Turkey 2008

Cutting the hedge is one of my least favourite pursuits. Especially in mid June when
its hot, sticky and the world suddenly seems full of brambles determined to take over
our humble garden. So when I was called to the phone during a hedge cutting break,
it really was a pleasant surprise to hear the mellifluous tones of one Alan
Bermingham. Some of you will remember that Alan was once a lecturer in TV studio
lighting at BBCs Wood Norton/E.T.D./C.B.S.T. (delete as appropriate to the decade
that you spent time there)

In fact, I was one of his students in 19** and have kept in touch with him, and his
many travels around the world ever since. I suppose you could call it the old boy
network, but thats how and why he was calling me to ask whether I was able to help
with a lady in Istanbul who urgently needed a TV lighting expert to advise on the
state of lighting, both hardware and the creative ability of the existing staff at
Kanalturk in Istanbul. The request had originally come to Dave Evans, another
successful lighting globe trotter, but he was triple booked that month.

By comparison, I was not even single booked, so this offer was clearly one to
investigate. I knew it was urgent, but how urgent? I spoke to Dave in the middle of his
drama shoot and he gave me the Turkish contacts e-mail address. Dave did say that
she would appreciate an early reply. This was now Thursday afternoon. I sent the e-
mail, and dug out a phone number from the Kanalturk web site. Unfortunately, the
phone operator at Kanalturk didnt speak English, and my few words of Turkish
werent much use either. Lots of clicks and hellos later, I was miraculously
connected to the lady herself just as she received my e-mail full of questions. Emene
Wilson was a clue to the fact that she had been born in America of Turkish parents
prior to marrying an Englishman.

She was clearly a very busy lady as head of
acquisition and when I tentatively asked when
she would require my professional services.
Can you come out on Monday? she asked.
Well, I gulped, thats a bit short notice, but Ill
see what I can do. Ill ring you back first thing
tomorrow. (Friday}

So I did. My wife and I worked out that the
coming week was actually the best option for
both of us. The e-ticket for a return flight pinged
into my in box.
Sunday evening
saw me checking in at a certain hotel on the perimeter
of Heathrow where a single room costs about the
same as a return flight to Morocco. A humble
sandwich in the in house restaurant could be had for
the price of a return flight to Dublin (taxes included)
However, an early flight from Terminal 3 made me a
prisoner to the outer fringes of capitalism.

0410 is a time for vampires and night owls, but its also
the time that the alarm has to go off to get in the queue
for TK 1982 to Istanbul. A slight Heathrow hiccup
when non of the check ins were working. How do you
re-boot a whole airport?
One of Istanbuls two bridges
linking Europe with Asia
Ancient and Modern in
Istanbul

However, Istanbul duly arrived under the wheels of this particular Airbus A321 and
one was driven to the headquarters of Kanalturk for an interesting afternoon being
whisked between several (I still dont know exactly how many) studios. Each seemed
to be of a similar height and aspect ratio. The kit was clearly quite new and in good
fettle. There was an awful lot of frost and diffusion in evidence, though.

Multiple chin shadows were
very much in evidence and
the light levels were
toastingly hot. When I
eventually got my trusty old
Seconic down to that studio, I
measured up to 2000 lux in
places, kind of early post
atomic bomb intensity. Artists
and guests alike were bravely
sweating it out, literally, for
the sake of: what, exactly?
Sony hyperhad N50s were
being spoiled rotten.

Well, the answer seemed to
be that all the Directors liked everything bright; no shadows, just bright. My heart
sank a little bit. Ive been here in lighting terms before and sensed that the next days
scheduled meeting with a group of Directors might just get a bit heated if I were to
start doing it my way in the face of familiarity. On my side though was the fact that I
was there because the new owners of the station were not happy and wanted
change. I could see what needed changing and set about doing it in my usual way.
First, I identified a chat area situation in one studio where the presenter introduced
her guests in a one plus 3 sofa situation. Pretty standard TV anywhere in the world
but important to get it right.

Emine had arranged for the entire crew to stay on after the show came off air to
watch me make changes, lamp by lamp. (I wonder how popular that was after a 90
minute live show) I was pleased to see that the director was also there, if I got him
on side I knew that would be useful in
subsequent meetings with other programme
directors. I started by turning virtually everything
off and setting key, back and fill lights in the
way that every reader of this has done many,
many times. I explained the choice of lamp
type, position, height, power, barn door and
focus settings for each source in turn. I was
pleased to note that the bits and pieces such as
black wrap and drop arms were readily
available and arriving quickly from some secret
store room. On previous assignments, these
items were not only absent, but often unknown.
Magic arms and small heads such as ARRI
300s however, were still very much on my
wanted list.

An hour or so later, during which time the
talent had volunteered to sit in for me we had
Before. Count the shadows.
Youll probably need both hands.
After. Just the one. Backlights
a bit hot though
reduced the number of chin shadows by a factor of about 6. One nice pair of catch
lights in her eyes from a fully flooded 2K (1K would have been more than enough for
the 600 lux that I was aiming for) and a single back light in line with the camera.
Some of the many soft lights were turned off and the remaining ones were lowered in
elevation and held back on the dimmers from 100% to 50%. Now I felt we were
getting there wherever there was.

Portrait lighting magically appeared, background lighting intensity was reduced and
all of a sudden, the pictures acquired depth, shape and form. Well, to me they did.
What about the client? I would have to wait for the next days transmission to find out.

Emine wanted me to look at Studio 4 The News studio which had attracted a lot of
bad crits from viewers and new owner alike. It was big (unusual for my experience of
western news studios) with a large spiral desk with a very light top. Different
presenters read the news bulletins through the day, usually against a B.P. screen.
The time of day would determine the nature of the B.P. content which is fair enough
but the lighting, oh the lighting.

Looking out
towards camera(s)
I could see a sea
of large soft
sources in a huge
arc. There was
one heavily
diffused hard
source which was
where one might
have put a frontal
key, but the
combined effect of
over 2000lux of
soft light produced
what I called (to
the crews
amusement)
supermarket lighting.

The flatness of the
ring of soft had to be
seen to be believed.
In fact, in this sunny
country they had
effectively produced
cloudy day lighting.

Of course, the
amount and
brightness of said
light meant that
there was no
opportunity to light
the set separately. It
also meant that the
B.P. screen was
A ring of soft light in Studio 4
astonishingly bright as the projector had been chosen to match the high ambient
lighting levels. There was a conspicuous lack of backlight and the ever present
houselights (not turned off for transmission) caused interesting streaks on the set.

The combination was really a case of how not to light a news studio and my task was
to come up with a plan that would produce good pictures in a short time and with
minimum disruption to the busiest studio in the building.

I could see that a quick fix was actually not going to
be easy in view of the limited availability of studio and
man power. There was no problem with willingness
for change. It was as though the staff and crew were
just waiting for the L.D. who would walk on water (or
through treacle) with all the things that they were
waiting for. There was a bit of an issue with kit; if
anything luminaires were too big, too powerful. I
would have happily have swapped a 2k for two 1Ks,
and a 1K PAR for two ARRI 500s.

There were drop arms, but the bad news was that
they were a cheap South American (yes) clone of a
better product. Instead of a knob or a lever, it was a
pair of pliers from the sparks back pocket. A bit fiddly
but at least I was getting close to a manageable
situation and there was a fighting chance of me
getting meaningful light into the presenters eyes.

The studio floor, grid, kit and spark willingness was good verging on excellent. Then I
asked to see the studio gallery. How many studio galleries are placed up to 100
metres from the studio floor? Without comprehensive talkback? Without a two way
lighting talkback system?

Here was one. Having done the 100 metres in an albeit sub Olympic time, my eyes
did not believe quite what they saw on entry.

The Director was
shouting and waving his
arms with great
Mediterranean gusto.
His voice was positively
echoing around the non
acoustically corrected
room. Talkback almost
wasnt needed. The
monitor stack was too high and painted in a
light beige, sort of desert camouflage. The
operational lighting did not exist, there were no
red/blue rehearsal/transmission lights and the
discipline was non existent. People talked loudly to each other, used their mobile
phone, and the quality of programme sound was distorted as though through over
driven small speakers.

Worst of all, the poor sound supervisor was sat at the rear of the same gallery
attempting to monitor against the cacophony of the mixture of distorted sound and
Turkish instructions. Oh, and he could only monitor in a lob sided mono even though
the station transmitted in stereo.

And the lighting desk?

I saved the best till last The
poor lighting man was stuck in
a remote corner of the gallery
with no preview save a distant
view of the production monitor
stack. He had no
communication with the studio
floor and not even a preview
monitor (although there was a
space in his console for some
such nicety)

No walkie talkies, no preview
monitor and viewing conditions
that were as bad as they get.
Where does one start?

By the end of that day, my head was just bursting with all that I had seen and how
the inter related Byzantine problems could be untangled. Emine arranged for a driver
to take me back to the hotel. Although only a few blocks away, I seemed to be taken
via a different route each time. Driving along back doubles is a full time hobby in
Istanbul. It needs to be, the main routes seemed to be in full time grid lock. The net
result is an entertaining passage through impossibly small gaps with much horn
blowing and the ability to call the bluff of all the other drivers in a do or die situation.
The sign Give Way has no meaning in Turkey. Take Way would be far more
appropriate.

On this day, my driver ducked and dived for 15 minutes on a journey that should
have taken less than ten before I realised that he was lost. I just knew from my
limited knowledge of Istanbul that we shouldnt be where we were even though I
didnt know where we were, if you follow me. I texted Emene informing her that the
driver was lost.

My mobile trilled and Emine asked to
speak with the driver. As he spoke no
English and I spoke no Turkish, this
seemed to be a good idea. Some 45
minutes later, we arrived at the hotel, but
only after my phone bill had achieved
double figures.

Another day, another studio and another
set of problems. There was a three
sided kitchen set with bright orange
That kitchen
walls and a large window in the camera right wall. I put down the colour of the set to
regional taste and set about trying to make the set look as though there was at least
some light coming from the window. That wasnt going to be easy as there was very
little room between the flattage (also lit with orange) and the wall.
We set about to move one of the many (and
bright) soft sources that were out front to sit
above the window. I know its only a TV
kitchen, but it was complete anathema to me
to see a nice big window and absolutely
nothing coming from it.

I also set about trying to shade off the tops of
the set which was another giveaway that we
were not in a real kitchen. Emine and I also
agreed that the set of wall pracs in the corner
by the huge fridge had to go.



Looking the other way from the cooking area there was another lighting can of worms
that I never got the chance to play with. Two windows, neither with sufficient space
behind the bright red and orange flattage for any useful kit, and audience seating
hard up against the set. Not ideal. It was a bit like doing one of these BBC interactive
safety videos where you had to spot hazards, except here I was spotting all the
things that would give problems for lighting.

Many of the problems at Kanalturk were not the result of poor lighting but the result of
departments not working together to achieve a common objective. I have seen this
so often around the Mediterranean rim, starting with (typically) a designer who has
little or no TV experience building theatrical sets that cant be lit properly for a
multicamera operation. The notion of a creative team and planning meetings which
were the heart of BBC programme making in my time there, really did work. A simple
concept that you took for granted when in the employ of Auntie, but oh how I wish
some of the other countries that I have visited would adopt them.

OK, off the soap box and back to hectic reality. Emine asked me if I was happy to
pay a short trip to Ankara, Turkeys capital city. It was to be a very short trip: flying out
in the early afternoon to return late that evening. I was to visit Kanalturks regional
insert studio with zge Bozuel, a designer new to the organisation but clearly very
talented and keen to embody change of a positive nature. On the short flight we
discussed the current problems and the way forward. zge was well up to date on
modern techniques, he was adept at designing sets on the computer, much to the
Another TV lighting can of worms
amazement of the girls in the areas nearby; they had been used to a designer of the
old school. Nothing wrong in that in itself, but there was more of a chance of getting a
set that would work for multi camera if the main lighting man, Seluk Sayma was in at
the planning stage. He was also a young, computer literate man.

It was actually a real pleasure to see Ankara again after a gap of six years or so. I
had run several training courses for TRT, the State broadcaster, between 1999 and
2002. Ankara is high up in the middle of the Anatolian Plateau and all my visits had
been in the depth of Turkish winter. It had been cold, very cold with frequent snow
falls and a bleak appearance to the city which had not exactly endeared itself to me
during my lengthy stays. I didnt even know that Ankara did warm and sunny.

And now we were driving into the city along a superb new motorway, reaching a
vibrant, lush, green city with considerable evidence of prosperity. It was warm and
sunny as we left our chauffeured car to enter the studio centre part way up the long
hill leading north out of the city centre toward my former stomping ground of TRT.
Kanalturk used this studio for all its News and Sport related stories from the capital.

Once inside we met the senior producer in charge of the centre who managed to sit
with his back to a very bright window in a dark room such that I could make nothing
of his face. I found myself thinking how it could be lit for TV whilst at the same time
smiling and nodding at appropriate points in the conversation with zge which was,
of course, mostly in Turkish. I had just worked out a lighting strategy of sorts when
we were off to see the studio itself.

On went the switches (no dimmers) and umpteen cool light sources flickered into
mega bright life. The studio was approximately 3.5 metres high and there was a pipe
grid not dissimilar to those I had seen in Istanbul.

The set was mostly built of highly
reflective materials and the light
level was sufficient to do brain
surgery. The entire lack of
shadows would also have met
the approval of the surgeon.

I asked zge to sit in the
presenters seat and the picture I
took tells most of the story. You
can see the single too close off
centre backlight, the multiple
reflections of the frontal wash
(tidal?) and the use of 4 X 1K par
cans to sort of light the engraved
map of the world. Oh, and a wheeled chair and a highly reflective desk top.


Here is a picture I took of the view
looking out toward camera before the
lights were switched on. Those four cool
lights all came on together. Yep, four six
tube fixtures all on, key and fill and
airport runway lighting all combined.
Thats another set for another show, by
the way. Alert readers will note some 2K
zge sits in for me
fresnel lamps with red filter. I never did quite find out what they were for. They were
far too powerful to use as key lights in this situation, anyway.

Candidates are allowed 90 minutes in which to submit no more than 3000 words as
to how to rectify the situation. Well, I had about 30 minutes and decided to start
hacking through the lighting jungle. I think any reader of this magazine will have
some pretty good ideas on what needed doing.

Modern sensitive semi
professional Sony cameras
were being force fed a lighting
level of around 3000 lux. The
result was an operating
aperture of F5.6-F8. At least
focussing wouldnt be a
problem, then.

So, what did I do? I switched off three of the four
lights out front and brought the remaining one to a
central position and brought it closer. That got rid of
three and a half reflections. Tilting the set forward
slightly did the rest.

Difficult to move the backlight laterally so after sliding
it along the tube, we moved the desk into the right
place.

The par cans had been burning out the set (almost
literally: no dimmers, remember) so some judicious
tilting helped matters somewhat. The end result
shown here
was
nowhere
near perfect but as the old Irishman when
asked for directions at a crossroads replied:
Sir, I wouldnt have started from here in the
first place.

It was soon time to
make our return trip
to Istanbul, although
we did have time to
do a quick recce for
an O.B. planned for a
nearby restaurant in the next few days.

Just as I was about to climb back into the car for our journey to
the airport, an attractive young lady shouted Mike! and flung her arms around my
neck, not only to the amazement of my hosts but also myself, as dark glasses
prevented me recalling just who she was.

As she removed them, I instantly (well almost) recognised her as Irmak, one of the
designers from TRT who had been part of a previous training visit to Ankara. It was
just a complete coincidence that she just happened to be passing Kanalturks studio
at the time. Anyway, my younger design colleague was well impressed!
And finally.

Back in Istanbul, there were a few more studio visits, more notes to be taken and
discussion on the way forward. My offer to write a report on what I had observed
with recommendations for the future was gladly accepted.

As the Turkish Airlines roared along the runway and I settled into my seat, I went
over in my mind all that I had seen and started to construct a report in my mind. Then
the stewardess came along with drinkies, and I decided to just enjoy my flight. After
all, there was a hedge waiting that had had the audacity to grow some more whilst I
had been away.