The other day I saw an excerpt from Pebble Mill at One, which used to be broadcast from the foyer of the BBC Birmingham Pebble Mill studio. It reminded me of something I'd always wondered.
How did they balance the intensity of the studio lighting to the various different intensities and colours of daylight seen through the windows, ranging from brighter, warmer sunlight on some days to dimmer, cooler overcast on others?
Did they have coloured (amber) gels over the windows to prevent daylight looking too blue on cameras that were balanced for tungsten light, or
did they have blue gels over the lights and balance everything for
daylight? I presume there was also neutral density to reduce the
brightness of outside to the level of lighting in the studio. But both
colour and amount of ND would need to vary depending on what the weather
was like outside.
What is the convention nowadays for location filming where the worldI've posted this in a Pebble Mill closed facebook group.
outside a room can be seen through the windows? Do they generally use
amber gels on the windows or blue gels on the lights? Are modern-day
studio lights generally more the colour of sunlight rather than the
warmer light of the older tungsten lights?
I worked on the show for many years as a cameraman. Ron Irvine was one of many TMs on the show.
All the lighting was HMI, and so was daylight-balanced.
The only coating on the windows was there to protect people if the glass shattered. No colouring or NDs were used.
A close eye was kept on the weather and there were enough HMIs permanently rigged to cope with the worst-case scenario (brilliant sunshine outside). During the 30 mins of line-up before the show’s transmission at 13:00, the sparks would be up ladders, adding or removing ND gels from the lamps, as necessary.
Of course, the TMs couldn’t always win, especially if the sun was going in and out during the programme, as the HMIs were not dimmable in those days.
In which case, the racks engineers earned their money, trying to minimise
the contrast problems.
I think everyone did a pretty good job most of the time, as your posting testifies.
On 14/04/2022 21:46, NY wrote:
The other day I saw an excerpt from Pebble Mill at One, which used to be broadcast from the foyer of the BBC Birmingham Pebble Mill studio. It reminded me of something I'd always wondered.
How did they balance the intensity of the studio lighting to the various different intensities and colours of daylight seen through the windows, ranging from brighter, warmer sunlight on some days to dimmer, cooler overcast on others?
Did they have coloured (amber) gels over the windows to prevent daylight looking too blue on cameras that were balanced for tungsten light, or
did they have blue gels over the lights and balance everything for daylight? I presume there was also neutral density to reduce the brightness of outside to the level of lighting in the studio. But both colour and amount of ND would need to vary depending on what the weather was like outside.
What is the convention nowadays for location filming where the world outside a room can be seen through the windows? Do they generally use amber gels on the windows or blue gels on the lights? Are modern-day studio lights generally more the colour of sunlight rather than theI've posted this in a Pebble Mill closed facebook group.
warmer light of the older tungsten lights?
So far no Lighting TM (Technical Manager) has replied but comments from Racks engineers suggest they wind up the camera settings to suit.
I bet if the programme was made nowadays, they'd sit the interviewees
behind blue/green screens and "fake it" by overlaying a picture from
outside ;-)
I wonder what logistical problems were caused for the rest of Pebble Yes, there was. I went there in the 80s for a job interview, which
Mill when the foyer was out of bounds every lunchtime. I imagine there
was a back route and an alternative visitors' reception desk that was off-camera.
"James French" <jamesk...@gmail.com> wrote in message news:c6babc97-158e-4a96...@googlegroups.com...
I worked on the show for many years as a cameraman. Ron Irvine was one of many TMs on the show.
All the lighting was HMI, and so was daylight-balanced.
The only coating on the windows was there to protect people if the glass shattered. No colouring or NDs were used.
A close eye was kept on the weather and there were enough HMIs permanently rigged to cope with the worst-case scenario (brilliant sunshine outside). During the 30 mins of line-up before the show’s transmission at 13:00, the
sparks would be up ladders, adding or removing ND gels from the lamps, as necessary.
Of course, the TMs couldn’t always win, especially if the sun was going in
and out during the programme, as the HMIs were not dimmable in those days. In which case, the racks engineers earned their money, trying to minimise the contrast problems.
I think everyone did a pretty good job most of the time, as your posting testifies.They did a pretty fantastic job. I hadn't realised that the "studio" was lit as brightly as the outside: I'd assumed a permanent ND filter film on the windows to bring the outside down to normal studio lighting level, even if lighting was then adjusted to match variations in the day's daylight. How much more brightly was the foyer lit compared with normal (tungsten) studio lighting levels? I believe that some early TV cameras needed lighting that was roughly as bright as an overcast day outdoors, but that later cameras could produce good pictures in less bright conditions. I imagine that HMIs produce a lot less heat than tungsten ;-)
I bet if the programme was made nowadays, they'd sit the interviewees behind blue/green screens and "fake it" by overlaying a picture from outside ;-)
I wonder what logistical problems were caused for the rest of Pebble Mill when the foyer was out of bounds every lunchtime. I imagine there was a back route and an alternative visitors' reception desk that was off-camera.
I wonder what logistical problems were caused for the rest of Pebble Yes, there was. I went there in the 80s for a job interview, which
Mill when the foyer was out of bounds every lunchtime. I imagine there
was a back route and an alternative visitors' reception desk that was off-camera.
For many years, there was another show running in the same 'studio' called Saturday Night at the Mill, which was broadcast after dark. It would have been impractical to add and remove ND/scrim from the windows.figures but may be able to find out.
In those days the cameras were fairly insensitive anyway, so the studios (where we made All Creatures Great & Small, Howard's Way etc etc) were lit with dual-source 5K lamps. However, of course, it was even brighter in the foyer. I can't give you exact
Although the show started using the main foyer of the building, as soon as it became clear that this was going to be a very popular, long-running programme, a new foyer was constructed at one end of the building, allowing the old foyer to become just aTV studio, which made life considerably easier and allowed it to expand into new areas and camera points were installed throughout.
After the show finished, the studio got used for quite a few other shows – most notably Good Morning... with Anne & Nick. There was some experimentation with putting polarising film on the windows and a polarising filter on the cameras, which allowedthe brightness of the outside world to be adjusted by rotating the filter on the camera. This was very expensive and not very successful. The camera had to be roughly at 90 degrees to the glass for it to work satisfactorily, which severely limited the
On 22/04/2022 11:28, James French wrote:exact figures but may be able to find out.
For many years, there was another show running in the same 'studio' called Saturday Night at the Mill, which was broadcast after dark. It would have been impractical to add and remove ND/scrim from the windows.
In those days the cameras were fairly insensitive anyway, so the studios (where we made All Creatures Great & Small, Howard's Way etc etc) were lit with dual-source 5K lamps. However, of course, it was even brighter in the foyer. I can't give you
a TV studio, which made life considerably easier and allowed it to expand into new areas and camera points were installed throughout.Although the show started using the main foyer of the building, as soon as it became clear that this was going to be a very popular, long-running programme, a new foyer was constructed at one end of the building, allowing the old foyer to become just
allowed the brightness of the outside world to be adjusted by rotating the filter on the camera. This was very expensive and not very successful. The camera had to be roughly at 90 degrees to the glass for it to work satisfactorily, which severelyAfter the show finished, the studio got used for quite a few other shows – most notably Good Morning... with Anne & Nick. There was some experimentation with putting polarising film on the windows and a polarising filter on the cameras, which
Do I remember correctly that one of the lighting
TMs actually cracked one of the big (and thick)
glass panes by putting a 5k outside too close to it?
Morally certain of the story, and I have a feeling
it was one of the Wood Norton tutors, on
attachment - name withheld to protect the
(probably) guilty.
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