The first season of the 1% Quiz TV quiz show in the Netherlands was recorded at EMG’s Mediahaven Studio in Amsterdam with a stylish lighting design by Henk-Jan van Beek of design studio Light-H-Art. This featured 110 Robe ESPRITES, 98 LEDBeam 350s, 46 LEDBeam 150s, and 20 T1 Profile moving lights, all delivered by Eventec.
Dutch producers Blue Circle Productions added a few of their own exclusively Dutch elements as this was the first time the show concept has been produced outside the UK where it originated on ITV. One hundred contestants – who are also the audience – try to answer a question that only 1% of the country can get right. The show is styled as an IQ test with questions based on logic and common sense rather than general knowledge like so many others.
Henk-Jan worked closely with Dutch Set Designer Harald Kassies who took the original 1% Club signature set design and reimagined it with some small adaptations that saw all 100 contestants seated around a striking and elegant 270˚ circular set. “Continuity was absolutely vital when it came to lighting,” explained Henk-Jan who needed one luminaire per person to replicate the fast-paced and complex set of cues that were integrated into the Market Graph gameplay machine. “I wanted a luminaire that gave exactly the same quality of light and characteristics and the same CT utilizing the same LED light engine.”
The key light for each contestant was aligned at the same distance to produce identical CT whites plus blue and red cues associated with the game cues as well as beautiful front lighting. ESPRITE ticked all the boxes with its high CRI and flat field CMY color mixing. Furthermore, these 100 fixtures also had to fit into very tight spaces allocated on three circular trusses rigged at slightly different levels in the roof, approximately 13 – 14 meters from the contestants.
The ESPRITE’s good zoom, accurate framing shutters and the frost were also much appreciated by Henk-Jan. Sometimes the zoom needed to capture very small areas just lighting the contestants’ face and head. Host Tijl Beckand stood in different positions in the middle of the set, and the space between the two ends of the 270˚ set seating piece was filled with a large LED screen showing the game play status.
The additional 10 ESPRITES were used for covering these presenter positions from back and front, so he could move around freely and be picked up by any one of the 13 cameras with excellent face lighting. The 20 T1 Profiles provided additional key lighting and specials.
The LEDBeam 350s were positioned in a spherical shape around the studio floor inside the center of the set and on the largest of the overhead circle truss at the back where they provided classy beam work. They were chosen for their small size and to add drama especially to the overhead and high-level shots.
The little LEDBeam 150s were additionally used for back and fill lighting on the contestants / audience and to ensure there were no back-of-shot ‘black holes’.
The biggest challenge for Eventec was sourcing enough ESPRITES for the 6-week period of set up and recording for two season’s worth of programs, and despite the extraordinary levels of work right now, 75% of the fixtures were sourced from Eventec’s own stock – which has a lot of Robe – explained their manager of operations Stefan Bensch. However, as they were also extremely busy with other shows, some cross rentals were necessary to make up the large numbers, and these came from France, Belgium, Germany, and Sweden.
Henk Jan “really appreciated” these efforts to obtain all the Robes and especially the ESPRITES and concluded that having them made a “massive difference” to the end result. Rather than having to use mixed sources, using this single source ensured everyone was happy, including camera director Michael Moser. “It was a positive challenge to have to find enough of the correct fixtures to deliver Henk-Jan’s impressive looking design,” noted Stefan.
Henk-Jan himself commented on how “great” it was to work with Eventec on this project, “It was a big show, and everything was perfect,” he noted.
Lighting was programmed on an MA Lighting grandMA3 console by Edwin Zuidwijk from Light-H-Art, which was linked to the main games machine that fired all the cues. The eight days of shooting allowed the team to record two series’ – two shows a day – of the Dutch production which will be aired on VTM in summer 2023.
Further information from Robe lighting: www.robe.cz
Photos: By Nathan Reinds
