ABC's Good Morning America Comes to the Berkshires

September 2008
Lee, MA 

Limelight Productions of Lee, Massachusetts was pleased to provide labor and equipment for locations used by Good Morning America as ABC kicked off its Whistle Stop Tour '08, September 15 with stops in Lenox, Lee and Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

After kicking off the train tour in nearby Lenox, MA, the train made a brief stop at Joe's Diner in Lee where the well-known Norman Rockwell painting "The Runaway" (featured on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post, September 20, 1958) was set. Using the current owner of Joe's, a local child and a State Trooper, the painting was recreated "live" with lighting supplied by Limelight.

Next stop for the train was Stockbridge, MA where the majority of the morning's broadcast took place. The live broadcast was staged in several locations including the walkway in front of the inn, a small park (yoga/fitness segment), the porch of the Red Lion Inn (musical segment) and along main street with stops in several small store fronts.

In addition to the GMA hosts and the Berkshire locales, the broadcast featured musical guests were Yo-Yo Ma and James Taylor who performed several numbers for the live broadcast and several additional songs for tape to be used later.

At the various locations around Stockbridge, Limelight provided fixtures and grip equipment as well as provided the labor to support the lighting needs of the live broadcast - including operators for portable battery operated fistures assigned to follow the talent - as well as the set up and breakdown. At times during the setup and broadcast, the weather proved to be challenging. Steady winds and frequent strong gusts played havoc with free-standing equipment, especially larger masking/lighting control devices (ie silks, etc - see photo above) required to adjust for the effects of the rising sun!

###

• Tour info at ABC http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=5750276
• Diane Sawyer with James Taylor http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=5804467
• Berkshire Eagle http://www.berkshireeagle.com/ci_10475623
• More about Limelight's Film and Video Lighting Resources http://www.filmandvideolights.com

About Limelight Productions

Since 1972, Limelight has provided lighting equipment and supplies for theatrical, film, television and special event productions and has the largest selection of film and video location lighting equipment in western Massachusetts.