Design Lighting a Blackout

[lieperjp]

Oxymoronic, I know.

Coming up for our production of Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 There are several scenes where there are power failures, and hence a blackout. The director and I agree that the stage should not just go dark and risk losing the audiences attention, plus there are murders going on during the blackout so we want to add to the excitement.

I'm thinking some high dark blues from behind mostly for this, but I really have no idea where to start. My biggest problem is that there the stage is almost completely surrounded by 8 ft. walls for the set.

Yes, I know the policy on not telling how exactly to design but any suggestions would help, especially working around the set.

 

[waynehoskins]

Here's what I did when I lit that at the high school (and it's a wonderfully fun show too).

I had a few KW of dark blues from front in addition to the normal front system. Also consider additional sources of light, like windows. I snuck in the blues more to visibility as the "power outage" continued. Pretty sure I had some blue tops or bax as well.

Gosh, that was a fun show.

I hope I'm not crossing the magic line there between helping you through a design issue and designing your show for you.

 

[Esoteric]

Dark blue Fresnel tops with any out door light (moon light, street lights, etc).

Mike

 

[DarSax]

If this is indoors, I personally wouldn't go for blue, as I associate it more as an outdoor color. That being said, if your concept is that the room is lit by moonlight through windows, I'd say go for it, best if you even have some light through your windows on the floor (nothing clicheed, now).

But that's a bit more dramatic. If it's a comedy or something less "intense," I'd just turn the regular lights way down. It'll be the most visible way, and the audience will realize what it is if the lights are dim enough to not be normal. Combined with the lines that I'm sure are in the play of "OH DEAR THERE GO THE LIGHTS AGAIN," and proper blocking, I'd say you'd be set.


just my €.01

 

[lieperjp]

Some things I forgot to mention:

What I have to work with:

6" Fresnels
PAR64 with Narrow Lenses

Our biggest problem is that the outages are caused by a massive blizzard, so something like moonlight is nearly out. I kind of like waynehoskins' ideas, but also DarSax makes sense too. I think I may end up going with a Victorian style window GOBO gelled blue at about 30 to make the light plausible. I may also bring all lights (except the windows) down all the way and sneak in the rest of the lights - sort of like eyes adjusting to the lights.

I did some experimentation a few weeks ago when we had blizzards/heavy snow three days in a row - not really much light out at midnight during a blizzard.

 

[Goph704]

Did they have Exit signs in the 1940's? A little blue, a little moon light and the Red of a well placed light box Exit or the 1940's equivalent might look really interesting. Unfortunately I'm not incredibly familiar with the show, but I do know that every black out I've eve programmed has had those little buggers illuminating something.

 

[lieperjp]

Did they have Exit signs in the 1940's? A little blue, a little moon light and the Red of a well placed light box Exit or the 1940's equivalent might look really interesting. Unfortunately I'm not incredibly familiar with the show, but I do know that every black out I've eve programmed has had those little buggers illuminating something.

The scene is in a house/private mansion, so while this is a great idea to keep in mind, wouldn't work for this show.

 

[thommyboy]

I just did this show last year and LOVED it. We actually went to Black. This allowed for the audience to rely on their ears, as we had the slasher come out from one of the hidden places and actually Kill Bernice then exit. Leaving the sword sticking out the back of the chair.

 

[quarterfront]

Some food for thought.... Stuff you may already know, and worth considering in any case.

The reason we use blue light backstage, and that we generally use blue light to indicate night time has to do with our eyes.

First, at low light levels the sensitivity of the human eye to the red/yellow part of the color spectrum drops off while sensitivity to the blue end of the spectrum stays proportionally higher.

Second, at low light levels the monochrome sensitive rods on our retnas are more sensitive than our color sensitive cones, so as overall light intensity decreases we see more and more in black & white.

Combined, these two factors add up to the following: As darkness approaches we continue to see blues while reds go away, and even the blue we see seems less rich, less saturated.

With this in mind you can see why in theatre when we have to make a scene feel darker than it really is, it makes sense to use blue light. Not really rocket science here, but by tinting the light blue we can have more overall intensity but give the audience the impression that their eyes have done the thing that eyes do when they adjust to low light. If you get real saturated it starts to feel like impressionistic or romantic darkness; if you stay fairly unsaturated it feels more naturalistic.

To experience this, compare, say, a Rx80 with Rx81. The 80, you'll have to run fairly hot to get the intensity you need, and it will be somewhat saturated. The 81, you'll have to run lower to get the same intensity and it will be less saturated. The deeper blue will seem more outdoors and/or more romantic; the paler will seem more interior, more naturalistic.

Of course the question of "where's that light coming from" enters in. What's the motivation? If you have a handy window and moonlight, bend the color to that idea and point the lights from that direction. If not, though, keeping it smooth, diffuse and unmotivated is okay. The audience does, after all, understand that they need to see the action....

Sorry, off my professorial soapbox, telling you stuff you probably already knew. I'll get back to changing lamps....

 

[lieperjp]

Sorry, off my professorial soapbox, telling you stuff you probably already knew. I'll get back to changing lamps....

Actually... Most of that was new information.

Thank you for the informative post.

 

[midgetgreen11]

The scene is in a house/private mansion, so while this is a great idea to keep in mind, wouldn't work for this show.

You don't have EXIT signs in your house? Is that firecode compliant?

 

[lieperjp]

You don't have EXIT signs in your house? Is that firecode compliant?

Nevermind... I wasn't thinking... Yes, there are exit signs in the house, but none that are visible to the audience on stage, as there are no fire exits behind the stage.

 

[midgetgreen11]

I was being sarcastic... I meant the house you live in.

 

[xander]

Everybody has seemed to cover this pretty well, I just have one idea to add. You said that it is suppose to be a blizzard? Well, do you have access to a gobo rotater? If so, you might reconsider the "moonlight" from the window approach and then try to replicate the blizzard using the rotater. Making the light coming from the window undulate very subtly might justify the moonlight more even though it is a blizzard. Maybe you could accomplish the same thing by running a very subtle effect under it all.

Just a thought, because outdoor light really is the best way to justify light onstage during a blackout.

$.02

-Tim

 

[renegadeblack]

I did some experimentation a few weeks ago when we had blizzards/heavy snow three days in a row - not really much light out at midnight during a blizzard.

The audience isn't going to process that. I'm not sure what you folks are talking about when you say point it through the window, I don't know if you have an actual set piece, but I'd say probably use a gobo as well on the blues.

 

[lieperjp]

The audience isn't going to process that. I'm not sure what you folks are talking about when you say point it through the window, I don't know if you have an actual set piece, but I'd say probably use a gobo as well on the blues.

No, I don't have a rotator, and anyways, I don't have DMX on my catwalk anyways to run a rotator.

Yes, I was planning on using a window Gobo. I actually have two window gobos in my available selection of eight gobos total.

I agree with you that the audience wouldn't process it either, but that's what the director said, so what she says goes...

 

[renegadeblack]

No, I don't have a rotator, and anyways, I don't have DMX on my catwalk anyways to run a rotator.

Yes, I was planning on using a window Gobo. I actually have two window gobos in my available selection of eight gobos total.

I agree with you that the audience wouldn't process it either, but that's what the director said, so what she says goes...

What would you need a gobo rotator for? And your director says that the problem is that the audience will process it? Or does she agree that it's a good idea to use a gobo and put in some window type light?

 

[LightingPenguin]

That was a great post.

Just thought I'd throw my 2 sense in about it

 

[NickJones]

Have you considered using some software like Motion, or somthing to project snow passing the moon, projectors produce enough light to let the audience see what's happening without flooding the stage with light. Just a thaught anyway.

 

[arfinator]

What about like using a fireplace and a flickering fire to illuminate the stage? Just an idea instead of the blues from the moon, which do seem somewhat overdone--at least to me.