When asked to review the book, “Lighting For Televised Live Events: Making Your Production Look Great For The Eye And The Camera,” the title caused me a bit of stress. My Sightline Design partner, Seth Robinson, University of Iowa Theatre Arts professor and designer Bryon Winn, and I had already spent a big part of the pandemic writing a book that could well have had the same title.
And reading this book, written by the exceptionally talented designers Jeff Ravitz and James Moody, confirms that they had indeed just delivered the book my colleagues and I had been writing. But it's worth noting that, while following separate but similar career paths in touring concert lighting and in live multi-camera broadcast, five lighting designers have arrived at consistent views on a topical aspect of lighting design, the relationship between live stage lighting and cameras. And as “Lighting For Televised Live Events” is ready to welcome us all to 2022, I encourage you to read and benefit from its content.
Anybody who works as a live event designer, be it for music, theater, dance, comedy, or corporate, has probably come to understand that everything is for broadcast. If somebody is on a stage doing something worthy of a lighting and scenic design, somebody else will want to broadcast that live event. Many of us who started our careers designing and operating live music tours gradually embraced video captures of our work as an opportunity to document the show. In the earlier days of concert productions, the embracing of broadcast teams was not the norm, and broadcast crews were often scorned by touring crews who saw them as a disruption at best. Fortunately, our industry has evolved a great deal over the last couple of decades, and part of that has been a recognition by most of us that live video, be it streaming or IMAG, is a critically important component of an artist's career and the careers of those of us who have a professional relationship with those artists.
Coming to understand the intentions and methods of directors of photography and video engineers (controllers, shaders) allowed those of us who embraced broadcast to play a more significant role in capturing the live designs that we had created, programmed, and rehearsed for our client artists. Some of us took it to the next step and became the lighting designers representing the video productions creating or capturing content from live shows.
There will always be somebody involved with a broadcast team who will have something to say about the live lighting design. Directors of photography, broadcast lighting designers, video engineers, directors, and producers will scrutinize the relationship between the live design and the proposed broadcast. But, as a live lighting designer or lighting director, the more you understand the broadcast process, the more likely you and your artist client will feel the excitement and satisfaction that comes from seeing the live experience you've created effectively delivered to screens.
I think that any live event lighting designer who spends a weekend with this book and applies what they take from it to their design practice, will come away with an understanding that will allow them to play a more significant role in capturing their future live designs for broadcast. They may also find that knowing the rules for broadcast, such as they are, presents an opportunity to creatively break those rules.
If you only have time to read Part One, "The Science," those forty-six pages will leave you with a solid understanding of the relationship between live stage lighting and cameras with chapters on exposure, contrast, dynamic range, balance, and color temperature. Carry on to Part Two, "The Art," and you engage with composition, lighting angles, depth of field, and aesthetics.
Part Three focuses on equipment, including cameras, projectors, and LED screens, as well as the gear that makes up the control room. And this book also offers up many photographs, camera plots, lighting plots, and other diagrams to support the process it promotes.
"Lighting For Televised Live Events" is a satisfying read and a wealth of information for live stage lighting designers. It’s a must read for students of the art and those who engage with cameras only occasionally, and an important resource for anyone who spends a lot of time bringing live shows to screens to stretch and refresh with regularity.
Purchase here (now on sale): Lighting For Televised Live Events
ISBN 9780367256661
Published May 28, 2021 by Routledge
182 Pages 102 Color Illustrations
Also on Amazon and other booksellers.