by Thinus Ferreira
After years of using repurposed SuperSport and other sets, Carte Blanche on M-Net (DStv 101) is back using its own dedicated set for the weekly current affairs magazine show which plans to do more in-studio interviews.
The latest Carte Blanche set, designed and constructed in advance of the 35th anniversary this coming August of the Combined Artistic Productions show, was unveiled last night during the show's broadcast.
John Webb, Carte Blanche executive producer tells TVwithThinus that since "Carte Blanche is
celebrating 35 years on air in August, and we felt it appropriate to
acknowledge that milestone by 'freshening up' our set".
"We have also introduced
more frequent in-studio interviews and felt we needed a dedicated space for
those discussions, as well as room to choreograph some movement into our live
studio links."
Conceptualisation of the new set design started in early February, with construction of the Tron-like set that got underway at the beginning of June.
The black shiny floor, shaped like the head of an ice hockey stick, is complemented by rectangular cut-out frames with the set tonality shaped by Tron-like "lines-of-light" to highlight the various frames and the floor stage's soft border.
"Our intention was not to depart too dramatically from the
set and lighting scheme our viewers have grown accustomed to, but to make
sometimes subtle changes that provide a contemporary feel," John Webb explains.
Carte Blanche is
broadcasting from Stark Studios in Randburg from where shows like kykNET's Binnelanders, Toks 'n Tjops, In Gesprek and Prontuit are also done from.
The new Carte Blanche set was
designed by Dewet Meyer from JDM Unlimited and the lighting design was done by
Joshua Cutts from Visual Frontier.
