About FTS Lighting…

Introduction

FTS Lighting is the trading style of Richard Bowles.

Richard works at every level in Lighting - from the conception, design and management of complex projects to pulling cables through mud!

With 20 years Freelance experience as a Lighting Designer, Operator, and Technician, he has travelled the globe and lit everything from swamps to skyscrapers.

Richard Bowles

History

Richard has been involved in lighting since being asked to help behind the scenes at his school theatre in the 1980's - this then grew to an obsession when at university, and resulted in him abandoning a promising career in engineering and following the explosive growth in the Rave scene, which was his main area for much of the early 90's.

This lead to the use of seminal early moving lights such as the Golden Scan 2 & 3, as well as becoming one of the first independent users of the Vari*Lite VL-5 and the WholeHog II.

Corporate Show

As this scene slowly died, the opportunity came to travel throughout Europe (although seeing very little of it!) with rock'n'roll Touring - both with household names and obscure specialities. A period working for High End Systems in Europe and the USA, then at with their peak with the Cyberlight, was followed by a few years of very random projects in the UK and Europe - lighting everything from faux egyptian temples in Berlin to caves in Buckinghamshire!

TV Show

A random cup of tea one day, at the much-missed Spot Co in west london, led to operating the moving lights for an early episode of the Pepsi Chart Show at the Hanover Grand for C5. At this point, things just snowballed with a mixture of Television shows and Film projects.

Joseph

A major highlight in '99 were the specially filmed versions of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (dir.David Mallet and Steven Pimlott) and Jesus Christ Superstar (dir.Nick Morris and Gail Edwards). These were both shot at Pinewood studios over a period of 3 months each, and Richard was involved from pre-production as overall lighting programmer - with over 200 moving lights and hundreds of dimmer channels, all being computer-controlled to SMTPE Timecode playback, This represented a major innovation in film production, taking techniques and equipment previously only found in high-budget Promos and extending them across every frame of a feature-length film.

Superstar

Returning to television, Richard was in demand as a moving-light operator on a wide variety of Light Entertainment shows for every UK channels - from Top of the Pops to daytime quiz shows. He also continued to work on a range of film projects, including Promos, Commercials, and Features. During this period, he was asked to join the committee of the Society of Television Lighting Directors (STLD), and has since 2003 has contributed to every issue of their highly-respected journal, Television Lighting. In early 2009, he became the Secretary of the Society.

Top of the Pops

Over recent years, Richard has scaled-back his work as a moving-light operator in order to focus on a return to Lighting Design, both within the Television and Corporate markets. This has lead to a wide range of projects as a Designer; from highly-theatrical conferences and award shows, to 3 successive seasons of high-profile xmas dinners in London, as well as two childrens series for the BBC, and a variety of news & sports shows for Sky. The common theme with all of these has been very limited budgets and timeframes with no room for white gloves - a challenge he has risen to very well.

Live 8

Where worked…

  • Television
    • BBC Television Centre TC-1,2,3,4,5,6,8
    • BBC Glasgow QMD and Pacific Quays
    • ITV Studios London
    • Granada Studios Manchester and Leeds
    • Teddington Studios
    • The Hospital Studios
    • Maidstone Studios
    • MTV Studios
  • Film
    • Pinewood Studios (most stages including 007 Stage)
    • Shepperton Studios
    • Three Mills Studios
    • Locations from Stately Homes to disused Power Stations…
  • Arena
    • Wembley Arena
    • NEC Arena
    • Albert Hall
    • ...plus others such as NIA, MEN, Sheffield, etc…
  • Exhibition Halls
    • Earls Court & Olympia
    • NEC
    • ExCeL
    • Royal Horticultural Halls
  • Other Venues
    • The Brewery, London
    • Old Billingsgate, London
    • BAFTA, London
    • Celtic Manor, Wales
    • Lowry Theatre, Salford
    • Pavillion Theatre, Bournemouth
    • Hotels including Grosvenor, Radisson, Hilton, etc…
  • ...plus many many many other places forgetten about!

    • The STLD…
    Society of Television Lighting and Design

    STLD Logo

    Visit the STLD Website for more information.