Al Gurdon is a British broadcast lighting designer and consultant. He specialises in large scale televised music shows and events including the

MTV Awards The MTV Video Music Awards (commonly abbreviated as the VMAs) is an award show presented by the cable channel MTV to honour the best in the music video medium. Originally conceived as an alternative to the Grammy Awards (in the video category) ...

, the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

and the

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...

half-time concerts. Gurdon was the Broadcast Lighting Designer for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2012 London Olympics. Gurdon has a BA Hons in Film and Photography from the Polytechnic of Central London, now known as the

University of Westminster , mottoeng = The Lord is our Strength , type = Public , established = 1838: Royal Polytechnic Institution 1891: Polytechnic-Regent Street 1970: Polytechnic of Central London 1992: University of Westminster , endowment = £5.1 million ...

. He has had a long-standing working relationship with television director

Hamish Hamilton Hamish Hamilton Limited was a British book publishing house, founded in 1931 eponymously by the half-Scot half-American Jamie Hamilton (''Hamish'' is the vocative form of the Gaelic Seumas eaning James ''James'' the English form – which was ...

Awards and nominations

Al Gurdon was awarded an Emmy at the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards 2014. He won in the category of Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Variety Special for the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games Opening Ceremony. He was the Lighting Designer in a team with Peter Canning, Michael Owen and Ross Williams (Lighting Directors). Along with three other key members of the lighting team, Gurdon was also nominated for an

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

at the

65th Primetime Emmy Awards The 65th Primetime Emmy Awards, honoring the best in prime time television programming from June 1, 2012 until May 31, 2013, were held on Sunday, September 22, 2013 at the Nokia Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles, California. CBS televised the cere ...

, scheduled for 22 September 2013 in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, for Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Variety Special, for their work on the

2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony The opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics took place on the evening of Friday 27 July 2012 in the Olympic Stadium, London, during which the Games were formally opened by Queen Elizabeth II. As mandated by the Olympic Charter, the pr ...

. Gurdon was nominated as Director of Photography, and the three other nominees for the ceremony are

Patrick Woodroffe Patrick James Woodroffe (27 October 1940 – 10 May 2014) was an English artist, etcher and drawer, specialised in fantasy science-fiction artwork, with images that bordered on the surreal. His achievements include several collaborations wi ...

(Lighting Designer),

Tim Routledge Tim Routledge is a British lighting designer, creative designer, and lighting director who works in television, music concerts, outdoor events, award shows, and variety shows. Routledge's recent work as Lighting Designer includes the Spice Girls ...

(Moving Light Programmer) and

Adam Bassett Adam Bassett (born 5 November 1978) is a British Lighting designer working in the worlds of live performance, theatre, art and architecture. Education Bassett trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, graduating in 2000. Caree ...

(Lighting Director). Gurdon was also nominated for an Emmy is the same category (Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Variety Special) for the

Super Bowl XLVI Super Bowl XLVI was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion New York Giants and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion ...

Halftime Show starring Madonna.

References

External links

''Wall Street Journal'' interview with Gurdon
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gurdon, Al Lighting designers Living people Helpmann Award winners Place of birth missing (living people) Alumni of the University of Westminster Year of birth missing (living people)