Rotolight Anova Lights Up Silverstone F1 Autosports Shoot |
| At the 2012 Autosport Awards shoot at the Silverstone Formula 1 track in November, MAKE Television produced footage from a two-day shoot capturing six of the UK’s best future Formula 1 stars, competing to win the Young Driver of the Year Award. The driver’s performance was tested in six Formula 2 Cars, as well as the McLaren MP4-12 and Mercedes DTM cars. |
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The films were premiered at the 2012 Autosport Awards ceremony at the Grovesnor House Hotel, Park Lane in London. Some of the best drivers in the world were in attendance; including 3-time Formula 1 World Champion Sebastian Vettel, with British stars such as Sir Stirling Moss, John Surtees and Jenson Button. “We used the Canon C300 with prime lenses to capture the driver and static car shots in the studio. The iPhone Control in the Anova was very useful to create the right colour temperature for the final look and feel of the shot. The final films were to be shown on a 60m long screen which, strangely, meant capturing the raw footage in a 6:1 ratio on set. This was certainly a challenge given the difference in scale of the drivers, cars and race track, while only having a small amount of visual area to work in during filming. Everything was captured in HD to preserve the final quality,” said managing director Kevin Chapman from MAKE Television. |
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| Expectations put pressure on the crew to ensure everything was captured so that the story of each day was allowed to come to life in the edit. One of the particular challenges they faced was its fast paced nature. There was only limited time to get the takes they needed, and required lighting kit that was bright but very portable, and allowed a quick setup. Among their lights was the Rotolight Anova, a 1000 Watt, Bi-Colour LED floodlight, capable of accurately reproducing white light from candlelight through to full daylight. It has a super-wide 110 degree beam angle that minimises or eliminates hard shadows and hotspots with an attractive, soft light output and a distinctive Ringlight effect. Kevin Chapman said, “We used the ANOVAs to create the colour temperature for the final look and feel of the shoot. We could also adjust the colour temperature to match the light conditions as we moved from trackside interviews to the indoor studio, which gave us some versatility. They were easy to place at short notice and didn’t require team of gaffers to re-light each time.” |
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| The project’s director Mike Fisher said, “My goal was to film the young drivers during intensive testing, while capturing the spirit of each driver and the race cars they were handling. The portability of the ANOVAs, and being able to run all day long on V-mounts, meant we could use them as outdoor fill for trackside driver interviews and then move into the studio and quickly reposition them.” They were also solidly made, lightweight, and looked good on set, appealing to the drivers liked and giving the camera crew more confidence. As well as running wired DMX control as standard, the Anova also has a built-in Wifi network allowing wireless remote control of brightness, colour temperature from an iPhone or iPad. Using Rotolight’s Magic Eye iPhone App, the crew were able to control all of the lights in one hand and create custom fades, aiming for the perfect ‘fade to black’ early on, before post. www.rotolight.com www.newmagic.com.au |
