As the announcement is made by Davina, from her interview den, to the crowds assembled outside the purpose-built house on the Elstree lot, the action is relayed to guests backstage on four 42" plasma screens; these, too, were supplied by CT Screenco. Series director, Tony Gregory, said that he had deliberately set out to develop an arena feel, with the screen as the focal point. "The idea was to create much more of a spectacle this time. By enhancing the event, and making it more of an experience for the audience, we could let them in on what's going on inside the house. To accomplish this, the screen was essential, enabling us to show a 3.5m high close-up to 1,000 people, with a narrative. It has worked fabulously well."
With set design by Markus Blee, one of the highlights, says Gregory, is when Davina turns to talk to the housemates on the big screen during the Friday night evictions. "By positioning the camera 100ft from the screen, and using CAD software, we have been able to portray Davina in miniature, in front of the enormous backdrop of the house mates; this has become quite iconic."
Gregory works extensively in CAD - allowing him to plan camera angles with a high degree of accuracy, thereby factoring out expensive mistakes. "CT Screenco also provided the necessary design input, and Adrian Offord supplied CAD drawings to ensure we were precise," he says.
Another change introduced with this series involved framing during commercial breaks. "Rather than cut straight to the commercial we have stayed on a crane shot and run the graphics in the screen itself, in order to book-end it," explains Gregory. With Liz Clare as his co-director, Gregory says that this series has been a huge success. "It's been off the scale - the most popular series so far. And a lot of that has been down to the arena and the screen," he says.
(Lee Baldock)
