From Assistant to Gaffer: Keelan Carothers' Journey in Lighting HBO's THE PITT

There's something special about watching a friend achieve their dreams, especially when you've been there for the journey. Keelan Carothers, who once worked as my assistant and even lived with me for a short period, has just landed one of the most coveted positions in television lighting: Gaffer for HBO's medical drama "THE PITT." At his age, he's become one of the youngest gaffers to helm a major network show, and I couldn't be prouder.

The Warner Bros. Lot: A Dream Realized

Walking onto the Warner Bros. lot with Keelan to meet up felt surreal. Here's someone I've known for years, now commanding one of the most technically complex sets on television. "THE PITT" isn't just any show – it's a medical drama that films sequentially, with each episode representing one hour of a single day in a hospital emergency room.

"JoJo called me with this opportunity," Keelan explains, referring to the show's Director of Photography. "She said, 'I know you're shooting more these days, but I just got this big opportunity and there's no one I would rather have than you.' I didn't even hesitate – 100%. It's just an opportunity I couldn't turn down."

During our set visit, Johanna Coelho briefly stopped by to check on a few things, and watching her and Keelan interact, you could see the mutual respect and collaborative spirit that makes their partnership work so well.

Team Culture and Collaboration

What struck me during our visit wasn't just the technical innovation, but the unique culture that show creator John Wells has fostered on set. Everyone on the production wears scrubs, creating a unified team atmosphere that mirrors the collaborative spirit of a real hospital. This attention to detail extends beyond just the visual authenticity – it creates a sense of shared purpose among the crew.

Engineering Lighting Perfection

What makes Keelan's work on "THE PITT" extraordinary is the unprecedented scope of control he's achieved. The set is a 360-degree hospital environment where cameras can shoot from any angle. Unlike typical TV productions where lights hang from above without ceiling constraints, "THE PITT" incorporates an actual ceiling structure, creating unique challenges.

Keelan and his crew have installed nearly a mile of LED ribbon lights throughout the set, creating a system where he controls every light source – from major lighting rigs down to the lights in vending machines. The LED ribbons adjust from 2600K to 6500K, and everything is controllable via iPad-like devices through a custom network. Even the monitors displaying heart rate data and medical readouts can be controlled, ensuring they show medically accurate information that actors can reference.

Sequential Storytelling Through Light

The show's unique filming approach – shooting episodes sequentially as the day progresses – requires sophisticated programming of different lighting looks for different times. Brian Wallace, the Lighting Console Programmer who has been with the show for the entire season, manages this complex system. "7 to 9 a.m. look, a 10 a.m. look, 1 p.m., 2 p.m.," Keelan describes the programming that creates the illusion of time passing throughout their nine-month production schedule of 15 episodes.

Brian has been instrumental in making the show's ambitious lighting design work, operating the lighting console for nine months straight across 15 episodes, with nine days per episode. His expertise allows Keelan's vision to come to life through precise control of the lighting environment.

Custom Solutions for Complex Challenges

When budget constraints meant using older Sourcemaker tubes instead of premium Astera fixtures, Keelan found creative workarounds. "It was way cheaper to buy all this ribbon and just rent the controllers," he explains. The team developed custom magnetic diffusion attachments for every light fixture, designed by Key Grip Max Thorpe and 1st Unit Grip Dan Preiser, allowing for quick adjustments during filming.

The team even outfitted an ambulance with the same LED ribbon system, creating seamless lighting continuity between interior hospital scenes and exterior emergency vehicle shots. Cole, who specializes in LED installation, has been working to integrate the ribbon lights throughout the ambulance. "We're trying to figure out how to tap into all these systems, which we kind of got figured out," Cole explains as he works on the complex wiring. "We're gonna be able to control all of this."

This ambulance integration represents one of the most technically challenging aspects of the production, requiring Cole's expertise to ensure the lighting system works seamlessly with the vehicle's existing electrical systems.

The Art of Invisible Lighting

Every light pictured here is controllable down to the vending machine (pictured on the left) and medical Refrigerator (pictured on right).

Keelan's obsession with perfection shows in details others might overlook. He's moved from rectangular eye lights to circular ones because "I just don't love a square or rectangle in the actor's eyes." His team includes crew members dressed as nurses who follow cameras with battery-powered circular eye lights, ensuring perfect lighting during complex tracking shots.

The set features primarily 2x2 parabolic troffers, along with some 2x4s, 1x4s, and lots of cans – all integrated into a cohesive lighting ecosystem. "I have guys dressed in scrubs at all times, so they look like a nurse. They'll hide around a corner, camera passes them, and then they follow."

Beyond the Studio

The scope extends beyond the main hospital set. The production shoots at St. Joe's, a real hospital around the corner from the lot, for exterior shots, requiring perfect lighting matches between practical locations and the studio. The show's surgical scenes feature enormous surgical lights supported by an enormous amount of truss that required significant engineering. "There's an enormous amount of trust that goes into it – it's structural, it was a huge engineering project to get this thing in here because it's really, really heavy and it moves around, and obviously actors are adjusting it and touching it."

A Friend's Pride

Watching Keelan command this operation fills me with incredible pride. "Basically the entire set is custom," he reflects. "A lot of times the fixtures on a show would be standard production lights – it's still a huge job, you're building a lot of things – but on this set, it's like 99% of the lights are custom builds."

As "THE PITT" gears up for season two, Keelan continues pushing boundaries. His "gold room" – the fixtures room where his team modifies practical fixtures with LED ribbon lights – represents the innovation that's becoming his trademark.

On the right is one of the last times Keelan worked for me in 2012. We were filming the NBA Finals with the Oklahoma Thunder facing off against LeBron James' Miami Heat. We captured LeBron James winning his first championship. The other picture on the right shows Keelan on set gaffing for The Pitt.

From someone who once worked out of my studio and assisted me on shoots to commanding one of television's most technically sophisticated productions, Keelan's journey exemplifies what's possible when talent meets opportunity.

From studio roommate to HBO Gaffer – sometimes the best journeys are the ones you get to witness firsthand.