In lighting this striking set, a number of very important choices had to be made, according to director of photography Franco Ferrari. The first choice was to construct the scenery in black and white, and relying on the lighting system for colour. The second choice, linked to the first, was to use the backdrops as a 'chromatic union' for the various scenic elements. The backdrop is installed all along the arena's perimeter, and is coloured to represent daylight, then twilight, then dawn, in a graduation of colours.
"The absolute centrepieces of this operation were the CP Color MH lighting fixtures designed by Clay Paky," explains Ferrari. "These moving body colour wash solutions are very versatile, and provide maximum colour quality: accurate fading, very soft light dimming, light beam angle of up to 80° without losing luminous intensity, a characteristic that has allowed me to illuminate the backdrops very uniformly even at close range. I installed 60 CP Color MH units all along the studio's perimeter, no less than 260 linear metres, which enabled me to link all the narrative levels with a single colour shade."
Another important role was played by the 48 Alpha Wash Halo, the halogen moving bodies designed by Clay Paky installed on the battens that overhang the entire studio area. "The Alpha Halogen units are used to highlight the stage setting and the points on the stage where the personalities move," continues Ferrari. "Sometimes they are used to substitute the follow spots during the famous "monologues", or with stationary guests. These projectors are essential for my work, because they combine high-quality colour mixing with a wide zoom, which makes it especially easy to light the scene. In addition, the Alpha Wash Halo - as fitted with a halogen lamp - provides the natural colour temperature of 3,200°K, and every professional is very familiar with the usefulness of this feature in a television context, where the light is filtered by the television camera's digital eye."
The lighting design is completed with a number of special effects projectors, used in given moments of the show to project naturalistic elements on the coloured backdrops, and with a few 2,500W rated PAR projectors to provide the environmental lighting.
Adriano Celentano's RockPolitik is covered in greater detail in the December 2005 issue of Lighting&Sound International magazine.
(Lee Baldock)
