“…We are a country with a lot of LIGHT…”
Continuing with the activities that the AAI is offering to its members, collaborators and sponsors, we had the opportunity to attend the eleventh “Encounter of Light”, this time about the work of the director of photography, lighting and AAI associate Iñaki Irastorza, with a long career in the world of television, advertising, major events and shows since 1990. She has worked in several productions such as news, San Sebastian Film Festival, TVE’s New Year’s Eve galas, “Antología de la Zarzuela”, the opera “Carmen”, the program “Factor X”, “Las mañanas de cuatro”, “Tonterías las justas”, “Gran Hermano”, to name a few.
The particularity of this meeting is the art of lighting for television, a language that has similarities and differences to the past meetings that took place in other disciplines such as opera, dance, concerts, musical theater and classical theater.
As is customary in these meetings, we first attended a dress rehearsal, this time in the Estudios Picasso Mediaset studios, with the final of the program “La Voz” (http://www.telecinco.es/lavoz/). It is the Spanish adaptation of the successful Dutch format The Voice, popular all over the world.
In order to get to the Villaviciosa de Odeón studios, the AAI rented a bus, named “School of Light” because half of the passengers were associated students and students of the lighting course of the CIFP J.L. Garci.
Iñaki gave us a tour of the different sets of the final phase of the program, and very kindly explained to us the distribution of the lighting system, the layout of cameras, video screens and sets. He answered all questions and doubts concerning working methods, use of resources and other professional secrets with generosity and expertise.
The next day we were able to watch the gala live in our homes, and observe the final product of a spectacular and impeccable work.
http://www.telecinco.es/_77c20915
And finally the meeting with Iñaki Irastorza was held in the auditorium of the CIFP José Luis Garci, regular collaborators of the meetings, who on this occasion and for the first time gave us the opportunity to follow it in streaming for those partners and friends interested who could not move to the center.
Carlos Torrijos, active member of the AAI, was in charge of presenting and giving the usual commemorative plaque to Iñaki, who in his talk told us about his beginnings. Coincidentally, one of his teachers and friends Juan García Doncel was present. Little by little the talk turned into a real masterclass of the work done in the different phases of the TV contest. We got to know first hand all the lighting tools and the functions they had. Details of the treatment of the image through the camera, how to solve live the different unforeseen events and the approach to work with the other teams involved in this program. In addition to the mastery of the language and handling of light, it is worth mentioning a very interesting reflection when it comes to teamwork “…the first thing you have to do when you enter a set is to leave your ego at the box office … because if everyone defends their own and wants to deify themselves in a small plot, the end result is poor, … when the departments are no longer watertight and there is permeability in all directions, because if there is in one direction it is also bad, when there is in all directions that enriches…”
More reflections, resolution of effects and aesthetic decisions about the work of the lighting designer Iñaki Irastorza in the program La Voz, you can see them in the YouTube channel AAI, in the following link:
