Project 11- Cairo International Film Festival (Opening and closing ceremonies)
A producer that was part of the original team for Coco hired me to supervise the lighting and be a creative consultant for the Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) ceremonies at the Cairo Opera House. Given my experience with translating live performance to something visually appealing for both live audiences and camera based audiences I was lucky to be highly sought after for this 40th anniversary event. We had several meetings with an extensive production team. It’s live broadcast and attendance had diminished in the preceding several years because of a newer and “hipper” festival taking place not far from Cairo. There was a lot of pressure from the producing network, the DMC Channel, to make this a significant event.
After several weeks of planning, script changes, schedule changes and art direction changes it was finally time for me to move into the Opera House. I had been given no drawings of the theater or of the set so I had to use a scaled PDF of the proposed set and photos/recollections of the real space from a site visit to create the lighting plot. While not my best preparation work it was more than sufficient for the situation.
CIFF- Cairo Opera House light plot
When I arrived in the theater to begin the hang and focus, I was told that designers rarely prepared a light plot and paperwork. But even my slip-shod lighting paperwork allowed a quicker installation than was expected. And my treating the crew and lighting supervisor with respect and cordiality ensured the integrity of the installation, as well as their reciprocal regard. I was permitted to bring in my own assistant that I had developed a great working relationship with during Coco to help operate the lighting controllers. We created a series of flexible lighting cues that were operated on two consoles. He would operate the moving light fixtures and I would operate the lights that didn’t do tricks, referred to as conventional fixtures. We went through the script and devised a plan.
The day before the broadcast was spent rehearsing smaller individual sections with each guest presenter and performers. It was all done based on their personal availability so it was completely out of order. I was given one camera and monitor to double check the lighting levels for the TV camera in context to the live viewing. The next day was only a partial rehearsal for a guest host who was only available for a brief amount of time.
We began the performance/broadcast with no real rehearsal and in front of not only a live audience, but an estimated 5 million viewers in Egypt and the MENA region. Fortunately, we were well guided by an assistant director who kept us apprised of the substantial rewrites to the script that had happened that afternoon as we performed the almost dance-like operation of the two lighting controllers. The lighting booth at the Cairo Opera House is also the only room in the building where smoking is permitted (unofficially), which greatly helped the stress levels.
After the opening ceremony I was called into the remote control truck where the director of photography and the executive producer ran the broadcast from. I was very nervous about not performing well. Instead, I was greeted with strong handshakes and big smiles. They were beyond happy and impressed at the quality of what was being broadcast, which they attributed to me. We were joined by the head of the network and we looked at a minute or so of the broadcast. The network head asked for my opinion for what could be done better for the closing ceremony. I offered my opinion and for the next broadcast those changes were implemented.
Two weeks later, after a similar rehearsal process, the closing ceremony/broadcast took place with similar positive response.
Below are images from the ceremonies.
