Channel 4 needed a creative promo/opener for their coverage of the 2024 Paris Paralympics.

Whisper, a London-based production company, was commissioned to make the film, which was to be fronted by Ade Adepitan, a brilliant wheelchair-using Presenter and on-screen celeb.

They had a fabulous team of amazing people working to realise the concept. Richard Gort was the Creative Director. Chris Hyde, a hugely experienced and skilled DOP was booked. He asked me to be his Gaffer and to supply some of my lighting equipment.

The idea was simple, the Formula 1 racing driver, David Coulthard would invite Ade to drive to the Paralympic Games and provide him with a vehicle. We would film his journey.

Of course, there was a bit more to it and it would not be quite that simple.

Filming in Paris was wrapped. Now we had to shoot the journey from London. This would be a greenscreen shoot, filmed in one of the Malcolm Ryan Studios in Wimbledon, London.

Our footage would be combined with animated graphics.

The call time was 8 am but I was there as the studio opened at 7, to familiarise myself with the studio and to introduce myself to the people in the lighting store. By 07:30 I was bringing my lights into the studio.

The rest of the team showed up on time and by late morning I had set up the lights, and the camera crew had prepped the cameras. The talent and our hero vehicle arrived about then and we were good to go.

Filming Ade's journey from London to Paris involved many and varied slates, and they had to be crafted with precision so the Design Director could cut his animated graphics with our shots and so the eyelines were correctly reflected in the POV shots.

We had a huge amount of work ahead of us and only one day to do it. The pressure was on and we all worked smart and hard.

Chris used 2 full-frame Sony cameras, one mounted on a gimbal.

In addition to the regular vehicle shots, wides, mids, close-ups, etc, and the regular shots of Ade, we filmed dialogue setups with people who were not with us in the studio. These people were filmed at other times and places and then comped in post-production. I used Google to find their heights so Ade's eyelines and the camera heights for POV shots would be correct.

We started the day by filming the vehicle reveal. It was positioned across the studio, facing camera-left. Ade was on the far side of the vehicle, sitting in a high-tech wheelchair also facing camera-left. He was in profile, giving the correct eyeline to David Coulthard as he stood in front of Ade. David was not present in the studio. Ade delivered his line, "Is it a racing car?" after a moment for David's response, "it's a classic". Chris tracked the camera back from a wide of Ade through the vehicle to reveal a black Citroen 2CV van with Channel 4 branding, of course, in the foreground. Bien joué, Chris

My basic lighting setup involved using the cyc lights and the lanterns to light the chroma key green cyc and floor, and to provide ambient light. I used one Aputure Light Storm 600D Pro as my key light, mostly with a 150 cm light dome, and another 600D with a 10" fresnel or Hyper Reflector mostly through a 1-meter square silk.

Some shots were from the left side of the vehicle, others from the right, and still others from the front. So my lights needed resetting accordingly.

For the close-ups of Ade in the driver's seat, I used a 600D Pro with a 150 cm light dome and egg crate as his key, and a Fomex FL1200 with softbox as the backlight. I used another 600D as a master key for the vehicle. For kickers and other accent lights, I used my LS60X lamps. Naturally, I used diffusion, flags, and nets extensively, to control reflections and create 3D modelling.

When lampstands appeared in shot, I masked them with chromakey cloths. To help the keying in post, I lit these and used my spot meter to ensure the reflected luminance levels of the cloths matched the brightness of the cyc.

Finalement, we filmed the opening sequence, Ade at home, answering the call asking him to drive to Paris, "a favour." "Are you mad?"

The entire team was brilliant!

By 10 pm., Ade had driven to Paris.

And that’s a wrap!

Fin

Enjoy the film.