Design Direct moonlight

Jay Ashworth

Well-Known Member
I am goin' in the deep end. This will be my first show as (at least ersatz) LD, Cat and the Canary. The director isn't all that interested in much "fancy" lighting; my primary special will be a low-angle 'direct moonlight' special offstage left, through the stage left window.

It only has to go about 20 feet, but I'm assuming I won't want it all *that* sharp when it hits a sleeping actor on a bed.

I have Source Fours, Par Fours, and some regular parcans for this; any suggestions on which one will work best for me?
 
What I would do personally is fix two stationary specials: this is all dependent on how far upstage the wall with the window is, adjust your hang as necessary. For example purposes, I will assume the wall is mid-stage center.
Two Source 4 26 or 36 degrees should cover it. Hang your first special on-stage up-stage of the window, angled to match the throw of the window. Do a sharp high-angle focus, and shutter-cut until you have a well-defined box of light around the bed. For extra flair, add a window pattern like Apollo Gobo [HASHTAG]#6076[/HASHTAG].
For your second special, hang a Source 4 either down-stage of your wall, like on 1st E, or even from a front of house position. Do a very tight focus on the window, very dull focus. Throw in a frost gel and a cool blue, and ghost it at 20% or so to simulate the effect of glowing moonlight on the window, and run your window-bed special simultaneously. I would do just a no-color in the first special for white light.

Good luck!
 
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Directors want what they want, but moonlight is just dim sunlight (but blue makes people think night o_O). so despite moonlight being "softer" you're still going to have the hard edge created by the walls surrounding the window, which is why I'd go sharp to show that you're inside (you'd think the bed would give that away) and that its shining into the window. Depending how your window and wall are made, it will do that on its own whether you have it hard or soft focused.
 
Exactly Josh. It's basically to draw attention to the bed, think a movie where they ALWAYS show the bed in that pool of light. Also, if you do happen to use a gobo, it will have to be sharp to show the windowpane's definition. :)
 
Okay, I see where you're going there. But I have about three feet from the front of the fixture to the wall and then 20 feet to the bed I cannot simultaneously have enough distance to have a sharp beam of light and a wide enough beam to fill the whole window, can I?
 
The two instrument idea described does not require the light on the bed to actually pass through the window. The problem with litterally shining the light through the window is that the moon is a very distant source, so the light would all come in parallel - an effect difficult to mimic in limited space.
 
I would probably do it differently ( depending on some assumptions I am making). Thats one of the fun things about doing lighting, you get to think about multiple ways to do something.

Assuming that you want this to look realistic:
When moonlight goes through the window ( I'm assuming a full moon here ), and the room is dark ( again I am assuming that ) - you will see several things.
1 - you will see the moonlight as it passes through the glass / or sheer curtains in the window. You will also see highlights on any window mullions, etc. To get this look ( if you only have four feet) I would put some kind of wide throw fixture behind the window. Get it as far away as you can. The purpose of this fixture is simply to add highlights to the window, curtains, etc. ( by the way - get your designers not to just make an empty hole in the wall and not put in something to represent glass. ( don't use glass ). Black screen, bobinette, etc work pretty well.
2 - you want to see the shaft of moonlight as it hits the bed. As Brandon suggests - hang a S$ sharp focus with appropriate gobos to match the shape of the window in the wall of the set. ( ideally get the designer to build the window to match your gobos). I would likely put a very pale blue in both of these fixtures as ( for me) this is the color of moonlight.
3 - There is some bouince in the room from the moonlight hitting the bed, and bouncing off of the walls and ceiling. On your set there are a lot of missing walls, so I would use some area lights ( or a wash) at a low intensity to repreoduce this light.

I'm assumin that you have area lights, etc so you can get the intensity up when you are not using the special.


One strong suggestion. ( almost a commandment ) Go outside on the next full moon, look at the shadows that the moon light makes. Look at the color of the moon light. Turn off the lights in your house and see what the moon looks like coming in through a window. Then think how to replicate that look on stage with the direction of the light, the shape of the beam ( hard or soft), color, and intensity.
 
Jay, there is a fixture called a Source 4 Zoom, as well as a Jr. edition. If there is a budget for tech, you could look into this, but I rather think for a small show or your first foray where the director isn't very picky, a special fixture is not the way to go in this case, especially since you have numerous ways of handling this particular effect. 'Zooming' is merely the effect of focusing a light directly by controlling it's edge, size, and focus parameters. These are all traits offered by many modern intelligent moving lights, not so much your standard ellipsoidal incandescent. That being said, think about what you are trying to accomplish.

Remember that 'zoom' doesn't mean you change the intensity from a certain throw distance (although you can do this to an extent by shuttering to a smaller area of light), because your lens degree never changes. You simply need to manipulate the light to focus on your desired target (the bed), while making sure the intensity of the light draws attention to the bed. This can be done on a standard S4 just using focus and shutter cuts. That is why I personally would use white light for the floor special, since it is more noticeable than a light blue (although JChenault is right; night-light is usually simulated by light blue.)

To that end, I would make sure the rest of the stage wash is in your night look, aka blue, and use the no-color bed light as a more surreal, yet believable attention-getter.
 
Well, we'll see how that plays; that fixture will remain accessible to gel, being on the equivalent of a box boom.

Note that the Par Four *isn't* an ellipsoidal, and that's why I didn't know if it's beamspread was adjustable; I'm happy to call that adjustment whatever everyone else does. Generally, beamspread adjustment seems to be called 'zoom'.
 
Source 4 PARs don't have any zoom, but they do come with a set of replaceable lenses that dramatically affect their beam spread. You can find lots of info online, and I'm sure on CB with a search. Note that it's common to mistakenly refer to a Source 4 PARNel as a PAR. These DO have a knob that zooms the beam spread, in a similar manner to a fresnel.
 
I was not aware that they had interchangeable lenses, I'm relatively certain we don't still have the interchangeable lenses for ours.
 
Yea, there are at least a few different options for vertical spreads. Not unlike actual PAR Cans, they have medium, narrow, and wide options. In most cases I think, these are mostly useful when you are using them for a stage wash, rather than a focused special.
 
Remember that 'zoom' doesn't mean you change the intensity from a certain throw distance (although you can do this to an extent by shuttering to a smaller area of light), because your lens degree never changes. You simply need to manipulate the light to focus on your desired target (the bed), while making sure the intensity of the light draws attention to the bed. This can be done on a standard S4 just using focus and shutter cuts. That is why I personally would use white light for the floor special, since it is more noticeable than a light blue (although JChenault is right; night-light is usually simulated by light blue.)

To comments. Technical and artistic.

Technical. In my experience a zoom fixture does change the intensity of the output. Ie for a specific throw distance, if you make the beam smaller the intensity goes up.

Artistic. It's fascinating to me our different thoughts about the moonlight color. To my eye a full moon has a tint of light blue to it. ( talking here about above the horizon a bit ) so for me a light blue color works for moonlight. Using no color would ( for me ) be too warm/red.
 
/pedantic
... Not unlike actual PAR Cans, they have medium, narrow, and wide options. ...
The Source Four PAR comes with four lenses (VNSP, NSP, MFL, WFL) included. A fifth, XWFL (aka buxom), is optional. MFL and WFL have oval beams; the others produce a circular image.
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The lenses look identical to the face of a PAR64 lamp. It may be difficult to tell from the photo, but the VNSP is clear, and the NSP has a light stipple finish.
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Back to topic: No, moonlight isn't blue, but Lee 183 is so named for a reason. Doesn't mean one MUST use it for that, or that another color won't work equally well, or better.
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... I'm happy to call that adjustment whatever everyone else does. Generally, beamspread adjustment seems to be called 'zoom'.
On Fresnels and PARNels (and beam projectors), it's called "spot-flood adjustment." On automated profile lights, it's called zoom.
 
Artistic. It's fascinating to me our different thoughts about the moonlight color. To my eye a full moon has a tint of light blue to it. ( talking here about above the horizon a bit ) so for me a light blue color works for moonlight. Using no color would ( for me ) be too warm/red.

The first time I was amazed at the strength of moonlight was while camping on Cumberland Island, off the coast of Georgia. On a full moon, you could easily read the text of a book while sitting on the beach on a cold December's night. It felt very blue, but like all things I think it is highly subjective.
 

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