Fashion Show

[DarSax]

Hey guys, so this Friday my school is having a fashion show, and it's my job to light it up. I've got the lighting plot, 32 pars on 8 trusses, blah blah blah. None of that is new to me.

My question/issue is, the colors/setup. So far I'm basically making 6 cooly-aimed washes, blue, purple, green, red, yellow, and orange. As the models walk down the "catwalk" (just the front of the stage it would seem), they are going to be backlit by the pars, and frontlit by our lekos.

I was just wondering if this made sense. I think I'm going to go to the rehearsals in order to get the basic color scheme of each dress, and then light up the stage in a complimentary color of the dress. I'm also going to raise the color temperature of our lekos (they're pretty yellow 750w EGG's), and then light the models with a 45-45 front angle setup.

So does this make sense to everyone? I've never done a fashion show specifically, so in the past the outfits that the people have been wearing haven't had so much importance. Any other thoughts/such? All sound good?

[drawstuf99]

I haven't done anything like that either, but be sure you have side lights to really mold the crap outta the people so you can see all the curves and depth of the outfit and what not. If not, it'll look like their sides will be sorta dark.

You sound good with comp. colors to pop that outfit. Just be sure their face doesn't look wierd though - maybe you could use a followspot to nuetralize and make the face look nice?

Do you have any followspots? They may be a nice little thing to give a little extra punch of color and assure they are always popped out from the rest of the area.

Otherwise you make sense. I dont know your setup, so I could be really wrong and I haven't done this sorta thing before- just some ideas.

[len]

I've done a lot of fashion shows. The first thing they tell you in rehearsal is "take out all the gels" because they seem to like the harsh white. After 5 or 6 times trying to get a nice balance only to have it yanked, I just gave up. I just use a combination of lekos, pars, and cycs if I can have stuff on the catwalk but all the gels stay at home, save for diffusion when needed.

[Goon]

Years ago, I found a niche doing lots of fashion shows and so I use to market my business as specializing in them and called the company Runway Productions.
You don't want to use gels because everything being viewed needs to be seen under a more natural light and gels change the natural color of the clothes and hair. If you really feel the need to gel, a slight pink everywhere might be acceptable just to make skin tones more natural. You could try R4815.
The real trick to fashion shows is lighting the models evenly from all sides while minimizing blinding the audience on either side of the runway. You're also trying to minimize shadows. This requires good planning of placement of fixtures on your part. You want "soft" light, so I would suggest frost and /or silk gels in your pars. There is a Lee 186 that is a frosted pink called "cosmetic silver rose" that might work well but it depends how close your lights are. The closer the lights, the heavier the frost.
Hope this helps.

[DarSax]

Heh, not exactly the replies that I was expecting (slash hoping for D. The fashion show has pretty much been a yearly occurance, and I think the lights have been gelled in any array of colors every time. (So basically, I have no doubts that if suddenly the lights were ungelled this year the reaction would be "well this sucks" from the crowd). All of the pars will be behind the models, almost the the point of being along the cyc. If I light them up a lot with lekos from the front and sides, will it really make a difference, seeing as the PAR's would only be lighting up their backs? (If at all, they're aimed at the floor and are pretty much just for effect.)

[Peter]

well.. to get arround the "ah lack of color" thing, when my college did a fashion show we did alot of gelled lights pointing at the audience. Most of these were from above or behind so they wernt in their eyes, but it gave a more colorful look to the room, even though the runway was a white wash.

[DarSax]

Talked with an older, graduated lighting designer from my school. He says he always got away with lighting the stage by simply focusing the gelled pars around the walkway down the center of the stage, and then using ungelled ones to light up the walkway. So nothing but white light hits the actual models, but there's a very cool colored effect around them. (And with the placement of the lights, there's no real worry of it bouncing off of the floor and hitting the models). I think that's what I'm going to work with.

[Goon]

Well, I think that's better than what you had planned earlier.
You have to look at the big picture. It's not a rockshow. They're selling a product. There's one basic emotion denoting bold style and confidence.
If it were me, I'd worry more about evenly lighting the models in white from any and every angle possible with the few lights that you have available. If there's any pars leftover, I'd use them to color the background walls rather than the floor. You'll get more of an overall look that way. If they wear a certain color, you create a background that "compliments" that color, and it shouldn't be a saturated color but a neutral one so it doesn't compete or overpower the model. Use contrast, maybe even a couple lekos with break up gobos on the back wall to add texture when the clothes are solid, solid hue background when the clothes are printed, etc..

Check out how the pros do it:
http://blog.zoozoom.com/zoozoom/new_...006/index.html
http://www.worldofstock.com/closeups/PMO2945.php
http://www.coutureproductions.org/fashionshows.html

[kingfisher1]

to me i jsut sounds sorta like a low key school advent. my advice would be to talk to the designers to see if they have a problem with you gelling they're models. if they like the white the white runway/colorfull everythong else sounded good. Perhaps a nice saturated cyc?

[asm]

just done a fashion show at my school. they used pritty much all of the stage, but instead of trying to light up the models equally, i created a strip of light white light in the middle of the stage from back to front, and across the front of the stage, and the rest of the stage was in a red and blue sectioned wash, with a slow cyc chaser and a 6 parcan chaser. we used some lights from a show we were doing the night before (which gave the effect of a clock ticking). everyone seemed to like it appart from one of the fashion designers. ah well. cant please everyone