Gladiators makes amazing TV return with ELP technology
Production company Shine will, no doubt, be delighted with their new revamped version of Gladiators. The show, broadcast from mid May 2008 on Sky One, is already being described as ‘TV production spectacle of the year’.
The set is truly awesome. It occupies over 30,000 square feet across two giant sound stages at Shepperton Studios and contains one of the biggest lighting rigs in TV history.
Lighting Director Mark Kenyon chose ELP to supply all the moving, LED and generic lighting systems for the production. “I went to ELP because of all their additional rigging experience and expertise in structural design. This is a massive set with all manner of technical and engineering challenges. ELP can provide a one-stop solution which is very attractive”
New look means new technical challenges
In many respects, the new show is true to the UK original with lots of the games remaining like Duel, The Wall, Hang Tough and the Eliminator. Iconic referee John Anderson also returns to keep contestants in check.
But there have also been some major changes and additions which take their lead from the success of American Gladiators. New games like ‘Earthquake’ and ‘Hit and Run’ have been introduced all of which require complex structural engineering in order to deploy quickly and safely. Perhaps the biggest single additional feature is the introduction of a12m x 12m swimming pool over which certain challenges take place.
Twelve brand new Gladiators (each with menacing names and out of this world bodies) join presenters Ian Wright and Kirsty Gallacher in making the production a sexy, edgy and very exciting TV extravaganza.
The brief to LD Mark Kenyon and his colleague Set Designer Chris Webster was to replicate and improve on the American show. They were to produce a like-for-like in terms of the game positioning and the overall look and feel. “This presented us with two issues” comments Mark Kenyon. “First, we only had limited sketches and plans with virtually no technical drawings or measurements to work with and secondly, from a lighting design point of view, I don’t think that the US show actually looked very good. It was full of dark corners, non-reflective black truss and the audience lighting was patchy at best. ”
Awesome stats and no dark corners
Kenyon’s design was going to meet these State Side shortcomings head-on. Filling every available space with a light source became his mission. The end result being one of the most generously spec’ed TV lighting rigs of all time. Awesome stats are as follows:
• Around 560 moving lights
• Over 750 LED fixtures
• 30 DMX Universes
• In excess of 1.6km of trussing
• Over 100 electric hoists
• Approximately 36km of cable
• Over 100 tonnes of equipment
• Total power consumption over 2.5 MW
The technical production journey for Gladiators literally began at the drawing board. Or to be more specific the CAD desktop of ELP’s Tim Williamson. With very little information to work with from the American series Tim drew in the structures, the lighting plot and the games into Stages A and B of Shepperton Studios. He was able to provide Shine with visualisations and help Mark Kenyon and Chris Webster convey their design ideas. But most importantly the CAD illustrations were vital in working out how some of the complex trussing, rigging and moving structures would operate.
Innovative structural design and complex engineering
The job of creating structural engineering solutions to the on-set challenges fell to ELP Managing Director Ronan Willson. “The introduction of a swimming pool into the new series was perhaps the biggest challenge of all” comments Ronan. “Several games including Hang Tough, Duel and Hit and Run took place above the pool and so we had to figure out how to fly in the different set components for each game and how to get the contestants on and off safely.”
Ronan’s solution came in the form of a motorised I-Beam monorail track system. This allowed set components including an over-water suspension bridge to be lifted into position and cleared away quickly. The overhead rail system included two additional tracks to carry a hot-head camera into positions over the pool for a bird’s eye view. The track system also provided a quick and safe means of lifting contestants and technicians into position over the water.
Designing and building the pool was itself no mean feat. Weighing in at 450 tonnes when full, ELP’s team built a Layher scaffold structure to secure the three metre deep pool into position. An inner wall of timber and plywood supported a double liner within the Layher framework. “What made the pool construction more complicated was the fact that we had to position it over an existing smaller studio tank” remarks Ronan. “Before any construction could begin scaffolders had to infill this with a mass of tube so the deck could withstand a load of 3 tons per square metre.”
ELP appointed Dive Services Ltd from Pinewood, experts in all things underwater, to construct the pool tank and supply the water heating and filtration equipment. Their diving team provided pool safety and underwater work throughout the shoot including rigging ELP’s 24 submersible 1kw PARs used to illuminate the pool from beneath. Renowned Structural Engineer Alan Cavelle was brought in to specify the construction methods of the pool and to sign off on all the obvious safety issues.
To save space and achieve rapid changeovers between games Ronan designed many of the structures to fold flat and then fly up to the grid. This used an IBEX computerized hoist control system to pre-set the movements. The famous Travelator unit was suspended in mid air and flown into position so that it could share the same floor area as the Gauntlet game. Pitch space for PowerBall was also used by the Hand Bike and other games. These complex structures were folded down neatly and flown out of harms way.
Two lighting desks full to capacity
If ‘ergonomic’ and ‘space-saving’ were the watchwords for the structural design, ‘flexibility’ and ‘sheer volume’ were the key concerns for lighting. LD Mark Kenyon explains “The rig had to be totally flexible. You never knew just where contestants will end up in the arena. So the inner truss above each game consisted of pointy – wash – pointy – wash and so on. On the floor we used High Ground Novalites and VL3500s to create search light effects. They were both really effective in creating that big stadium feel that I was after. This is not your typical Saturday night light entertainment production with mostly LED illuminated sets. Its much more rock and roll.”
Roger Williams and Darren Lovell shared responsibility for programming the show across two Vector desks. Roger programmed and operated all the Catalyst and beam effects while Darren looked after wash lights. “Both desks were totally full to capacity and they performed really well under the circumstances” remarks Mark Kenyon.
The LD continues “We picked a separate colour way and a Catalyst generated design for each game to give each its own visual identity. Chroma Cans provided colour changing effects on the reflective silver truss and around the outer walls of the studio we hung smaller lights to create the illusion of depth. The audience was lit with two colour wash par cans and assorted Molefays were dotted around base level to provide other fill options. Martin Mac 2000E washes lit other random positions and contestant interviews were additionally lit with Arri Junior hand bashing kits.”
Mark particularly singled out the Barco Matrix LED display screens which were used to animate the Gladiators logo behind the audience seating. These modular panels are lightweight, ultra bright and have a 12mm pixel pitch providing good contrast levels and viewing angles. “They provided an ideal flexible backdrop” concludes Mark.
We wanted to provide excitement for the studio audience as well as great effects for TV. I think we succeeded on both counts. I can’t thank ELP enough for their support and particularly Ronan Willson for serving up solution after solution”.
Ronan in turn was quick to thank his onsite crew headed up by Nipper Fitch and Mark’s gaffer Joe Sherno for their help and good spirit, and those back at ELP HQ for all their tireless support.