Blackout Lights

[propmonkey]

i call them shift lights and i usually just run a few of my backlights at 10-20%

 

[ruinexplorer]

As a side note with the eyes closed bit, in SERE training they told us that it can take up to 45 minutes to fully acclimate to dark from bright light. But if you're in a situation were you have you start seeing well in very low light and you keep one eye closed in bright light your "night vision" will return at an amazingly fast rate. Don't have any links to back it up but they tended not to lie to us.

Arrrr! and if you believe the Mythbusters, this is most likely why pirates wore an eyepatch (it's dark once you go below deck).

 

[lieperjp]

Arrrr! and if you believe the Mythbusters, this is most likely why pirates wore an eyepatch (it's dark once you go below deck).

Mythbusters... Wouldn't that be a cool job to have...

 

[Clifford]

Is that a question that even needs to be asked?

 

[mbenonis]

What I think we did during our last show (I was the sound engineer) is that the LD brought up a few lights with patterns in them to like 10% for scene changes (she uses a lot of patterns on the stage floor, as well as, well, everywhere else). Enough light to see by but not enough to really see what was going on.

But just to be safe, the Costume department made the stage crew wear these ridiculous overall-type workman outfits. There was quite an uproar at final dress when the stage crew they found out about it...

 

[rosabelle334]

haha yeah, when we were doing 42nd street, the entire crew dressed up in 1930s worker clothes. It was actually a lot of fun. =D Everyone wore those caps, long sleeved white shirts, some people had overalls too. It was great fun. ^.^

 

[gafftaper]

haha yeah, when we were doing 42nd street, the entire crew dressed up in 1930s worker clothes. It was actually a lot of fun. =D Everyone wore those caps, long sleeved white shirts, some people had overalls too. It was great fun. ^.^

Definitely one of the more fun ways to handle it is to put the crew in costume... a friend of mine was ASM for a community theater production of Nunsense. She had multiple "a vista" set changes so she had her own nun costume.

If you put your crew in costume, you can often find ways to continue the action with very little lag. Your director can find ways to bring the crew on during a scene to either do the entire set change, to be there ready to move something off when the scene ends, or even to sneak some props on/off stage. There are lots of options created by putting one or two crew members in costume.