Time Team sparks

One of the faces you don't see on the TV, but vital to the filming of the programme, is production electrician Garry Owen. One of the problems he faces is when the Team wants to film indoors.

'I've been working with Time Team for years,' says Garry. 'Apart from fixing things that go wrong, one of the main parts of my job is lighting. For example, if they want to film indoors you can't use normal lights because they have the wrong colour temperature. They look too warm. If the shot follows the subject from outside into the room it looks bad, so we use heavy tungsten lights that create the right blue-light temperature. You basically have to simulate daylight indoors.

'I also have to rig special filters over any windows so that when they are filming from inside there are no contrast problems with daylight flooding in from outside to ruin the shot. It's all about creating the right environment.'

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