Cinderella The Musical

Edrick

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
So our drama instructor want's to go with basic as they see it great we're in a new school that's better than the old place thus we don't want to do anything fancy and just want to go with the basics since even that is better than what we had before.

But i was wondering if anyone has recomendations for special lighting for a play like this, any type of special effects, or lighting to do. we have all our strip banks with red blue green and our cyc lights the same way, and our catwalk with amber / light blue for our general coverage. now on stage we have somewhere around 7 source fours. and 3 on each side of the stage, we have mobile stage lamps, and we have a few other instruments. anyother info you need let me know.
 
Just for a heads up, people like me are always trolling for these posts because we believe that YOU, yes YOU should design the show. You should come up with a Production Concept, you should decide what effects are needed, and you should decide where the specials go.

You have to ask what your director wants for lighting in the play, and you have to work with the set and costume folks to make sure that the gel colors won't clash with the gels that you plan to use.

That's my advice, take it or leave it.:)
 
I am going to refer to you to my post in the following thread, where someone asked a very similar question: http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/showpost.php?p=51572&postcount=13
You may want to read the rest of the thread. You should not feel too put out by the fact that we try to push independence of design here, some people are covering their intellectual property rights and some just want to help you learn. The big point that we try to make is that you need to ask more direct questions, not so much the "I have XYZ for this show, what should I do?" but "I want to create X look/effect, how do I do that?"

In truth, we really can't tell you what to do with your 10 source fours because we don't know your space or the needs of the show. Also, everyone who answered that question would most likely tell you to do something different. The best way to learn in high school is to experiment. the audiences, which are mostly parents won't care as long as they can see and hear their kid. So try some funky angle or template or color. If the director is happy and you are happy then you did your job.
 
Agreed, come up with a general theme, color pallete, message, etc you want to convey with your lighting. Then think, "Ok, I want it to look like this, but I don't know how to do that." That is when you want to come here with a specific question.

However, I will say that having done that show recently, it is a very kids-oriented, and interactive show (if your doing the same version I did). I don't want to get too in depth into my own plot because that's exactly the opposite of what I just stated, but playing to the audience is one way to go.
 
Just for a heads up, people like me are always trolling for these posts because we believe that YOU, yes YOU should design the show. You should come up with a Production Concept, you should decide what effects are needed, and you should decide where the specials go.
You have to ask what your director wants for lighting in the play, and you have to work with the set and costume folks to make sure that the gel colors won't clash with the gels that you plan to use.
That's my advice, take it or leave it.:)

Let me explain what rickblu means since im his assistant and then im ASM for the play. Rickblu is trying to say if he can make any special effects or create any special effect lighting from current instruments. He cant make any decision because the Drama Dept director doesnt want anything fancy. This is because she want to go simple. Yet, Rickblu, SM, and I can say anything because the Drama Dept Director just doesnt want to spend more time. But she doesnt want the rickblu or me to do anything fancy even though we want to.
So now is there anything we can do to make the play fancy with spending more money than 0 dollars and using the equipment that is already hanging and is gelled or will be gelled.
current gelled lights
11 amber and 11 light blue that are on a catwalk
2 amber and 2 light blue that are in a balcony that are lower than the catwalk
12 banks of R-40 border lights which are gelled with green, blue, red
4 3-cell far cycs which are also gelled green, blue, red
about 7 50degree ERS on stage to be gelled
6 30degree ERS on the spot well which are going to be lavender or rose
6 movable fresnels (these have a barn door)
 
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We can spend money to get more gells, and globos, ect.. how ever we can't buy or rent extra instruments so i'm looking to create something with the instruments we have and add on to them.

I'll have to sit through and watch a runthrough of the play to get some ideas of what i want to do and for looks. but we have yet to have an actual run through everything is just being practiced in random order. so hopefully soon they'll do it in full on order and i can figure out what we need. we've just been using work lights for them to practice under as we've been gelling and now that we have our general gells done we can move onto more specials.
 
I'll have to sit through and watch a runthrough of the play to get some ideas of what i want to do and for looks. but we have yet to have an actual run through everything is just being practiced in random order. so hopefully soon they'll do it in full on order and i can figure out what we need. we've just been using work lights for them to practice under as we've been gelling and now that we have our general gells done we can move onto more specials.

This is what we are talking about, once you have ideas, then we can give you advice on how to execute those ideas.
 
Again, it appears that we are not giving you the help that you are asking for. Let me say, that without us knowing your space, the Director's vision and goals, the costumes, etc., it is VERY, VERY hard for us to provide any meaningful input for you. Once you have seen a run through of the show and see how the show is blocked, you'll have a better idea of possibly creating "areas" or "pools" of light in certain areas, and coming up with your own vision of the show lighting.

I understand that the Director wants to keep everything "simple", but since you are in a new space, it sure would be great PR for your program to be able to do more than just the "basics". That is another term that you should define for us. When the Director says "basics", what does that mean for you? Is it a simple lights up, lights down on the entire stage? Let us know.

Dennis
 
Let me explain what rickblu means since im his assistant and then im ASM for the play. Rickblu is trying to say if he can make any special effects or create any special effect lighting from current instruments. He cant make any decision because the Drama Dept director doesnt want anything fancy. This is because she want to go simple. Yet, Rickblu, SM, and I can say anything because the Drama Dept Director just doesnt want to spend more time. But she doesnt want the rickblu or me to do anything fancy even though we want to.
So now is there anything we can do to make the play fancy with spending more money than 0 dollars and using the equipment that is already hanging and is gelled or will be gelled.
current gelled lights
11 amber and 11 light blue that are on a catwalk
2 amber and 2 light blue that are in a balcony that are lower than the catwalk
12 banks of R-40 border lights which are gelled with green, blue, red
4 3-cell far cycs which are also gelled green, blue, red
about 7 50degree ERS on stage to be gelled
6 30degree ERS on the spot well which are going to be lavender or rose
6 movable fresnels (these have a barn door)


<hijack> Astro, Can you change your default font? The one you are using has really bad kearning in the point size you are using and it is very difficult to read, or perhaps it's all in Italics ? Sorry, just have very hard time keeping my eyes on it and then I don't want to read your whole post. Which isn't fair. <hijack>
 
<hijack> Astro, Can you change your default font? The one you are using has really bad kearning in the point size you are using and it is very difficult to read, or perhaps it's all in Italics ? Sorry, just have very hard time keeping my eyes on it and then I don't want to read your whole post. Which isn't fair. <hijack>

I was going to say something similar... Seems like an all italics affair.
 
In terms of design, if you really have no ideas, play around with it. I was in a very similar situation as you are. I spent every free moment of my day for 6 weeks before the show in the theatre working on lights. I even roped in some of my peers to help out. In turned out to be great. I was able to learn a lot about lighting by just trying things out. I think you'll find this the best method, to get up in the catwalks and experiment. If you think about it, the internet can't really help you at this stage of your design. You've mentioned some very vague locations of some instruments, That doesn't really help, as you are the only one that knows your venue. More specific questions will be easier to work out online, or questions about a specific effect.
 

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