An important thing to remember is the limitations of your space. I'm designing two shows at the moment in two very different spaces. One is at my high school. Our proscenium is about 40' wide, but the FOH pipe is only 25' wide and comes in at a very shallow angle. I can just barely get straight-on front light to all downstage areas, so full-blown McCandless on the sides is out of the question. Also, our "box booms" are just pipes mounted to the walls that come in at about a 20 degree angle. So we don't have lots of choices for front light. Generally what I do is use two straight-in systems for a warm and a cool tint, then load up the sidelight with saturated colors to help add more dimension. When I design, I tend to add the toning lights (sides, tops, backs) first, and then add in FOH only as much as is needed. Just because your entire ensemble is on stage, does that mean you need to shoot the place full of front light? I generally light the ensemble with tops and sides, then add just enough fill from the fronts to get rid of any annoying shadows - basically, like designing for dance. Then I just have a follow spot track with the soloist(s) and it looks pretty good.
I just got hired to design another show at another local high school. This theatre just got renovated, and it's very nice (except that its all Strand ). The box booms are large and easily accessible and in a perfect position for washing the stage. The FOH cove is at a perfect 45 degree angle, but you cant' hang instruments wherever you want. There are five windows cut into the ceiling where the catwalk is, and these are the only places you can hang lights if you want them to hit the stage. That effectively limits you to 5 front light instruments. For that show, I'm using 5 areas across and lighting them straight-in gelled in a neutral color. Then I'm loading up the box booms with color washes, and I will use these as a variation of McCandless. I can wash the stage in different colors from the two sides if I wanted to, or just from one side, then add in the neutral fronts to get rid of shadows. Or just use the neutral fronts with some saturated sidelight and toplight to get a specific effect.
Personally, I don't find myself using McCandless very often. For a straight play I will usually use some form of McCandless to get the proper relationship of key and fill light. But the main limiting factor that I have found is that your directions of key and fill are pretty much set. For most musicals, you have drastic changes in time, place, and mood throughout. In one scene I might need a bright sunrise, while I might need a dark night in the next. If I had enough instruments to double hang then I would love to use McCandless, but I've found that it's generally best for me to shoot fairly light tints straight-in from the FOH and then shoot the actors full of saturated side and top light. Having said that, I do want to play around more with the McCandless system and see if I can use it better than I am. Am I thinking too inside the box here? I love the modeling effect McCandless can make when I set it up just to play with it, but I just can't see it being practical in the shows I do.
(Side note: Something kind of interesting is that Wicked uses just one system of straight-in front light, gelled in a neutral color. That's it. And these linstruments are only used in two scenes, one for a very short time if I remember correctly.)
Just the one sidelight for Jewel Box?
I personally love the Jewel Box method, I use it for most of my shows, especially good for musicals.
Jewel Box ideally would contain
Straight on front light
Sidelight 90° to the Front Light
Backlight 180° to the Front Light
Toplight Straight Down
I often leave out the top or backlight but not both.
I believe Sony means "jewel lighting," and it comes from our favorite author, Howard Bay. See the Collaborative Article: McCandless System - ControlBooth. I believe there's mention of it in Jean Rosenthal's The Magic of Light as well.Where does the Jewel Box Method come from? I wasn't taught it and an internet search didn't turn up anything. ...
I believe Sony means "jewel lighting," and it comes from our favorite author, Howard Bay. See the Collaborative Article: McCandless System - ControlBooth. I believe there's mention of it in Jean Rosenthal's The Magic of Light as well.
I hear ya, Wayne! For years I lit many shows on less than 36 dimmers in a small community theatre. I lit shows like "Cats" "Beauty and the Beast" and "Miss Saigon" (no color changers/movers in the rig, either!) It's all entirely possible to do these things, but it takes pre-planning and sacrifice (I'm giving up this wash so I can do this gobo, etc).
I'm partial to McCandless, it's the method I learned in high school and college (and I was one of those guilty of using R02 and R60 too much). I'm finding with larger venues (with larger inventories), color changers (and movers) now that some of that creativity and simplicity is getting lost. The nuances get lost in a large rig on a large stage.
That being said, the situation the OP is in probably calls for "do whats best for the space you're in". If the design is going to take a major hit (inventory/circut/dimmer-wise) by using a particular method, find what works best within the limitations of your theatre space.
Cudo's for asking a really good question, I've really enjoyed reading this thread.
You know something Cool? I just thought I'd throw this into the mix. I worked with a designer in college who realized that you can combine a jewel system ( which I though came out of Russian Ballet ) and a McCanllis system. I've never been able to pull off this "combined" system in any other house professionally, but I've always wanted to. It really doesn't eat up more FOH circuts than a three color 90 wash, but it give you almost unlimited modeling potential. Something to think about.
Also, I was taking a break from researching a design for the show, High school Musical one, and I found out a lot of what Disney did with their production is a lot of quick camera changes during the songs. Most of the filler is static, but the camera moves a lot when the kids are singing. Watch out because on stage that sense of motion during the singing is going to fall on you as the LD. So cuing is going to be just as important as modeling.
good luck and post what you come up with if you get a chance.
Thanks
-gopher
Interesting. That method was never really addressed in our design classes (maybe because it was born out of necessity that no longer exists since most houses now have house beams/house truss). I would never think to use side light as anything other than fill except maybe in musicals or dance.
This method seems like a bastardization born out of a need that no longer exists. But I like the molding and sculpting that comes from different angles. Seems there is some good discussion to be had there.
Mike
The subject has come up here a few times (use "search") and I don't think that it is trending up or down. It is just a method, and as such gets put in the binder with other methods. I always thought it looked a little artificial, but others swear by it. In real life, people are never "lit" evenly. There is almost always a "hot" side, the side facing the sun or the desk lamp or whatever. So, to fracture a cool/warm front lighting scheme would make sense as long as the set environment of the stage supports the reason for the look. My own opinion is neutral.
I did tech theater all through high school in the early 80s. Our Tech Director drilled the McCandless system into us.
Fast forward to 2015 and I have sons doing tech theater in high school. When I start talking about McCandless, two lights from the front at 45 degrees, warm and cool, one or two backlights if you have enough instruments, etc. they look at me like I have three heads.
Am I showing my age? Is McCandless still pertinent? I have seen a show that used the "jewel" method. I thought it looked terrible.
What lighting method are all the cool kids using today?
As you've just noted, the actual title of McCandless' book is "A Method of Lighting the Stage" not as some people interpret as "The Method of Lighting the Stage". I totally agree that it's just one of the tools a person can use to achieve the effect desired.
I use LED fixtures for my top/ back wash fixtures.Someone mentioned moving lights. The school district just installed the "wiring" to "get ready" for "LED and movable" lights. This seemed odd to me. AC power is still AC power. Yes you need to add DMX connections for control. I thought they would just run DMX to each circuit connection. They added three new electrics over the stage in addition to the four they already have. That seems like a waste of fly positions to me. What makes LED and movable lights so special that they need to add all this. Is this a case of a sleezy sales person.
How many high schools are using LED and movable lights for theater? Its a play, not a disco.
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