Lighting Designer Thomas Gerdon of gerdon MEDIADESIGN has used an Elation
Professional lighting package to light artist performances on the German television
program “Verstehen Sie Spaß,’ a popular entertainment program that airs on the
ARD television network.
The program, a variety show with hidden camera stunts and musical performances,
has aired since 1980 and is an institution of German television. Broadcast from
Bavaria Studios in Munich, “Verstehen Sie Spaß’ airs four times a year – twice in
the spring and twice in the fall. Gerdon began designing lighting for the show in
2015 and for the 2016 season uses a lighting rig that includes Elation’s multi-
functional Platinum SBX™ moving head, Satura Spot CMY Pro™ LED moving heads,
Platinum Wash ZFX Pro XL™ LED wash lights, and ACL 360 Roller™ effect lights.
The Elation lighting was used to light three performances, two on a live show on
Saturday, April 23rd and one on a show recorded days earlier. Gerdon chose to use
Elation’s ACL 360 Roller for its retro look and placed 12 fixtures in two lines on the
floor, left and right. “It’s a vintage disco look,’ he says of the 4-bar LED moving
head that casts a continuous 360° array of multi-coloured effects. “We film on a
modern TV stage with LED walls and I wanted something extra that would link to
the past. It’s a roller bar design from the 1980s, something you’d see in RUN DMC
videos, so we used it for a special effect on the live show for a breakdance group.’
Used as a special effect on all three acts were 12 of Elation’s hybrid Platinum SBX
fixtures. “I used them for their multi-functional properties and they gave a lot of
options,’ Gerdon states of the spot/beam/wash light. Working from the upstage
floor, he used them for a variety of purposes including as backlight on the opening
of the live show where guests are shown on the LED screen; for tight, modern beam
looks for the breakdance performance; and on a slow song for a dramatic, big
flower look.
On the downstage edge of the stage were two gray-coloured set pieces whose drab
appearance posed a problem for a set that required colour. “There was no money to
do anything with those,’ Gerdon explained, “so we covered them in coloured light
from eight Satura Spot CMY Pro fixtures. I was surprised with their output. They are
much brighter than I expected with the LED engine.’ The Satura Spot CMY Pro
houses a 320W LED engine that delivers comparable colour output to a 575W
fixture. Placed left and right on the downstage edge to cover the set pieces, the
fixtures were also used for above-camera beam projections.
