Robe provides a 100% solution for 1% Quiz
- Details
Dutch producers Blue Circle Productions added a few of their own exclusively Dutch elements as this was the first time the show concept has been produced outside the UK where it originated on ITV. One hundred contestants – who are also the audience – try to answer a question that only 1% of the country can get right. The show is styled as an IQ test with questions based on logic and common sense rather than general knowledge.
Henk-Jan worked closely with Dutch set designer Harald Kassies who took the original 1% Club signature set design and reimagined it with some small adaptations that saw all 100 contestants seated around a striking and elegant 270 circular set.
“Continuity was absolutely vital when it came to lighting,” explained Henk-Jan who needed one luminaire per person to replicate the fast-paced and complex set of cues that were integrated into the Market Graph gameplay machine.
“I wanted a luminaire that gave exactly the same quality of light and characteristics and the same CT utilising the same LED light engine.”
The key light for each contestant was aligned at the same distance to produce identical CT whites plus blue and red cues associated with the game cues as well as beautiful front lighting.
Esprite ticked all the boxes with its high CRI and flat field CMY colour mixing. Furthermore, these 100 fixtures also had to fit into very tight spaces allocated on three circular trusses rigged at slightly different levels in the roof, approximately 13 – 14m from the contestants.
The additional 10 x Esprites were used for covering these presenter positions from back and front, so he could move around freely and be picked up by any one of the 13 cameras with face lighting. The 20 x T1 Profiles provided additional key lighting and specials.
The LEDBeam 350s were positioned in a spherical shape around the studio floor inside the centre of the set and on the largest of the overhead circle truss at the back where they provided classy beam work. They were chosen for their small size and to add drama especially to the overhead and high-level shots.
The little LEDBeam 150s were additionally used for back and fill lighting on the contestants / audience and to ensure there were no back-of-shot ‘black holes’.
The biggest challenge for Eventec was sourcing enough Esprites for the six-week period of set up and recording for two season’s worth of programmes, and despite the extraordinary levels of work right now, 75% of the fixtures were sourced from Eventec’s own stock – which has a lot of Robe – explained their manager of operations Stefan Bensch.
However, as they were also extremely busy with other shows, some cross rentals were necessary to make up the large numbers, and these came from France, Belgium, Germany, and Sweden.
Lighting was programmed on a grandma3 console by Edwin Zuidwijk from Light H’Art, which was linked to the main games machine that fired all the cues. The eight days of shooting allowed the team to record two series’ – two shows a day – of the Dutch production which will be aired on VTM in summer 2023.
