"After All" from Glory Days musical lights ideas

[Anonymous067]

We are doing After All from Glory Days (awesome sad song!) in a show this week, in a little cabaret performance. I want to add something to the lights to make it "cool". Currently the lights are just a single area light not colored, and one purplish color coming from the top.

The stage is set with no curtains, as it takes place in "an audition setting".

Dynamic changes through the song would be cool, which is what I'm looking for.

 

[icewolf08]

First of all, I don't think you will find many people here who will effectively design the looks for you. Second, you didn't tell us about any of the rest of the rig besides the two lights for this scene so far. I would suggest listening to the song a few times and figuring out where you feel the lighting changes need to happen. Since it is a cabaret performance, you can basically do whatever you want with the lights as you are not trying to tell a unified story the entire show. Maybe you want a slow fade where the music builds, or some bump cues to accent some beats in the music. If you have a cyc or backdrop maybe you want to change the colors as the song progresses.

You have to listen to the song, multiple times, see how it makes you feel and then look at the rig you have and how you can achieve those emotions through lighting. Lighting a song in a cabaret is really going to be all about emotional response.

 

[shiben]

I dunno, you dont need a ton of sweeping looks for a song like this, your gonna want to be careful to avoid having too much going on. Think about angles, texture of light, and possibly a touch of haze (although its just something to think about). Personally, I think you could get away with the lights you have for this song, if you need to look at the lights to make the song good, the talent is doing something wrong. Ill say this, if it was my show, I would use 4 conventional lights total, and maybe some accessories (not scrollers or ICues) if I was feeling particularly not lazy. really only 4 cues to effectively tell the story of the song that I have in my head. Would it be cool? naaa. It would elicit an emotional response, however, which is what I want more than cool.