Dedo Weigert, the pioneering inventor of the Dedolight system, has passed away at the age of 87.
Weigert began his career as a production manager for a small production company specialising in industrial features for companies such as Mercedes and German Railways, explained the British Society of Cinematographers in its tribute.
“Then I took a job as a camera assistant,” Weigert said. “I loved it very much and had a wonderful teacher, a British cameraman called Johnny Peters.”
As his career grew, it became the technology side that took his interest; he built his own teleprompter in 1961 and then in 1966 introduced the first European-made fluid head.
His company (Weigert Film) became one of the leading distributors of equipment in Europe, handling distribution for Tiffen, Aaton, Photo-sonics and Kino-Flo.
In addition, Weigert became a “fix-it” man, helping cinematographers solve specific problems by building custom pieces of equipment.
Weigert’s work building film equipment led to a thought – initially a low-voltage, dual-lens system, augmented with a special focusing system and involving three separate movements operated from a single knob. This design would become the Dedolight.
Dedolights became one of the most used lights in the industry, widely complimented for their compact size, precision quality and versatility. Famously, Conrad L. Hall ASC individually lit each rose on American Beauty with a Dedolight.
In 1990, Weigert was honoured by the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences with a Technical Achievement Award. This was followed by an Emmy Award in 2003, and in 2021 the BSC honoured Weigert with the Bert Easey Technical Achievement Award for his extraordinary contribution to filmmaking.
At his BSC Awards presentation, he reflected that he had always been like a little kid in a sandbox. Filming was never work for him.
Read the full tribute on the BSC website.
