By Rick Young
DEDOLIGHT LIGHTS UP THE 93RD ACADEMY AWARDS CEREMONY AT THE BFI ON LONDON’S SOUTHBANK
As a result of the pandemic, for the first time ever, the 2021 Oscar ceremony has been
held in different locations around the world. The main ceremony took place in Los Angeles
on the 25 April, with hubs in London, Paris and Sydney, to accommodate international
nominees. Feeds from each of the venues were then included in the main broadcast from
Los Angeles.
The chosen venue in London was the British Film Institute (BFI) at its Southbank location,
overlooking the Thames. Producers were encouraged to think creatively due to the on-
going restrictions limiting mass gatherings.
Tasked with making the London event for the Oscars unique and special, Light Electric, a
UK based company who specialise in producing creative visual events, set about creating
something very different for the UK venue.
Light Electric supplied equipment, including several crates of dedolights and enough
dedolight Lightstream and Eflect reflectors to fill the entire ceiling in the main room of the
venue – the result certainly created an impression.
Jason Clare, a gaffer from Reflectric, a London-based company specialising in working
with reflected light explains:
“It was quite a surprise, I was only called a couple of days before the event – so they’re
calling me up because of my experience with reflectors. It was quite fast-paced because
there was a corridor to light and the actual forum which we were lighting had a lot of glass
daylight – so it was quite bright; we couldn’t really see what we were doing until about nine
o’clock on the evening before the event. We didn’t have that much time by the time we
finished rigging. In the end the actual event went perfectly and we certainly produced a
unique look.”
The result was a combination of laser beams focussed into reflectors, in the main room of
the event, with dozens of reflectors suspended from the ceiling; the main walk-through
corridor was also lit with dedolight, making use of parallel beam intensifiers and dedolight
Lightstream and Eflect reflectors.
Jason Clare describes the impression created: “What was done gave the venue a unique
look and it was very effective – we’re only seeing a portion of it in the photos but we get a
sense of what was done and it certainly created a grand event.”
“The results were fed out as part of the Oscar awards, with crews from BBC and Good
Morning Britain in the main hall, catching people coming and going – the main room and
walkthrough areas were featured on major UK news programmes.”
Cirro Lite (Europe) Ltd – UK and Ireland Authorised Distributor for Dedo Light. For more
information visit: www.cirrolite.cwww.cirrolite.com