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Television City’s Face Light Experiment…1958

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Eyes Of A Generation.com

Television City’s Face Light Experiment…1958

At first glance, it looks like these RCA TK11s have 10 lenses, but appearances can fool you. Actually what you see here is an ingenious way to add face lighting to talent to take away the nose, brow and chin shadows on close ups.

This is the only photo I’ve ever seen of this arrangement which may indicate that the low intensity lights didn’t yield the desired results, but you have to at least give them an A for effort. I think the need for these was rooted in a request from Art Linkletter…not for his show, but for use on ‘Playhouse 90’. Seems that Art mentioned that he was occasionally distracted by face shadows when he watched. Soon after, this experiment started.

Each camera is adorned with 6 rim lights…2 left, 2 bottom and 2 right. The guys in the shop at TVC were no slouches…they built a lot of custom stuff there including the viewfinder hoods you see on these cameras as well as the more complex adjustable hoods.

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3 responses to “Television City’s Face Light Experiment…1958”

  1. Frank Gottlieb

    Craig Ferguson also apparently has face lighting on the main camera position used for his monologue.

  2. Tim Stepich

    I’ve seen this done more recently on multicam sitcoms.

  3. Bob Batsche

    Once an addition like this was made, EVERYONE on camera wanted it! Lights were placed under the lenses, on the floor, within the desk, etc. Unless the Lighting Director was careful, it just didn’t work. It was just interesting to watch the demands for this extra lighting.

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