Need help with a show(s)

[Rico LD]

Hi,

I'm a high school student fairly new to lighting design and I've been asked to design lights for 2 different shows my school is doing 2 days in a row. My trouble begins with the designing of it, as my TD wants the rig to be useable for both shows which happen to be completely different. The first is a musical production and then the next day is a dance show.

This could be an easy feat to pull off for some however our stage isn't exactly ideal. I only have 9 dimmers in the house and 8 on the electrics on the stage to play with. Sadly I'm even more limited in the sense that each dimmer circuit can only handle a max of 2 fixtures.

I do love the look of using booms for the dance shows however I'm not sure if it would work with the musical due to the number of dimmers that would be used by them. The TD has suggested we use some ColorbandPIX LEDs on the booms. I'm not exactly sure if they would work for the same effect as conventional fixtures.

Also, I was really hoping to gel some fixtures as well but am unsure if even that would be possible due to my restrictions. At most I will probably end up gelling the fixtures warm/cold but nothing more (sadly).

So this where I appeal to you guys. I'm in a tough spot with these shows and as a high school student still learning, I could use any suggestions or thoughts that you guys may have.

Thanks guys

 

[CraigV]

It's hard to suggest anything without knowledge of how many of what sort of light you have, the budget available for rental, or the total amount of power available.

If there are more dimmers available, run more circuits from them.

I mean, if you have the resources, you could hang two shows and have a switchbox to change between the two shows. Or rent dimmer doublers to have more channels. Or rent just some LED pars. I'm assuming since the TD is interested in using some LED lights already, this won't be an issue with the board. What board do you have?

 

[Rico LD]

The light board we use is the ETC Express 24/48. We also run Martin Light Jockey for a few moving lights we have. As for budget...we don't have one. The school doesn't give us much money for anything really except for high school dances that we run, then we rent a good amount of equipment. But that's besides the point. Fixtures, we use SourceFours from the house and we have 14 Altman 360Q fixtures which we use from two electrics on stage.

Yes, it is very limited.

Also, will using LEDs for sidelight achieve anywhere near the same effect as conventionals? This is a big issue I have in the back of my mind however I realize that I will probably end up going with this idea anyways.

 

[np18358]

While some LED instruments would work for sidelight, I don't believe that those striplight style LED's will. I am guessing they will throw too much light in a non-focused manner. Consider using the 360Q's for sidelight and using the LED strip unit for toplight on your electrics, as they will provide a good wash. Also if you have any sort of Backdrop or CYC, the LED unit will be amazing to do color effects on a flat surface.

 

[Rico LD]

Consider using the 360Q's for sidelight and using the LED strip unit for toplight on your electrics, as they will provide a good wash.

I think I may actually do that, I hadn't thought of swapping them like this. Normally we do use the LEDs on our cyc and they create amazing effects.

If all else fails then I will most likely use that idea of swapping them. Thanks!

 

[kicknargel]

You might consider using a high side (or pipe-end) position as the workhorse here. A compromise of sidelight for dance, and a good position for musicals. You'll need to have some frontlight for the musical as well. I like the idea of the LEDs as toplight.

Really push to be able to buy gels, and maybe to swap gel between shows.