ELP provides production support to exciting new pilot “Get A Life”

British style icon Dame Vivienne Westwood has, in recent years, transcended her fame for iconic fashion design and has become famous for campaigning for global concerns.

It is not surprising then, that Dame Vivienne Westwood should want to reach out to as many people as possible to pass on the message she is passionate about. What better way to do this than via the medium of television…

A Pilot creatively devised by Westwood herself called "Get a Life" was recorded at one of Ravensbourne's Television Studios in Kent last month.

"Get a Life" is a studio based debate show all about climate change.

The shoot having been a great success, and widely acclaimed in the media, ELP are proud to have been able to support London based lighting designer Steffan Jones on this project.

The pilot consisted of a simple studio setup with Vivienne Westwood, and her two guests Tony Juniper and Sarah Stockbridge. The pilot also featured a studio audience of thirty guests that had been personally invited by Westwood and her entourage, which played a big part in the programme’s content and interaction.

LD Steffan Jones worked very closely with Set Designer Tony Halton in the pre-production stages, on elements such as specific color schemes and custom made gobo's that were projected onto the rear cyc, which reflected the rainforest and to portray the green traditional eco friendly look. Set Designer Tony Halton used a simple laser cut set, with a white cyc running behind, along with a series of television white hardboard flats, and an assortment of steel decking at different heights, in order to insert height, various levels and depth to the studio audience.

ELP Production Manager Toni Cullip, based at their Elstree office, managed the project and commented “Steffan was the perfect LD to work with, very organised and highly skilled. Steffan had very little time to organize the lighting and staging for this pilot and ELP are proud to have been able to work alongside him on this, I hope this is the start of a long and successful working relationship between us”.

Steffan commented “Toni and her team turned the lighting spec around with little notice within 24hrs of receiving the kit list due to last minute tweaks. ‘Get a Life' was the first project I got to work on with Toni I was very impressed by ELP's speedy turnaround.”

Steffan's resident lighting gaffer & chief rigger Jacques Batchelor led a team of three during the challenging schedule of half a day for the setup and rigging periods in the studio.

Lighting and Rigging for the pilot consisted of 4 x 8 by 4 Steel Deck, 1 x 4 by 4 Steel Deck, 10m x Trilite trussing, 20 x 15-30 750W Source Four profiles, 2 x 25-50 575W Source Four profiles, 9 x CP62 Parcan's, 8 x 1K Strand Cyc Iris, 6 x 575W 4way Ground Row, 6 x 2K Studio Fresnels, and 4 x 1K Studio Fresnels.

Steffan added "Toni was everything an LD could ask for as a project manager. Even with ELP being massively busy at the moment, she was still able to cater for my requirements with the lack of time and budget restraints on this pilot. Toni and the team at ELP were always at the end of a phone for assistance. I wish I had found ELP a long time ago. They make life so much easier. I’ll definitely be working with them in the future!”