“Breaking into the Television Business” was published in The newsletter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences 2006

When I broke into the TV business fresh out of school, I had gotten a job at a television station in a very small market. My first opportunity came when a new show needed to be lighted and no one else wanted to touch it with a ten-foot pole. I stepped in and said, I can do it, and I did do it. After that I was considered the lighting expert of my station. I really did not know that much about lighting but what I did know was far more than anyone else in my group. Now all I needed to do was to get better at lighting and I did that by using what I call the improvement method. It is simple. Look at your work and ask yourself. What can I do to make it better? Keep doing that and you will get better and eventually among the best in your business. Ozzie Smith, recently inducted into the Baseball Hall Of Fame said it best at his ceremonial speech, “It’ s not good enough, if it can be made better”.

Frank Gatto served as president of NATAS, Suncoast Chapter in 1980-82. He is also a three time Emmy winner, a Silver Circle recipient and a proud WTVJ alumnus. Frank now owns a Television Lighting consulting firm based in Boca Raton, Florida. His client list includes all of the major networks.

Frank Gatto

As seen in the Lighting Dimensions, May 2003 Issue:

The explosion of light and sound in the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas galvanizes the already-rowdy crowd of 14,000 into a screaming, waving mass of hysteria as the cacophony of sound and light washes over them. Behind the octagonal ring, nicknamed the “Octi”, and up a 50’ (15m) ramp, is the entrance from which the combatants in this almost-no-holds-barred fighting extravaganza appear to do battle. A dazzling display of lighting effects, lasers, and pyro welcomes each fighter. High up in the arena, one man coordinates it all: George Smith of Frank Gatto & Associates. His goal is to make the show as exciting on Pay-Per-View TV as it is live – no mean trick, given the different demands of each experience.

The Las Vegas event, held last November, was the 30th Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), most of which have been lit by Smith. They are similar to boxing events, made up of eight bouts, with five four-minute rounds. The fighters use very light gloves, are allowed to use their feet, and can wrestle as well. It’s a wild show, to say the least.

Even with so much experience, Smith says each venue presents unique challenges. “I usually map out my plan on a laptop, during my flight to the venue,” he says. “Our challenge on the Vegas show was the size of the fighter entrance and the video screens. Since the promoter wanted smaller screens, we had to redesign the lighting so the fans could see the action on the screens.”

After setting up his control location, with lighting boards (in this case, two Avolites Sapphire consoles), TV monitors, and computers, Smith programs his lighting cues while his staff hangs the rig, consisting of 56 moving lights (24 High End Systems Cyberlights® and 32 High End Studio Colors®) and conventional units (166 ETC Source Four PARs, 28 Source Four ellipsoidals, 60 PAR-46s, and 12 Altman 9-lights). They also handle an extensive rigging package, from Total Structures, with hoists and motors. As the octagonal ring is built, TV cameras are set up, and pyro staff place the finishing touches. Smith choreographs 17 pages of lighting cues, one page for each fight, plus the opening. (Also included in the equipment package are two DF-50 hazers from Reel EFX and five Antari Heavy Foggers.)

After the opening, Smith follows the live TV direction on headset, as the fighting takes its bloody course. He must also react to unexpected events, making sure that celebrities are well-lit at ringside. “Lighting a live event for fans in the stands and also handling TV lighting is a big challenge,” says Smith, adding, “Tonight, we knocked their socks off!”

Smith, a native of England, worked mostly in live events like rock concerts until he met Frank Gatto in 1987. Gatto, a graduate of the NYU Design Department, worked his way through affiliate TV stations, eventually working on ABC’s Monday Night Football, the World Series, ESPN’s SportsCenter, and other news and sports programs. Speaking of Smith, Gatto says, “George reached out to me to learn more about TV lighting and it’s been a great collaboration. He made UFC what it is today, with exceptional lighting design for the past 30 shows.”

Eric Moffitt

The first ESPN College Gameday Road Show was at Notre Dame University On November 13, 1993. Since then we have done over 100 road shows at most of the major universities.

I always say that a Lighting Director will never win an Emmy for outdoor daytime lighting. Everyone thinks it’s easy and sometimes it is, on an overcast day with no wind but when the sun comes out and the wind starts blowing, watch out. This could be a Lighting Director’s nightmare.

Over the years we have come up with some innovative ways to improve the look of the show and overcome sun & wind problems which sometimes occur. This roof that you see on the Gameday set is made from a material which allows some of the sunlight through and on to the stage which illuminates the set and thereby providing about 60% of the amount of light needed. In other words it acts as a huge soft light, and it’s free. In the past, networks would typically build an enclosed room and sometime it would be painted black. What a ridiculous thing to do. The Lighting Director is now forced to use a tremendous amount of light to overcome the bright background. Your talent is now squinting, sweating and looking very uncomfortable. With our system the entire stage area is much brighter and now the pupils in the talents eyes quickly adjust to the surroundings. I have rarely gotten complaints from talent when using this method.

We also use a special bobbin weave single net behind the talent. This cuts down on the brightness of the background allowing the Lighting Director the luxury of softening his key light on the talent. The net is a custom made size (36”X14”) and we have added a heavy duty sleeve at the bottom of the net allowing us to slide a pipe through which keeps the net tight even in heavy winds. (See Lighting Tips). The net also serves as security for the talent.

If possible, it is always better to use smaller lights rather than large ones. On Gameday the largest fixture we use is a 1200W HMI Par. When I tell other Lighting Directors the amount of light I use they don’t believe me. When you use a larger instrument such as a 6K, you are now committed to using another to balance things out. With a four position set and the talent sitting relatively close to one another it become very hard to control your individual levels which you almost always need to do. We use only 4 1200Watt HMI Pars with super wide lenses and 4 575W HMI Pars one at each position at a fairly steep angle. These are the lights that give you the flexibility to adjust each position to meet conditions. Make no mistake about it; we could not do it this way without the help of the special roof top and the net. Usually the answer to any outdoor lighting problem is never solved with one course of action. It could be a combination of three or four things and always remember, a cloud could always pass over and then everything changes. I told you it wasn’t easy.

Frank Gatto & Associates is a television lighting & consulting firm based in Boca Raton Florida who specializes in on location broadcasts. Our client list includes all the major networks.

As seen in the Lighting Dimensions, July 2003 Issue:

The business of lighting major live events, which are also televised around the world, is stressful enough. But for Frank Gatto & Associates, the Mike Tyson –Clifford Etienne heavyweight boxing extravaganza took on the air of a one-ring circus. Throughout his career, Tyson has been an enigma. He was a world champion, the possessor of a devastating punch that sent most opponents into next week. Then came six years in prison for rape. Afterward, there was his comeback, which included incredible exhibitions of poor judgment or just pure insanity, including the removal of a chunk of Evander Holyfield’ s right ear with his teeth.

Through it all, lighting designer Frank Gatto has not been far away. Having worked over 1,000 professional boxing matches, Gatto and his crew are usually ready for anything. The most recent was probably one of the most frustrating. The Memphis fight against Etienne in late February was thrown into turmoil when Tyson failed to make the flight from his home in Las Vegas not once, but twice. His trainers claimed Tyson was either sick or suffered from affects of a huge facial tattoo.

How does this affect an experienced lighting company like Frank Gatto & Associates? Do they “green light” the semi-trailer truck full of lighting equipment inbound from New Jersey when no one knows if Iron Mike will get to Memphis at all? Once you’ ve rented all that stuff, you’ ve got to pay for it, whether you use it or not. Gatto has to keep his supplier, Circuit Lighting, on hold. He has worked with the company for ten years and considers them on of the best in the business. So, what does Gatto do?

Gatto and right-hand man George Smith, crew chief Jason Eible, and an IATSE crew of three riggers and six stagehands did arrive on schedule and jumped to the task of hanging lights over the boxing ring, the audience, and broadcast positions at the Pyramid Arena in Memphis. Eible coordinated the crew assignments and followed Gatto’ s lighting design plots, carrying out the plans that had been previously discussed.

The lighting grid for the ring and audience was extensive: Seventy-two 575Wt ETC Source Four Pars and 24 High End Systems Studio Colors. Also lighting the audience were forty-eight 575 Source Four Pars many in color, to separate the crowd from the main focus of the ring. Also used were 12 Source Four Ellipsoidals to light the banners. The locker rooms were a challenge because Tyson does not allow cameras inside his space. The solution was to light the dark hallway leading to his locker room with a sun-gun on the live hand-held video camera and catch him walking in. Additional light was provided by eight Source Four Pars bounced it the white ceiling. Eteinne did allow access to his room, so three Source Four Pars were installed, again bounced off the ceiling.

The following steps are part of virtually every boxing match that Gatto lights. Gatto and Smith meet with the television directors for (in this case) Showtime network to decide where broadcast location will be, ensuring the position is in the balcony to give the overview effect for the on-air talent. The key here is making sure the there’ s a proper amount of “TV” lights in relationship to the event lighting. Most of the time there is a backlight to highlight the anchors, who wear black tuxedos. Without that “ace’ light they can get lost in the dark background. Gatto knows that lower-power small lights set closer to the talent give the best results in softer lighting. The best options are no more than 175fc, which is similar to the level in the ring, using a 1K fresnel for a key light, a 500W Fresnel as a back light, and a 1,000W fixture with a chimera.

Gatto is especially particular about shadows. “You never want to have harsh shadow,” he says. “I use a Gam 65 [Medium Gam Silk] or Rosco 104 [Tough Silk] in every ring light to soften it; that allows me to make transitions to different lighting zones in the ring.” He uses a fusion technique to soften the space between each light, resulting in a smoother transition. He uses his trusty light meter in all areas of the ring to check for shadows, he adds: “I do this by walking around ring with my meter. Then I back the dimmers off to 80% to soften even more in the ring. It also cools dimmers down, preventing overheating.”

Smith works closely with the TV director and cameramen including looking through the eyepiece of each camera to get a clear view of how the lighting looks on TV. This is especially true with the “jib” camera operator, which operates at ringside and moves extensively. Smith then gives the director different “looks” from a lighting perspective, confirms the sequences and enters them into the computer lighting program. “You never want to have same amount of light in ring as on the audience,” says Gatto. “We put a slightly amber tone light on the audience at half the intensity level, then we fade it lightly as you go back…the key is not to draw attention away from ring.”

Beauty lights, when focused towards a camera lens, will create a star filter effect, which has been very popular over the years. Their placement and the selection of colors can create a signature look for a series. “We were the first to use moving lights in boxing, says Gatto.“ In our first experiment, we used four moving lights and mixed them with stationary beauty lights. In comparing the two, the moving lights looked much better and could be focused to different camera positions, cutting down on the number of fixtures. We decided as a team to use all moving lights as beauties. “

One day out from the event, both Gatto and Smith spend the entire day focusing & fine-tuning all the different lighting “looks”. Smith continues programming; Gatto works on the “host” broadcast position high up in the grandstand where play-by-play anchor Nick Charles will work. A fighter’ s “walk-in” is a classic part to boxing, and Gatto wants something special. It might be the most exciting part of the broadcast.

In the history of boxing there have been heavyweight championship fights that had to be discontinued because of a power failure, so Gatto and his team always have a backup plan. On three occasions during Gatto’ s career he has lost power, the longest being for 10 minutes. For this event, half the ring lights were on land power and generator and half the ring lights were on another source of land power and another generator with switching capabilities. Five unlikely events would have had to happen before the lights would be lost. Even then, lighting crew members were on headset with the house and the venue’ s basketball lights could be used if necessary; also, another emergency generator could be started, which would take us about 49 seconds (ironically, the length of this fight).

Gatto believes the day of the event is usually the easiest part of the process. The preparation and the set-up and rehearsals are generally much harder, probably because producers and directors have time to change things. The lighting crew is in at 2pm for an 8pm event. They again check everything and make any adjustments needed.

Then, as veteran ring announcer Jimmy Lennon would say, it’ s Showtime! This time, the show went off without a hitch and after all that work. Tyson (facial tattoo and all) disposed of Etienne in just 49 seconds. Another one bites the dust!

Eric Moffitt