Faragher himself bluntly describes the lighting needs in the Werk Room as being , “ carpet bomb the place so you can see people ’ s faces from every single angle that might be possible . So , that room is less artistic and more functional .” As such , Sadler opted for eight of Chroma-Q ’ s Space Force LED space / soft lighting fixtures , plus eight of ETC ’ s Source Four LED Series 2 Lustrs .
“ We had a couple key lights and couple Leko lights here and there to sort of pick up certain positions , but the Space Force was the main fixture in that room ,” adds Sadler .
Across all the versions of the show , exposed tungsten bulbs are a definite aesthetic staple , though they created a little frustration for Sadler . “ You ’ ll see in our Werk Room we went with a frosted , cool bulb , which gave us a bit of grief . They were meant to be dimmable but , at that quantity , they didn ’ t quite dim the way we wanted them to . So , we ’ ve come up with an alternative solution for season two ,” he explains . “ I should say that we are making some changes to the Werk Room [ for season two ], which we ’ re really excited about . As most seasons go through one and two , things grow . So , we ’ re sort of stepping up the production value and I think it ’ ll be quite noticeable to our viewers .” One of those changes will be the floor . While Faragher isn ’ t involved during the filming of season two because of scheduling conflicts with his work on Big Brother Canada , he did provide the producers with some input and suggested updates to the set design .
“ The world of Drag Race is crazy and it is rich and flamboyant — and it ’ s great ! It ’ s absolutely crazy . So , especially in the Werk Room , we did paint tests and I needed to get those walls to pop and I needed to get the floor to pop . Truthfully , in the end product , I was disappointed … [ In person ] the pink of the walls was so intense and it just wasn ’ t on camera . And the floor was purple but looked grey on camera ,” he says , adding that he ’ s seen photos of a new Werk Room floor for the second season . “ It was something in post because I was sitting there with the producers in the control room when we were shooting it and everything looked great . But they must ’ ve done something in post , and maybe it was because of face colour , like flesh colour that they needed to correct , and with correcting that , it sort of sucked the colour out of the walls and the floor . So , it ’ s not a big thing , but these shows come up so fast and furious that you don ’ t get the time to do those tests that you do on a big movie . So , I ’ m hoping they changed the colour of the walls .”
The Challenge Space , Sadler says , “ obviously brought a lot more of a challenge to us because the spaces were changing every week . So , we put a modular setup in there so we could bring our truss , rehang according to whatever tomorrow ’ s challenge was going to be , and then the challenge team would come in and build that set underneath us and we would light that space accordingly .”
As compared to the Werk Room , where it ’ s all about big and bright , the lighting in the Challenge Space was more localized . In this set , the go-to fixtures were Martin MAC Encore Performance CLDs , which are high-quality cold light moving heads . As well , Martin ’ s MAC Aura LED wash lights were also widely used in the Challenge Space . Then , a complement of Chroma-Q Color Force 72s were used to light backdrops .
“ So , one of the queens ’ challenges last year was a pageant , for example . So , they had to show off their talents and they had to show off a couple different outfits . So , we built the space to sort of look like a high school auditorium and we lit it a little bit like that ,” Sadler recalls . “ There ’ s a greenscreen challenge as well , which is just a big greenscreen and we need to soft light that — front light and a bit of backlight . So , they ’ re all a little different .”
PRODUCTION DESIGNER PETER FARAGHER
For Faragher , what he remembers most about the Werk Room and Challenge Space in particular was how nightmarish the building was to create a set within . Turns out the rooms were ( unintentionally ) aptly titled for the set designer and production team because the building itself posed a major challenge and a lot of work .
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