Everything about the Olympics is a big deal. This isn’t just true about the competitors but also for the behind the scenes works such as commercial lighting.
For the last four days I’ve done nothing but watch the Olympics. Day and
night, the Olympics have dominated the television in my house. Get
together’s have been canceled, dinners have been rearranged and my DVR
has been cleaned out for the events that I miss. There is just something
about the pageantry of it, and, more impressively for me, the entire
massiveness of it. Just the commercial lighting that has to be
utilized to light over a dozen venues for the fans is amazing. I know, I
know, here are Olympic athletes giving there all for the chance at gold
and I’m focusing on something as small as the “lighting”, but if you
think about it its small stuff like this that has to be meticulously
considered to put these games on.
Imagine that it’s your job to figure out how to light a venue at the
Olympics. Sounds easy enough, but for anyone who has had to work on
commercial lighting before (and I have, maybe that’s where this interest
comes from) knows that there is a lot to consider when lighting
something as important as an Olympic venue. Take, for example, the
Richmond Olympic Oval, home of the Speed Skating events for the games.
Whenever you’re dealing with ice you have to be careful with the lights
you use. If it’s too bright or put at the wrong angle you could be
dealing with massive glare off the ice. The trick is, though, you have
to be able to light the venue for television while being considerate of
the skaters. How do you do this? I don’t really know, I guess that’s why
they are professionals and I’m just a blogger.
The Opening Ceremonies of the games was one of the most amazing lighting
jobs I’ve ever seen. The director of the ceremonies (who has previously
directed the Opening Ceremonies for the Sydney games in 2000) used over
70 projectors to create stunning visual moments that helped bring
people an up-close look at Canadian Culture. One of the most striking
moments were a pod of projected orca whales moving across the stadium
floor. In all, by using the projection lighting, the director was able
to make a lot out of a little. Very rarely were live props used, but
instead by using the lighting projected onto white objects it looked as
it the arena was covered in water or leaves or snow. It was definitely a
sight to behold.
