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 honor 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 (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

and the

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...

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 The University of Westminster is a public university, public university based in London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1838 as the Royal Polytechnic Institution, it was the first Polytechnic (United Kingdom), polytechnic to open in London. The Po ...

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

Hamish Hamilton Hamish Hamilton Limited is a publishing imprint and originally a British 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 ''Jame ...

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 television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award catego ...

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 Peacock Theater, Nokia Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles, California. CBS ...

, scheduled for 22 September 2013 in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, 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 proc ...

. 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 England, English artist, etcher and drawer, who specialised in Fantasy art, fantasy science-fiction artwork, with images that bordered on the surreal. His achievements include s ...

(Lighting Designer), Tim Routledge (Moving Light Programmer) and Adam Bassett (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 British 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)