Design Issues and Solutions -

[martinty]

My theatre is doing Rebel Without A Cause for our summer time show. Our director wants to do a sin city highly stylized design with lots of contrast and such. She wants their to be solid color beams across the stage ie: thick dark red. Would a really dark gel on a S4 make a fairly solid beam of light?

[Raktor]

Lots of haze, and a sharply focused profile shooting across the stage.

Gel color you can only work out from experimentation really, but if the gel is too dark, it won't be able to be seen very easily through the haze. Might also be handy for you to mock something up in a pre-vis tool and play around with angles and such.

[Esoteric]

Yeah, if the color is too dark it wont be seen more than a few feet from the front of the unit. Also if any one lights a candle then you will lose the effect. A moving light would be better for the effect, but it is possible with a Source 4 and gel, sure.

Mike

[icewolf08]

This is another question along the lines of the threads we had a month or so ago about ding a black and white show or a sepia show. Most of the feeling your director wants is going to have to come from the scenery and costumes. Probably you will want to play with angles of light and shadows. Throwing light from one side and letting half an actor fall into shadow. OYu might also want lower angles to exaggerate the size of the shadows you cast.

You can make beams appear, but you will either need haze, as Raktor said, or some other surface to project on (like the set). Using haze will make every light that is on show up, so you might try focusing lights at the set to cast your swaths of color. It all depends on the look you want.

[martinty]

Thanks Guys,

There are a few problems though, first off, my director is not planning on having much of a set other than two legs upstage and a false wall. One of the theatre supply companies that i buy from quite often, may be able to supply some movers and a hazer for me. My stage is quite small, only 20 feet deep and 36ft across, and my ceiliing grid is not strong enough to support any movers, so they would be sitting on the stage or on some pilllars.

What movers should i be looking at. I work for a Audio Visual supplier, and we use Mac 250/500/600's but i really do not get the chance to use them that much, but i am familiar with their operation.

[natethegreat]

You can definitely use Source Fours for the red light. Be sure to try and use the smallest degree you can that will still look good-it'll put out more light. The Rosco #120 is a good red to use, and it is possible to double gel, you just wont get as much light output. A gatling gobo might be an interesting effect to play with with the haze also.

[Footer]

Originally Posted by natethegreat

The Rosco #120 is a good red to use, and it is possible to double gel, you just wont get as much light output.

I would avoid using R120 for this. That is a frosted gel intended for use in cyc fixtures. If you want sharp beams, the last thing you want to do is drop frost in the fixture. Lee has some great reds, its work taking a look at.

[Esoteric]

You would really want to look at something with shutters to make "swaths" of color. If you are looking more for "splotches" or "spots" of color, then go with the brightest lamp units you can (to punch through your front light).

But I agree more can be done with set and costumes than can be done with lighting for something like this...

Mike

[martinty]

ok thanks,

Does anyone have any ideas about how to do the car chase scene. We did it in Junior High, where we actually had some wooden car shells pushed across the stage. This director however only wants it to be discreet and off stage. She really wants to make a movie of it and then project it, but our set is going to be in the way. Any Ideas?

[Nathaniel]

you could have a set piece that acts as a screen(if there's one that's a uniform(ish) color), or make a new moving set piece (a wall properly mounted on wheels would do) to project on

if you have moving lights, you could try having them move in a pattern around the stage, while playing a car chase sound effect