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New ELP lighting stocks help to deliver more value for Avanti Media

ELP have been out shopping at Clay Paky and Martin in recent weeks. They have substantially increased their stock levels across the ranges and have brought in some exciting new additions to the fold.

First to benefit were Welsh based production company Avanti Media and Lighting Director, Nigel Catmur.

No sooner had the new stocks arrived at ELP, they were immediately shipped off to Dragon studios (near Cardiff) for a month's hire on three music-themed shows for Welsh broadcaster S4C.

The 'Rhydian' show (an 8 episode show with the X Factor star plus special guests), 'Only Men Allowed' (a six part show covering the music of Wales' most popular choir) and a live scholarship event Ysgoloriaeth Bryn Terfel were filmed back to back over a month at Dragon Studios.

"We saw an opportunity to hire this thirty thousand square foot facility while the owners were looking for a new buyer and rather than Dragon Studios stand empty, we cut a deal to hire the entire space for a month." Says Rhys Bevan, Avanti's Director of Operations.

"We partnered with ELP and other suppliers to deliver 15 shows plus around three and a half hours of live Broadcasts over an intense month of filming. Nigel and ELP Manchester project manager Darren Fletcher worked with us to install a flexible lighting rig which could be configured for three separate shows whist maintaining the highest possible production values within strict budgets. The end result was awesome!"

Lighting designer Nigel Catmur described how, in no small part, the success of the show lighting was down to ELPs new Clay Paky Alpha Spot HPE 1500 and ELP's new Martin Mac 700 wash lights. These versatile state of the art moving lights gave the LD significant scope and flexibility.

"The Clay Paky Alpha 1500 is an absolutely brilliant lamp" remarked Nigel. "It has great build quality, flatness of field, excellent range of gobos as standard and stunning brightness. It's a great all rounder, providing tight beams while also offering impressive floor coverage. So much so that we needed far fewer units than if we had used any of its competitors. This effectively allowed me to achieve more for less cost!"

Nigel was also impressed with ELP's new MAC 700 Wash lights which are exceptionally powerful with a clean, even, soft-edged beam, a motorized zoom and rich CMY color mixing.

"Both lights stood up very well to the brightness of the LED screens and LED lighting around the set" concludes Nigel.

ELP also supplied their brand new Clay Paky Alpha beam 700s, Martin Mac 700 spots and Martin Mac TW1s for the installation at Dragon Studios. These coupled with various LED fixtures from ELP including Thomas Pixel Pars, Martin Mac 301s, Chromafloods, Chroma Pars and Chromastrips to create a powerful, light entertainment studio rig.

Avanti Media originally conceived the studio set with a massive wrap around screen but by working closely with the Lighting Director Nigel Catmur and Set designer Paul Williams they came up with a more cost effective and flexible solution which utilised P30 low res screen components (supplied by PRG) as part of the variable set scenery. This created a greater sense of space within the studio and provided greater scope to configure the set for the three separate shows. The overall look was dominated by silver truss and LED.

"I pre-visualised the whole design via WYSIWYG to show the producers what to expect and they loved the result" explained Nigel. "Then it was over to ELP to install all the trussing"

A six man ELP Manchester Crew led by Sinbad installed a studio grid and stage into what was effectively an empty warehouse. They primarily used silver Tomcat GP truss in order to ensure a shiny reflective frame for the set.

The six-man installation crew reduced down to a local running crew of three plus two follow spot operators. Iestyn Thomas lead the running crew team which included Graham Hulm, Ben Holdsworth and Matt Smith.

Lighting Director Nigel Catmur deliberately used a variety of different board operators across the various shows. Nigel explained how this ensured a different dynamic and freshness for each show. For 'Only Men Allowed' shows Dave Bishop controlled the moving lights while Oliver Lifely and Phil Cole looked after generics. Chris Kempton stood in as LD for some days. While on the Rhydian shows the board operators were Pryderi Baskerville on moving lights and Sam Mclaren on generics.

Pryderi Baskerville operated the moving lights again on the Live Bryn Terfel scholarship with Oliver Lifely taking care of generics.

"I've worked a lot with all these operators" concludes Nigel "And I know each has his own style. So I just trust them to bring their own creativity and individualism into the delivery of each show. I was delighted with the end result"