of the stage to the other. We see everything with wide shots and Steadicam. This is why the rig is so large.”
More than 400 Fixtures
To light the debate, Poley used a rig with more than 400 lighting fixtures, 1,700 feet of box truss and two 40-foot-diameter truss circles. The event featured Republican presidential candidates Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and Herman Cain. (Another candidate, Jon Huntsman, bowed out days before the event, altering the set design from eight podiums to seven.)
Poley used a mix of tungsten, arc and LED fixtures — including 48 Vari*Lite VL5s, 40 VL 1000s, 14 VL 3500 Spots, 6 VL 3500 Washes, 12 VL 2500 Spots, 74 Color Kinetics Color Blaster TRXs and 48 Chauvet COLORado and PixelRange Pixel Pars for truss toning. The rig also included 122 750W ETC Source Four Ellipsoidals and Source Four Pars and 4 ARRI 2000W Fresnels.
The video setup included gear and crew provided by Videofilm Systems and Multi Vision Inc., with 80 MVI Display LED tiles and four 18K Christie HD projectors for the rear-projected screens.
Staging the debate involved the complete transformation of Hall B of the Sands Expo Center from a bare hall to a full-fledged studio and stage. If you have ever been in an empty convention hall, you know it is a wide open space with concert floors, high ceilings with rafters and ducts overhead. Not the idea place to host a Presidential debate. (For a video showing the construction of the set for the 2011 CNN/WRLC Debate, go to: http://plsn.me/debateTimeLapse).
Transforming the Space
Starting with nothing in the space, CNN brought in a complete package of trussing, staging, video, lighting and TV production equipment to transform a 100 by 200 foot section into a studio complete with a stage and seating for 1,800 people. The staging and seating package was provided by SGA; the complete rigging and lighting package was provided by PRG.
The televised studio area actually took up just a fraction of the total space in Hall B. There was still plenty of room for two 53-foot TV production trailers, 10 RVs used as green rooms for the candidates and VIPs, and all the production equipment, producer workspace, and dead case storage required for the event.
With a load-in of just five days — with work by three rotating crews going on 24 hours a day — the focus time was tight. Not only did the rig have to get flying quickly so the set and staging could set up, but the TV production equipment and set dressings had to all happen in a organized a timely fashion.
“We couldn’t get the set in until the entire rig and trussing was hung and flying,” Poley notes. “We could rough focus when hanging the fixtures, but final focus had to be done from boom lifts and genies while other departments loaded in.”
The moving lights helped trim the time needed for focusing the fixtures, Poley adds. “I chose to use a number of moving lights like the tungsten VL1000 as my key and fill lights for the candidates. Being in the center of the ring over the stage, and with the tight time frame, using a moving light made sense and cut down focusing time and the need for crew.”
Poley notes how she started using the VL 1000s for key lighting candidates during the 2008 Presidential debates “out of necessity. The show had two distinct segments — a podium act, and a seated act. Using moving lights made the most sense. I’ve kept them in the design because it allows us to have so many options if the blocking changes.”
Constant Adjustments
At Hall B of the Sands Expo Center, the lighting rig was controlled by two grandMA 2 full-size desks, with a third running backstage as the master and a small grandMA on PC installed in the production truck.
“Being live TV and multiple camera angles, we are constantly adjusting key and fill light levels depending on which camera angle is live,” Poley says. “CNN LD Dave Robinson operates conventional fixtures from the first console, and moving lights are operated by CNN LD Bradford Bettencourt on console two,” Poley adds.
The small grandMA on PC installed in the truck was designed to control new LED timing lights that are stealthily installed into the set, signaling to the candidates when their time is up. All of the consoles are networked.
On either side of the house, 15-by-27-foot rear projection screens provided in-studio graphics and branding for wide shots of the hall. One screen also provided a live feed of questions from Twitter, Facebook and email that moderator Anderson Cooper referred to, facilitating direct participation from the voters in the process. “It’s part of CNN’s goal to provide a wide view of opinions and questions and to incorporate new mediums of communication.”
CNN/WRLC Debate
Crew
CNN Executive Director: Guy Pepper/CNN
Show Director: Renee Cullen
Scenic Designer: Erik Ulfers/Clickspring Design Inc.
Scenic Lead: Tom Schwinn
Lighting Designer: Michelle Poley/CNN
Overall Project Lead: Jim Moorman/CNN
Lighting Director/Moving Light Operator: Bradford Bettencourt/CNN
Lighting Director/Conventional Lights: David Robinson/CNN
Graphics Designer: Jonathan Kemp/CNN
CNN Project Manager: Keith Thornhill
PRG Global Account Management: Eric Hanson
PRG Project Manager: Henry Campos
PRG Lighting Crew: Christopher Nye, Lead Technician; Heath Goodwin, Assistant Tech.
PRG Team 2: Mark Head, Lead; Jay LeDane, Assistant Tech
Rigging: Carsten Weiss, Tom Nagy, Rick Pizza
Video Production Companies: Multi Vision Inc., Videofilm Systems
Video Crew: Chris Sabyan, Paul Demps, Chris Thomas, Jonathan Bodge, Amos Prahl, Richard Wilson
Set/Staging Company: Showman Fabricators
Set/Staging Crew: Pete Rosenberg, Deiter Wills, Pete Flathers, Chris O’Leary
Gear
(Partial list)
3 grandMA 2 consoles
1 grandMA PC
48 Vari*Lite VL5s
40 Vari*Lite VL 1000s
6 Vari*Lite VL 3500 Spots
14 Vari*Lite VL 3500 Washes
12 Vari*Lite VL 2500 Spots
74 Color Kinetics Color Blaster TRXs
48 Truss Toners (Chauvet COLORados/PixelRange PixelPars
122 ETC Source Four Ellipsoidals (750W)
40 ETC Source Four Pars (750W)
4 ARRI 2K Fresnels
4 18K Christie HD projectors
80 MVI Display LED tiles
