Plot Critique Please

[TupeloTechie]

I am competing in a lighting design competition at the EDTA Festival in Nebraska this summer. The main part of the competition is the presentation of a lighting plot and section view. I drew these on 2d wysiwyg report in January for the statewide competition and received a superior. However at the statewide competition they don't really have any lighting people to accurately judge the design. That is where you guys come in!!

I know these plots look kinda rough but its about the best I could pull off using wysiwyg. Please leave any comments you have about these drawings, along with anything I should fix or change/delete/add. Also I believe I might have the time to re-draw it in Vectorworks as I'm trying to learn that program now, however I'm not sure with the little experience I have with it that I can make it look better. Should I do this?

Thanks for the help!

[soundman]

All of these things are personal preference.
- Grey the set on the plot, it is not as important as the lighting fixtures and should be pushed into the background
-You have two "2 Boom L" one DSR another USL
- Your DS booms do not start with a number, unless it is under the fixture, all I see is Boom L.
- I think this is an export issue but the linewieghts look really scewed and the text is hard to read.
- Looking at Electric 1A the sidelight, fixtures 1 and 2, the hexagon is not solid so the pipe goes right threw the channel numbers and that makes them hard to read.
- Some of your lights have what I would imagine as your symbol for gobo in them but there is nothing in the key to tell me for sure.
- There is no vertical scale on your booms or in your section. Not a bad idea to include that.

[derekleffew]

Not very realistic. Too many extraneous characters. Seemed to drag during the second act. No one at all was surprised to find out at the end that the butler did it.

[disc2slick]

hey, are you looking for critique on the design or on the drafting technique?

Dan

[TupeloTechie]

Not very realistic. Too many extraneous characters. Seemed to drag during the second act. No one at all was surprised to find out at the end that the butler did it.

It took me 5 minutes to figure out what this had to do with anything... then I reread my title.

hey, are you looking for critique on the design or on the drafting technique?

Dan

I'm mainly looking for a critique on the drafting, as you cant get that much of the actually design out of the plot itself. However if there is anything I should know about the design then please speak up. It is a hypothetical production, btw.

[SteveB]

Not very realistic. Too many extraneous characters. Seemed to drag during the second act. No one at all was surprised to find out at the end that the butler did it.

OK, so Mister Smart Alec here wants you to call it a "Light Plot". Another one of us who laments the slow deterioration of precise terminology.

FWIW, don't the Brit's refer to a "Plot" as the lighting cueing session ?, as in the "Plotting" of the light cues. What do they call the drawn plans for the installation of the lighting system, or "Rig" ?.

Steve B.

[derekleffew]

...What do they call the drawn plans for the installation of the lighting system, or "Rig" ?.

Some Limey named Dick Pilbrow calls it a "lighting layout plan" in a fairly famous lighting book.

[TupeloTechie]

OK, so Mister Smart Alec here wants you to call it a "Light Plot". Another one of us who laments the slow deterioration of precise terminology.

FWIW, don't the Brit's refer to a "Plot" as the lighting cueing session ?, as in the "Plotting" of the light cues. What do they call the drawn plans for the installation of the lighting system, or "Rig" ?.

Steve B.

hmmmm... I figured since it was in the LIGHTING forum I wouldn't need to
type LIGHT plot. I really hope these people don't want my presentation to be a lighting cueing session.. I would really be crunched for time as I only get 10 minutes, I hope they will provide me with a fast programmer.

[rochem]

Pretty much all that's already been said, plus a few other things of my own. Most of them are personal preferences, and are not necessarily wrong, but they might be worth looking at:

-I would hatch the boom instruments on the plot, just to show that it's a vertical position
-the text is really bugging me - it's a difficult font, too small, and it seems like everything is kinda cramped together
-rather than centering the plot towards one side of the page, i would center the plot and then place the vertical view of the booms near their respective location on the overhead plot. It's just easier to make sure you have the right hanging position when the vertical view is right next to the overhead location. See the attached plot.
-I personally prefer to have individual measurement lines between each unit rather than just one measurement running along the page, especially when everything isn't at regular spacings. See the attached plot for what I mean. But that's just a personal preference, your approach is perfectly fine as well.
-You haven't included any trim heights on the electrics or the masking. You probably don't need to have trims on the masking, but noting the trim heights on your electrics is pretty important.
-I would recommend including the borders in the overhead plot, not just in the section.

Attached is a plot I drafted up in VectorWorks. The design is not in any way mine, and the drafting is basically an updated version of the original with some of my own drafting preferences. I made lots of Label Legends to ensure that I didn't have information overlapping, such as with the Booms, Box Booms, and the closely spaced electrics. And before anyone points this out, yes I am aware that there's no Instrument Legend. I made this for my own personal use and just never bothered to take the time to make one. Looking at it now, there's a few things that I would change if I were drafting this for real, but overall it's not too bad.

[JChenault]

First question - is the judging going to be in terms of 'How good is the drafting to communicate the design' or 'How good is the drafting in terms of how clear it is to the electrician'.

My comments are based assuming it is for the electrician.

I don't see a 'Notes' section. For example :

• 'All fixtures spaced 1' - 6'' unless noted'
• 'Trim height measured from permanent deck'
• 'Provide X extra sheets of color '

Knowing where to hang something is vital. As someone said, just having a ruler mark at the top and bottom makes it harder to hang the show. I would suggest either showing dimensions between each unit ( that is different from the default) at the best solution. A second choice, would be to have ruler lines near each pipe. I do not see any notes of trim height for pipes or borders. I see no notation of location of linesets. How far upstage from the plaster line is the fourth electric? What is the vertical spacing on your booms? No indication that I could find. As Ken Billington says - if you don't care where the light is hung, you don't have to dimension it.

You need to note wattage someplace. Either as part of the notes, or in the legend. Otherwise how will I ( as an electrician) know how to lamp things.

Some of your fresnels seem to show what might be barn doors - or they could just be some lines you drew on the plot. If they are barn doors, they should be noted on the legend.

There is a dashed square of the ground plan. What is it? It does not seem to relate to anything in the section. Label it if it is important to the hang, remove it if it makes no difference.

I find the convention of all booms pointing the same way confusing. Glancing at the plot, I would expect that the boom Right is pointing offstage. Sure I know that does not make sense, but you are making me work.

I find showing all of the beams of light in the section confusing. Again, as an electrician, I don't care about that. I do what to see the sight lines, and dimensions - but all of the other lines just make it harder to see what is going on.

I can't read the channel numbers on the fixtures you have drawn that point SR/SL ( IE AP Electric #2)

Why do some of your boom in plan have fixture numbers on them, and some not. IE 2 Boom L has the number '5' in it. You probably want to draw those fixtures with a cross hatch to note that they are special.

It is interesting to me that in some cases you call out a brand name of fixture, in others you simply say 6x9. You should be consistent.

How are you going to focus the lights on the rake? You might want to draw in a bosun chair to make sure it gets included.


In general - this plot is much better than many I have seen, aside from the lack of dimensions I could hang the show with minimal questions. Let us know how the Festival goes.

[indyLD]

Some Limey named Dick Pilbrow calls it a "lighting layout plan" in a fairly famous lighting book.

Yes, we call it a rig plan or "The Plan" over here in the UK. In lampie rhyming slang (a techie version of Cockney rhyming slang), it's sometimes called the "Desperate" - short for "Desperate Dan", a cartoon character from the Dandy comics.

Cheers