El Grito de México 2004 & 2005 (Univision)

Lighting designer, Jeff Ravitz, received the 2005 Los Angeles Area Emmy Award for Outstanding Lighting Design for the annual El Grito broadcast. He designed the show from 1999 to 2005, refining the lighting year by year. He has also been honored with a Telly Award and an Aurora Award for previous years’ broadcasts of the show.

The annual program, which always aired on September 15, celebrates Mexican Independence Day, and features an extravaganza of Mexican cultural entertainment as well as well-known pop performers of the genre. The traditional Bell Ceremony concludes the show.

Ravitz noted that, “the production is technically intricate on all levels. The lighting system is actually suspended from the LA City Hall structure…” to provide lighting coverage and visual excitement for the hundred foot wide stage built out over the building’s expansive front steps. Over four thousand people lined the streets to see the show. “It is a live spectacular that we take very seriously as a television broadcast, as well.”

In 2004, the show moved for one season from City Hall to the Gibson Amphitheatre (formerly Universal Amphitheatre). Ravitz received the LA Emmy for that show, also.