Let There Be Lighting: Andy Ciddor

Once Upon a Time,There Were Keylights
It seems that the world is conspiring against the traditional keylight.

Getting Help: When 'RTFM' is Not Enough
One of the great joys of working with complex equipment is the total unpredictability of the ways that it may choose not to work as expected.

Knowing When How Much is Enough
I suppose that it's just another example of market forces at work, but still I'm troubled by the constant escalation of what are usually referred to as "production values" in the shows that we make.

Creating Misty Effects
Atmospheric effects are often bundled together under the terms "fog" and "smoke," although they fall into four basic categories--smoke, haze, fog and heavy fog, each with different applications and peculiarities.

Creating the Picture, One Pixel at a Time
After a year as a lowly studio lighting technician, when I was finally admitted upstairs into the inner sanctum of the control room, I was impressed by all of the consoles, monitor bays and oscilloscopes that belonged to the video engineers.

Divide and Conquer Your DMX Problems
In a lifetime engaged in the study of the multitudinous technical manifestations of the One True Universal Law (Murphy's, of course), I have managed to extract a single powerful theorem for use in fault finding: It is folly to believe that similar symptoms are produced by similar faults.

Finding Fault with DMX
Despite having been a part of the lighting scene for almost 20 years, the DMX512 control protocol still seems to be shrouded in mystery for far too many of its users.

Oh, Please Give Me a Sine
Dimming is a dirty business. Ever since we gave up using resistance dimmers because they were big, heavy, expensive, inefficient, hot and very difficult to remotely control (and in the case of the saltwater variety, also smelly and toxic), we have been playing merry hell with our utility supply.

Taming the Harsh Elements of Softlight
I finally found the light source I was looking for when I stumbled across heavily diffused nine-light minibrutes (molefays) used in TV commercials.

Specious Specifications: Works of Fiction
Model numbers are just numbers and spec sheets have tended to become works of speculative fiction.

Having One of Those Hazy Days
Although widely employed in drama and music production, the complexity of using atmospheric effects in television is not something to be sneezed (or coughed) at.

DMX Dialogue: The Device That Answers Back
Any DMX512 console can communicate with any DMX512 dimmer, effects device or moving light. Today, there is a reasonable expectation that if you follow a few basic rules, everything will work together straight out of the box.

Lighting Design: Spreading the Word
Getting your ideas across to directors, producers, clients and production managers is vital to getting access to resources such as time, crew, and money.

If It Ain't Broke Now's the Time to Fix It
Because it's so unexciting, it's just too easy to put off equipment maintenance until another day

Building a 'Rock Solid Ethernet'
Building, configuring and troubleshooting Ethernet networks in a production environment is imperative as we migrate from traditional technology-specific data formats to commodity IT protocols.

Another Olympic Achievement
In essence, the Sydney 2000 production was highly labor-intensive, with large crowds of designers, technicians, production crews and performers filling an entire stadium while the television audience looked on.

The Digital Talking Head
Despite all the revolutionary, paradigm-breaking shifts in production formats, the human face remains the pivotal element of almost every production.

Color Temperature: So Many Variables
In this, the third and final chapter in the war of the color temperatures, we deal with the weird stuff: The unnatural light that comes from sources that either don't emit the full range of the visible spectrum or where the balance of colors is way off the beaten track.

Color Temperature: The Battle Rages On
There are a formidable variety of correction filters available to aid us in the battle of the color temperature.

Picking a Winner in the Color Temperature Wars
Every day we are forced to pick a winner in the color temperature battle that rages all around us .

HDTV Redefined
Now that high definition television is finally a reality, the fun really begins, as we decide what to do with all of those extra, digitally defined pixels.

Programming By the Book
Lighting for television is a field of endeavor that has failed to capture the imagination of most book publishers.

The Shape of (Some) Things to Come
Having now made all my excuses and safely covered myself against any future accusations of lack of foresight, there are some trends for changes in our business that are worth noting.

Whose Vision Is It Anyway?
Almost every production represents an opportunity for its production team to continually refine its vision, no matter how imperceptibly.

Moving Right Along ...
One sure sight that remote-controlled, motorized lighting has just about made it into the mainstream is its most recent name change.

Off-Color Television
Recently I was approached for some (free) advice by a group of young enthusiasts who were setting up a video production facility.

Dimming: In Forward And Reverse
Dimmers have quietly become the least spectacular and least controversial devices in the lighting inventory.

Live From the Rainforest
There is hardly an area of rainforest anywhere in the world that doesn't have a production crew lurking somewhere within it.

Projecting a Good Image
If there is any one aspect of lighting technology that has progressed most rapidly in the last half-dozen years, it would have to be our ability to include projected images in our productions.

Internet Illuminations
Although I love to ride the wave of technology that is our industry, I have to admit that I initially overlooked the implications of the World Wide Web for lighting.

Scene But Not Heard
I am forced to admit that we in the lighting profession can be a source of unwanted noises for our audio brethren.

Lost for Words
It seems to me that every time I just about have a grasp on the terminology in our industry, some bright spark comes up with a new concept. This inevitably brings much confusion until we either settle on new terminology, or worse yet, accept new meanings for existing terms.

Mercury Falling
It's pretty hard to go a whole day without using a metal halide discharge lamp. Even if you could manage for a single day, or even a week, think about the impact of doing without them altogether. Think very hard.

Light Falling on Deaf Ears
I recently wasted part of an otherwise perfectly good evening watching a few segments of the four-and-a-half hour Academy Awards presentation. From time to time I torture myself with these broadcasts, just to see what the people with big budgets are doing.