Colour Of Money

Commissioned by format creators and producers 12 Yard, The Colour Of Money, presented by Chris Tarrant, is one of the most ambitious sets yet created by leading production designer, Patrick Doherty.

A total of nine mission-specific media surfaces are used on the set, including Barco’s iLite 6 6mm display, which forms the main high-resolution central screen. This is reinforced by G-LEC’s 30mm Phantom 30 and Barco MiTRIX transparent screens, Barco OLite 612 modular banner (curving round the rear of the set), and the German Schnick-Schnack LED FX, which borders the cash machines and also provides a uniform colour light detail elsewhere on the stage floor, with wide angle diffusion. The transparent screens have been backlit to give extra depth to the set.

In a set notable for the radical decision to exclude all moving lights in favour of digital light sources, CT also supplied Barco Folsom picture management system for image sizing.

With Catalyst G5 server operator, Svend Pedersen, and lighting designer Tom Kinane forming core members of the team, Doherty knew that the technical support of CT’s Adrian Offord, which he has come to rely on over the years, would enable him to be experimental. “Once you have a relationship like that you know where you stand in terms of costs and creativity,” he said. “I will discuss with CT a concept idea and how best to make it work — they will then come back to me with the solution. It’s good to have that level of back-up.”

In this instance he knew the set had to make a radical departure from the type of production associated with Tarrant in the past, such as smoke and beams. But in order to fulfill the design goal the production values (and budgets) increased as the show evolved and new FX were added in.

“The original concept was for 20 [cash] machines to be set out in a single row, but once the production moved to LWT’s more restricted Studio One on the South Bank, we had to redesign the show and come up with a concept that would fit.

“There were massive complications shooting in the round, and in order to make the wide-angle filming work we decided to double stack the machines — six at the top, four at the bottom on either side of a central reveal. This gave us more height and lot more movement.”

The studio audience was replaced with a balcony audience looking down at the set over the camera positions. “The reason we put in so many LED screens was to enable us to run movement and graphics juxtaposed with the static position of the game play — there’s a lot of double movement,” continued the designer. “It’s the interactive elements of the countdowns and money crashing out of the machines — the graphics linked by one machine and the main lighting by Catalyst digital media servers — that makes this work.”

Svend Pedersen also took responsibility for the custom video clips for the show and the banner texts of contestants’ names, while quiz show technology specialist, Chris Goss, was responsible for the plasma content and scoreboard graphics.

Over 70 colour set looks form the core of the game. “We took the colour down to blue to every machine other than the one being played,” stated Doherty. But the real breakthrough was the decision to change the cash machines from silver to gloss black — designed to give it a futuristic, iconic look — which not only provided advantages with reflection, but could be offset against the MiTRIX underlit floor, which was added in to provide a further dynamic.

However, one problem that needed to be overcome was the colour balancing. “All the displays run off different percentages and we have to balance the output because they have different extremes of brightness — but Svend took care of that and mixed the levels to suit.”

A triumph for the lo-res displays, was graphic movement containing significant black content. “It gives the impression of floating in the air — you can’t really see where the set ends because the G-LEC and MiTRIX displays are translucent.

“We also used the OLite border as a foreground effect and that provided an anchor point for the cameras — because the machines were stacked double height it worked well. But it was a tricky show to shoot and we had to create a secondary upper level camera platform, which had to be carefully lined up so we could get the right shot.”

Summing up, Patrick Doherty said, “The fact there were no beams was a very conscious decision, it made for a much cleaner set. We also wanted to create a floor that floated which is why we underlit it.” Finally, he said, the decision to stagger the 20 places had given the set a much greater dynamic.

Directed by Paul Kirage, the first show screened on ITV1, in February.