Modern-day LEDs light up BBC period drama

The TV series is being made by BBC Cymru Wales Drama in partnership with The Weinstein Company and BBC Worldwide/Lookout Point. During filming in Russia, local production company Globus Film Studio took the decision to install over 1200 Verbatim LED retrofit lamps to create appropriate lighting when shooting important scenes such as those in a historic ballroom.

The chandeliers of the ballroom were equipped with Verbatim LED VxRGB Natural Vision Candle lamps which deliver up to 50lm output and offer up to 25,000 hours of guaranteed lifetime. These lamps provide a warm candle-like glow that closely matches the colour spectrum of a real flame (with a colour temperature of 1900K). The lamp’s VxRGB technology ensures the accuracy in perceived colours and illuminates objects, showing them in finer detail. It also makes skin-tones more natural and helps viewers to perceive subtle hues often indistinguishable when employing other lighting solutions.

Besides avoiding the risk of fire from using thousands of candles on set, the use of Verbatim’s LED candle lamps prevents the possibility of continuity errors between scenes arising from candles burning at different lengths. The time-consuming task of lighting and extinguishing flamed candles every day is another major inconvenience bypassed in the process. Compared with other lighting solutions, using LEDs has significant energy saving benefits and the advantage of obtaining full brightness instantly when a lamp is turned on.

“Supplying our products to the makers of the BBC’s War and Peace TV series has provided Verbatim with a perfect opportunity to demonstrate the advantages of LED lighting in practical scenarios,” explains Dick C. Hoogerdijk, General Manager LED EUMEA, Verbatim. “It is particularly satisfying to receive so much positive feedback from members of the film crew and set design team from what is destined to be a multi-award winning TV production.”

The TV series features a formidable all-star cast including Paul Dano (12 Years a Slave), Lily James (Downton Abbey), Gillian Anderson (The X-Files), James Norton (Happy Valley) and Jim Broadbent (Paddington). Directed by Tom Harper (Woman In Black: Angel Of Death), the drama will consist of six 60-minute episodes to be screened in the UK by BBC One and eight 45-minute episodes for broadcast in international markets.