Tony Santoro
Lighting Director, Gaffer
Tony Santoro’s career has spanned 40 years helping to create some of the most prestigious television shows on the air. Tony has worked on shows for almost every network. For NBC he spent his time working for the news mostly creating location shoots for Nightly News, Meet the Press, MSNBC Townhall meetings, network coverage of the New Hampshire Primaries and the Iowa Caucus, and the Vice Presidential debates. He also went with NBC Sports to the Olympics several times. For ABC he helped create several Town hall meetings and Barbara Walters interview on location. For CBS he was the Lighting Director for the US Open at the Billie Jean King Tennis Center. For Comedy Central he was the lighting director for TV Funhouse and Crank Yankers. For Lifetime Network he was the Lighting director for Lifetime Live and Lifetime Magazine. Tony also spent 22 years as the Gaffer of Sesame Street. He was also the Gaffer on both Cosby sitcoms. He has been the Gaffer on 11 Emmy award winning productions. Tony retired from lighting in 2015 after 40 years. He still teaches Studio Lighting for IATSE Local 4 which he has been a proud member of for decades. Last year marks his 20th year of teaching the next generation of union stagehands!
Workshop: DAMN…… I need a little SOMETHING. How to light properly when you have almost NOTHING! Sponsored by DeSisti
Network crews have the luxury of working with state of the art equipment, and budgets to match. We all know that this is not the case of the typical PEG TV crew! In this workshop, veteran Lighting Director & Gaffer, Tony Santoro, will teach you how to create nice looking images with just one or two lights, and whatever you may have available at hand. You will be surprised to learn about some very commonplace objects that you can use to accomplish this. Tony will bring his “bag of tricks” with him (perhaps we’ll even find something to use in the room that day) to show you that with the bare minimum, and a bit of creativity, you can get the shot. And…. yes…. He has used everything in his bag of tricks on locations when either the crew did not bring the right, or enough, stuff!
Presenter: Tony Santoro, Lighting Director, Gaffer
Moderator: Paul A. Distefano, Northeast Regional Sales Manager, I Light USA Corp- DeSisti- Coemar USA