Teaching a Lighting Class

[lighttech11]

Our university has a theater production class and I'm going to be teaching several of the classes on lighting in that course. I have a basic plan of what I want to teach and how I'm going to do it. But I'm lacking in some visual materials like diagrams of different types of instruments, a diagram of a basic lighting system, things like that. I want some materials that I can copy and give to the students for them to reference while studying or while we are working in class.
So I was wondering if there are any such diagrams available anywhere on the web. I am looking in several books for diagrams and materials as well, but I also wanted to see if there are any good materials available on the web somewhere.
Any ideas?
Also if you've had other methods of teaching lighting that have worked well, I'd be interested to here about them.

[mrtrudeau23]

A lot of lighting companies will have diagrams of instruments on their websites and the statistics for them as well, like luminary power and things like that, especially Altman, Strand, ETC, and so on.

[derekleffew]

See this thread, specifically this post. Professor Wolf's is the most complete syllabus I have found on the Interwebs.

Here's another good outline: http://www.mts.net/~william5/sld.htm .

[Grog12]

Cut sheets cut sheets cut sheets

[David Ashton]

How many per class?

[gafftaper]

First things first. If I read you right this is intro to tech theater and you are being given a couple of class sessions to teach lighting basics. How many hours of class time do you have total? Is there a general text book for the class that includes lighting.

I teach an intro to tech theater class. The class has about 40 hours of total time in class. That leaves me 4 class sessions 8 hours to teach lighting. It sounds like what you are doing is very similar. I spend one session talking about the various types of fixtures and lamps, breaking them apart in class to show what they look like, draw diagrams of how they work. Session two is Dimmers, light board and raceways. This day is all about power and control. Ending with a demo of light board basics. Session three is hands on day. We cut gel, hang, focus, run the light board, play with gobos, look at the difference in light quality of various fixtures, everyone gets a chance to run the console a bit. Session four is EXTREMELY BASIC lighting design, wrap up, and review. Basically for the lighting design all I do is some magic sheets based on artwork. We take paintings and do a magic sheet of "if this was a set how would you light it and what types of instruments do you think you would use". Then discuss them and I talk a little about color. I conclude by breaking out some big pro lighting designs and talking about how to read it.

It's IMPOSSIBLE to teach ALL of tech theater in 40 hours. So I like to teach the class fairly loose, contouring it to the interests of students. One of my favorite activities (which I repeat 2 or 3 times in the class) is to bring in a stack of Live Design, PLSN, Stage Directions, L&S America, etc. I pass them out at random. The assignment: "Take this home and read it. When we meet next time be prepared to share one story you found interesting. You may not understand everything you read that's fine I'll translate it for you when you share in class. I just want to know what got your interest." I find that the things students bring up from the articles are great for stimulating discussion on aspects of tech the class is interested in.

[lieperjp]

Originally Posted by gafftaper

One of my favorite activities (which I repeat 2 or 3 times in the class) is to bring in a stack of Live Design, PLSN, Stage Directions, L&S America, etc. I pass them out at random. The assignment: "Take this home and read it. When we meet next time be prepared to share one story you found interesting. You may not understand everything you read that's fine I'll translate it for you when you share in class. I just want to know what got your interest." I find that the things students bring up from the articles are great for stimulating discussion on aspects of tech the class is interested in.

This sounds like a great idea.

Something else to consider - you haven't said the previous knowledge of your group. You wouldn't need to teach the extreme basics to people who have already gone through the process, nor would you teach advanced lighting to beginners. If you go through the basics with people who already know the basics they will grow bored quickly.

[seanandkate]

If you have more time for lighting, USITT has a pretty good publication called "Practical Projects for Teaching Lighting Design." I got mine (the second edition) back in 1992, but it might stil be available.

[lighttech11]

This is all great advice. Thank You.

Yeah, the class is about 20 students and it's about a 1 1/2 hour class. I'm guessing I'll probably get about 4 classes to teach about lighting. They are all absolute beginners. Many of them have never even set foot in the backstage of a theater. So, sadly (haha) I'll have to start at the beginning. Which is fine. Mostly I want to teach them "crew work" so-to-speak. I'd like to give them an intro to design as well, but my main goal is to get them up to speed on the basics, so that when it comes to tech week, we have a good solid crew to rely on (being that they are all just beginners).

Once again, this is all great advice.
Thank you very much.

[bdkdesigns]

Originally Posted by gafftaper

Basically for the lighting design all I do is some magic sheets based on artwork. We take paintings and do a magic sheet of "if this was a set how would you light it and what types of instruments do you think you would use". Then discuss them and I talk a little about color.

Wow, I love this idea. I can't believe I've never thought about this in the basic idea for stagecraft. In lighting design, we take this idea and recreate the art in the light lab in two sessions. The first session deals with only lighting angles used in the art piece (aka no color or texture). The second session deals with angles, color, and texture.


In our Stagecraft class, I teach the lighting section (Stagecraft I at our university is divided into costuming and lighting). I require Designing with Light by J. Michael Gillette for use within my section.