Kelly Clarkson Show is wrapped in Robe
- Details
The role of lighting this ever-shifting environment recorded on Universal Studios in LA’s Stage 1, has been down to Darren Langer of DCLighting, a lighting design and direction practice also based in LA, specialising in television and multi-camera environments. Their work encompasses broadcast, streamed shows and events, awards extravaganzas, talk shows and music-based projects of all sizes.
Darren has relied on several specific Robe products throughout series 1 and 2 of The Kelly Clarkson Show – Pointes, BMFL Spots and BMFL Blades, PATT 2013s, Spiiders and Tetra2s – to ensure that the studios and sets have looked fresh and invigorating every time for this truly unique talk show format.
Each show kicks off with a ‘Kellyoke’, a cover version selected by fans, arranged specially to fit the 1.30-1.45 timeslot by musical director Jason Halbert.
In addition to his own ideas, Darren took initial creative inspiration from production designer James Pearce Connelly and director Joe Terry together with executive producer / showrunner Alex Duda and her producing team, MD Jason and the house band, My band y'all.
Together they all contributed to setting the tone of the show, which is lively, upbeat, and energized. “They are all amazing people to work with,” he states, detailing how they developed a fluid visual language by collaborating closely.
Season 1’s lighting had eight Robe BMFL Blades and eight Pointes permanently installed, and these were augmented with more Robe specials, depending on the songs and action of the day.
Frequently used fixtures included PATT 2013s 15 x Spiiders, and 24 x Tetra2s, all; supplied, together with the rest of the lighting equipment, by Illumination Dynamics.
Fixture positions varied constantly around the studio, but “these Robes they were fundamental to each show,” said Darren, giving them almost infinite options to create different looks throughout the season. The goal was to never repeat the same look!
Darren picked Robe fixtures generally for being “bright, fast, clean, with fantastic color options, great flat beam fields and for the sheer versatility.”
He maximized the Pointes in particular as they can do equally good wide and narrow beams and have an endless array of in-air effects and fast movement perfect for floor coloring and texturing, and for fast color chases and movements. “We’d often hang them and even use as back-light on the artists for creating moody silhouettes and other trick-of-light gags!”
The Spiiders were another multi-tasker with lots of different beam effects and quirky pixel and graphic effects possible on the LEDs. They were also excellent floor washers, back-of-shot eye candy fillers and different shapes.
Two RoboSpot systems were an invaluable asset to the show, both run by Chris Nelson. The BMFL FollowSpots being remote controlled were positioned one over the audience and one above ‘home base’ where Kelly usually sits for interviews, allowing pick ups in any part of the area that the host or guests would generally roam. The two base stations were located side-by-side backstage enabling Chris to easily swap between as needed.
These and all the other lights in the studio were controlled via a grandMA2 console.
The icing on the cake for Darren and the DCLighting team was winning the 47th Annual Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Lighting Direction for the show in 2020 (for the 2019 broadcast year) and being nominated again for the 48th Annual Daytime Emmy in the same category for the 2020 broadcast year.
Furthermore, he won the Newscast Broadcast Production Award for ‘Entertainment Lighting Design’ for the show’s 2019 and 2020 broadcast years.
