PHOTO : WILL HEATH / NBC PHOTO : WILL HEATH / NBC here ?” Phil would be there backing you up . He never threw you under . He would just say to them , “ We tried something and it didn ’ t work , so we ’ ll fix it ; don ’ t worry about [ it ].”
He was quite a character . He was involved in everything , not just the lighting . But if somebody had a white shirt on and we really couldn ’ t deal with it – nowadays it ’ s not as bad , but back in the early days , white was a very bad colour for TV – he would go to wardrobe . Or if there was something wrong with the hair , he ’ d go to the hair , makeup , whatever , and try and cure the problem .
It ’ s a true collaborative effort . You know , it ’ s not one person . It ’ s not just lighting , it ’ s everybody has to do their job correctly in order for this show to work . And that ’ s the other thing I learned is , don ’ t give in just because you ’ re in a time crunch . Or , if things are rough or people are yelling at you ; if it needs to be done , do it . Yes , we are under a time constraint , but if it ’ s before 11:30 , get it done . Put up that extra light or whatever is needed , get it done so that it ’ s the best you can do and you don ’ t go home at one o ’ clock in the morning saying , “ I should have done something else .”
PL & P : Are their particular sketches / musical performances / episodes / etc . you look back on with the most pride ?
PL & P : You have both mentioned the late Phil Hymes , who is a legendary figure in your world . He was a lighting designer at SNL , off and on , working on more than 500 episodes from 1976 to 2018 . You both shared an Emmy Award with him in 2018 for the episode hosted by Kevin Hart . What were the biggest lessons you ’ ve learned from Phil ?
Amoral : Well , a lot . One of the things he instilled in me in the beginning was just : “ Do what you think is right and then let me or the show second guess you . But if you feel that this is the way to do it , and it requires five or 10 hours to do it – whatever it took to make it happen – you should make it look like you want it to look , and then I ’ ll be here , or Lorne can say he doesn ’ t like it on dress rehearsal , but let ’ s start by doing it the way you want to do it .”
22 | Spring 2022
I kind of followed that , and occasionally I would not do it and I would hit myself in the head after and say , “ Why didn ’ t I do it ?” But I think that was one of the biggest things . And he was always there , not to protect you , but he just pushed you in the right direction . He was a great man .
McGuinness : I agree with that . I mean , he would support you , and he would be annoying at times – can ’ t argue with that [ laughs ] – as to we should do it this way or that way . And as time went on , as I got better , I ’ d have ideas and it got more collaborative rather than just me trying to do what he wants . It ’ s , “ Okay , I see what he ’ s going for , so let me do this and see if I can impress him .” Sometimes it worked , sometimes it didn ’ t . But even when it didn ’ t , and things might not go as you plan , and the producers would come in and say , “ What ’ s going on
Amoral : Well , it ’ s funny that sometimes your best work doesn ’ t make air . This goes for lighting and scenic , too , but it seems the more you work on something , the more likely it is that it ’ s not going to make air for whatever reason [ laughs ]. It has nothing to do with anything , but you spend hours and hours on certain things and it ’ s like , “ Okay , that ’ s cut .”
But I do remember there was this one camping sketch . It was written where they were in the afternoon , the characters were having lunch , and then at the end of the sketch , they ’ re going to bed because it ’ s nighttime . I approached the writer saying , “ Okay , do you want it lit for day or night ? Why don ’ t we do this : I ’ m going to do a cue that I start at the beginning of the sketch where it ’ s daytime or late afternoon , let ’ s say , and by the end of the sketch , over the six minutes , it ’ s now night .” And it worked really , really well ! It was almost theatrical , because you couldn ’ t really tell because there was no big change of anything . Just as the sketch was going on , it was going from amber to more blue and getting a little bit more shadowy , and by the end of the sketch when they go to bed , it looks realistic , but you never saw the change . It was pretty cool and it did made air , but sometimes the lighting is better than the sketch , and you never want that [ laughs ]!