Cyc and strip as a set

[teejmya]

We're doing a production of AIDA here in our highschool. I'm the Lighting Designer, Electrician, and everything else.

Our set is basically cyc lights and strip lights, plus furniture and moving pieces.
Let me explain.

We have four cyc fixtures at the top of the cyc capable of reds, blues, and ambers.
We also have four strip fixtures that I am bringing down and mounting into the floor just in front of the cyc, facing up. They are capable of reds, blues, ambers, and greens.

This is really going to give some power over what's going on.


The objective is to tell the time of day. That's the number one goal of this method.

So, if anyone has experience with this setup, help me out. I'm attempting to emulate a sunrise, noontime, sunset, and nighttime.


I'll share my current ideas if anyone is interested.

 

[derekleffew]

From http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/lighting-electrics/8155-few-cyc-questions.html#post95446 :

ONE way to do a cyc sunset effect.
Assume cyc lit from 4E, with "sky cyc" type fixtures
(1)red,
(2)blu,
(3)grn.
R40 strips [300R40/FL lamps] from the floor as a ground row in
(4)red,
(5)blu,
(6)grn.

Q1, daylight, chs (1>6) @ FL.
Q2 P1 T 5:00 ch(1,3) @ 00.
Q2 P2 T 9:00 ch(2) @ 25.
Q2 P3 T 4:00 ch(4) @ 00.
Q2 P4 T 8:00 ch(5) @ 25.
Q2 P5 T 3:00 ch(6) @ 00.

Adjust times in parts 1>5 to your liking.

The effect can be reinforced by a progression of sidelight from one side of the stage, starting with pale yellow/BA in the Pipe End sides, moving to amber in the boom tops, orange in the head highs, and finally, red in the shins. The opposite sidelights would have daylight blue in the high sides, progressing to primary blue in the shins.

 

[rochem]

First of all, good for you for branching out and lighting the cyc from the top and the bottom in high school. If you do it right, it can add a whole new dimension to the stage. Check out that thread that Derek linked to - there's a lot of good information in there, although I hate the guy who started it.

Biggest suggestion I'd make is to carefully consider your color choices. I've always leaned away from RGB(A) color mixing because I find I tend to get better results when I choose color specifically for what I know I'll want. As the old saying goes, RGB(A) will do everything decently, but nothing extremely well. If you know that a sunrise/sunset is a really important part of the show and needs to look great, consider replacing the green with maybe a deeper amber or a sky blue, whatever works best for the show. There's some good suggestions in the thread Derek linked.

Have fun!

 

[kicknargel]

I recently designed scenic and lighting for Aida. While I didn't use a traditional cyc, the design consisted of white fabric panels that were swaged and lit differently scene to scene. So I think what you're doing could work well. Just something to think about though: time of day is relatively unimportant in this show (other than the night that Aida and Radames spend together). I'd think about generating a different cyc look that corresponds to each location, to help the audience know where they are. I don't want to step on any design toes, just food for thought.

 

[chausman]

In one of the spaces I have done shows in, the cyc is very limited. Blue, Red, and Amber is it. The blue and red have three fixtures each, sides and center. The amber gets two fixtures in the center. When we try to show time of day, we will usually use blue, naturally, then adding the amber a little bit made it look more like sunrise or sunset. The difference we have for sunrise and sunset, it red. When we have more red, it gets more pinkish. Night is just blue. Sometimes we take a Par and shine it to look like a moon. I've always thought it looked pretty good.

 

[teejmya]

Good info through that link, thanks guys.
The biggest thing wasn't really time of day now that I read into the script a bit more, (we just got them.) A huge piece of the show is transitioning from the museum into the actual grounds.

So the cyc will be mainly Amber for this show. We don't have a very rich supply of gels, unfortunately, so changing color on these fixtures doesn't look like an option. I'm stuck with what I have.

Anyway, I'll figure it out. Thanks for the suggestions. One more, while I'm on the topic of this show, would be the museum setting. I was going to leave the cyc uncolored, and cast four beams of white light down on it from above. Then gobo a nice stereotypical Egyptian something on it.

Museums use a lot of top light. How, though, can I focus more light on artifacts of the museum like in real ones?

 

[techno89]

I would maybe use the amber in the meusem and than leave it uncolored for outside, maybe for outside you add a little of the green for an accent color but it looks like theres not much you can do with what you have. But thats what theatre is about for some, including myself, making the best of the little you have!

Good Luck and any other questions feel free to ask,
Scott

 

[shiben]

Good info through that link, thanks guys.
The biggest thing wasn't really time of day now that I read into the script a bit more, (we just got them.) A huge piece of the show is transitioning from the museum into the actual grounds.

So the cyc will be mainly Amber for this show. We don't have a very rich supply of gels, unfortunately, so changing color on these fixtures doesn't look like an option. I'm stuck with what I have.

Anyway, I'll figure it out. Thanks for the suggestions. One more, while I'm on the topic of this show, would be the museum setting. I was going to leave the cyc uncolored, and cast four beams of white light down on it from above. Then gobo a nice stereotypical Egyptian something on it.

Museums use a lot of top light. How, though, can I focus more light on artifacts of the museum like in real ones?

I have seen quite a few shows grab 19 or 26 degree instruments, and hard focus them straight down on the artifact. Either leave it round or shutter it to a square. Add a CTB to bring it up and make it pop a bit.