Creating a rock atmosphere with conventional fixtures

[thatlightinguy]

Hello, Right now I am working on a project for a school show with a limited budget. The show I am working on is basically a giant beauty pagent/ talent show type thing for senior guys. Traditionally this is always a very well done show as its directed by the theatre dept. This show involve a lot of spectacle and as much flashy effects as possible. The concept for this years show is going in the direction of a rock concert feel. As the lighting designer this presents me with the challenge of using primarily conventional fixtures to create a plot capable of spectacle found in a concert. I have a few ideas but was hoping to get some inspiration from some other designers. Our current inventory is as follows:

ETC Element- Console
ETC S4 ERS- 26 deg-20
ETC S4ERS-19deg-4
ETCS4ERS-36 deg-10
ETC S4ERS-50 deg-6
ETC fresnels-14
Altman 6inch fresnels- 6
ETC Junior Zoom- 21
ETC S4 par varying lens- 8
Strand Century Lekos varying degree-10
Apollo Color Scroller- 12
Gam FX loops-1(rain pattern)
Gobo Rotator-1
Rosco- I cue- 1
Altman Spectra cyc 100-6
L&E mini strip- 6
R40 strip-6
two old par 64's that dont work that great
6 2' side arms
7 floor plates
Many breakup/ texture gobos as well as some specials such as a stained glass gobo etc. etc...
Roughly 75 working dimmers

Now I should add that there is a slight possibly we rent some moving lights- if we did I would prlly get a few Auras, and Vl 2500, or maybe studio spots


The stage I am lighting is about 60'by 30' with three overhead electrics with about 17' trim height as well as a FOH postion and SR and SL box boom

I would love and welcome any ideas without the moving gear and with the moving gear! Thanks!

 

[JohnD]

How about these for a start:
http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/lighting-electrics/29209-replicating-1970s-lighting-rig.html
http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/lighting-electrics/26660-live-concert-lighting-conventionals-etc-express.html
http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/lighting-electrics/24124-cheap-fresh-concert-lighting-ideas-without-movers-concept.html

 

[jglodeklights]

With only three overhead electrics and 75 dimmers, part of the challenge will be balancing what is "flash" visible to the audience, and what is actually used to light the people onstage. The previous threads John linked to provide an excellent amount of information regarding this subject. The main issue you may run into is that amount of dimmers versus the width you need to cover. If you can in any way convince people to use about 48' of stage width that needs the concert lighting, you will be able to get a bit more out of your gear. Example, 3 ministrips each side of center with 1' to 18" in between each for foot lights (this may also allow you to balance with other lights to get a bit more flattering looks on the gentlemen) will provide pretty even coverage of 48' of width, but wouldn't for 60'.

 

[BillESC]

Start with a heavy three color saturated washes, red-blue-amber. Throw in a couple bright yellow and teal side specials.

Run followspots for front lighting.

 

[temper]

Start with a heavy three color saturated washes, red-blue-amber. Throw in a couple bright yellow and teal side specials.

Run followspots for front lighting.

Totally agree lots of saturated colors. I actually think movers are way overrated for rock stuff... Yawn.

I might suggest you set up 5-7 areas for front lighting straight on. Then, set up pretty much all the other fixtures as back light in varying angles across the stage. I like designs that aren't symetrical. I would fly them so the fixtures are visible to the audience.

You might consider using the strips as blinders.

But most of all, a hazer and fog.

Sounds like a lot of fun!

 

[Les]

Remember, you usually don't need perfect 3-point lighting for this type of application. For front lighting, I'd just focus on setting up a broad wash, and specials on the areas where people are expected to perform - this can be a single light from dead-on or a pair 45 degrees apart if you can manage it. No need for cool/warm separation (use it as one channel if you can), McCandless, etc. That will help free up lighting instruments and dimmers.

Overhead lighting would be much the same. Just a neutral wash, top lights on areas where someone might be performing, and flood the rest with color. Par cans on floor bases are great, but I'd shy away from floor lights if there are any major set changes or a lot of un-choreographed movement -- they just end up getting in the way.

You mentioned having breakup gobos -- consider using them over the stage and criss-crossing them from high angles - maybe even fanning them over the audience. Use a gel with a high transmission rate (even open white, or open white/no color blue alternating) and you can get a good "static mover" look. Works best with haze, so if you don't have access to a haze or fog machine, I wouldn't bother.

I agree with strip lights as blinders - great effect. I've even swiveled the cyc lights around, so try that with your Spectra Cyc's.

For programming -- avoid cues as you probably won't use them. Program subs with color washes, specials, and effects and run it on the fly. I'd avoid movers - too hard to busk, and you will likely run short on programming time (experience speaking). If you have a catwalk, one cool extra is to run IMAG. Looks even cooler when you have a camera operator up there, getting a 'bird's eye view'. If your school has a media department (sometimes disguised as "Ad Design"), they may want in on the videography fun.

One other suggestion - lower all electrics so the fixtures are just below trim height. Really gives it that true concert feel.

 

[techieman33]

Haze, Haze, and well Haze. If there is potential budget to rent moving lights then a hazer would be my first priority for that budget. Instead of using the strip lights for blinders I would use the 6 6" fresnels. I would use the strips on an upstage electric where they were visible to the audience and build some chases for eye candy. You can use the cyc lights on a rear cyc, or preferably a black curtain to give a little more color to the stage. A white cyc will just make the stage look huge and distract from the performers. You could hang the icue DSC with the gobo rotator with a breakup, and even a scroller if possible (doubt it but would be cool if it worked) and have it be a special for lead singers or solos. You could have a 36* 50* USC with the GamFX just pointed DSCish to give you a different "moving light look." They would both have to be very high transmission colors, or N/C to really cut through a wash but it could you you some different looks. If you have any long changes you could swap colors/gobos in some fixtures give you more looks too. Almost all of what I suggested really needs a hazer to be effective though.

 

[What Rigger?]

Perhaps Iron Maiden circa 1982 can give you an idea?

http://maidenrevelations.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/beastontheroad1.jpg

I always liked what they did here:

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Iron Maiden - Stranger In A Strange Land - YouTube

 

[temper]

Also, if you have the time to do some set construction, you can do all sorts of things with shooting light through and around objects to give much more texture than you otherwise would have. Here's a video of an effect I like, of course they have movers behind it but a gobo rotator and scroller would do just as well, even fixed pars with a few different colors would do if you could build several chases.

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Hillsong Chapel - Salvation Is Here - YouTube

Something like this would definitely allow for some awesome entrances for the talent.

 

[jwolfkill]

A few thoughts come to mind:

1. If you get any rental budget at all, use it for a hazer and 2-3 follow spots. Without the hazer to provide some good "beamage", it will be nigh unto impossible to get the the classic "rock concert" look. If you can rely on the follow spots to provide your primary front lighting (another characteristic of the rock concert look), you'll free up your dimmers and instruments to create the atmosphere and look you want. Plus, you can load up the boomerangs with colors that work with your stage looks and bump in and out of those colors for extra effect. You'll need good spot ops, though!

2. In most rock concerts I worked, each band member usually had a "home" mark where he or she spent the majority of time. If you can define similar performance areas, front-light them with no-color pinks or bastard ambers (or use the follow spots for this) and back- and side-light them with two or three different saturated colors. Build washes for the rest of the stage in two or three saturated colors that will work well with the "home" performance areas. Put the "home" colors and wash colors on individual submasters and use the faders/bump buttons to mix them up in sync with the action on stage, e.g., blue wash with red "home" for verse, bump "home" to amber for chorus, fade blue wash to red wash for bridge, fade wash and "home" to blue and blackout front lights for outro, etc.

3. For a cool effect that simulates a "mover" effect, put a 36- or 50-degree Source4 on a floor plate upstage center, preferably behind some kind of ground row or other low object, facing downstage and focused upward at about a 60-degree angle. Put a gobo with 8-10 small openings in the rotator (I once made my own gobo for this effect out of a flattened piece of a beer can in a pinch, but I wasn't using a rotator and probably wouldn't try it with one!) and add a color changer with a few high-transmission colors. Haze up the stage really well, Bring the wash down to 50% or so, and bring up this instrument. You'll see moving beams slicing through the haze. Even better, if you can come up with another gobo rotator, use two such set-ups with the gobos rotating in opposite directions. Change colors to match the wash. Don't overuse this one, though - it loses impact quickly if you run it too much.

4. If you can use a white cyc as your upstage drop, build washes in two or three colors for it and hang 5-7 narrow ellipsoidals (the S4jr zooms would work well, I think) just downstage of the cyc, evenly spaced across the stage. Focus them at the floor so that the side of the beam falls on the cyc. Put color changers on them and create looks by constrasting wash colors with the columns of color created by the ellipsoidals. You could also alternate the ellipsoidals between the floor and the batten - down, up, down, up, down.

5. Use your gobo rotator to project a breakup pattern on a white cyc. Put a color changer on the ellipsoidal and two or three contrasting washes on the cyc. It will be a little tricky to avoid totally washing out the gobo pattern, but when done right, it provides a dynamic backdrop to the action.

6. Make the most of those color changers! I remember well the dramatic difference they made when they became available for the concert rigs that I worked on. (I know, I'm showing my age - I cut my teeth on carbon-arc Super Troupers, and when I started out, "softpatching" wasn't even a word and pin-patching was still very common.)

7. Use LOTS of light. Most classic "rock concert" rigs were almost 100% 1000-watt PAR cans, and it still required a lot of those to light a big stage with the highly saturated colors (and the resulting low transmission rates of the gels) commonly used. You have 61 assorted S4s - use them in sets (e.g., two stage right and two stage left to side-light performance area A) to get more light. Put instruments in the same set on the same dimmer, since you'll be using them together anyway, to maximize your dimmer capacity. Use the fresnels and PARs for washes. While I haven't done any actual capacity calculations (not enough info), I think I could and would use EVERY ONE of your instruments to light this show.

There are many, many other ways to get the look you want, but all those methods share one defining characteristic - a complete, total, and utter lack of subtlety. You want the lighting to be so in-your-face that the audience can't help by say "Wow!" when the next cue hits the stage. Have fun!

 

[BillESC]

This was my touring rig late 70's-early 80's. 120 one thousand watt par cans and a dozen 6x22's. The picture was taken at the Omni in Atlanta during the Teddy Pendergrass Tour.

Three color wash of red, amber and blue (red and amber used 18 fixtures while blue used 36.) The rest of the pars were used as specials and cross colors.

 

[Esoteric]

For me rock music is about power and angle of attack.

Create systems of lights (for example if you have a USC back wash in a fan pattern, you don't need control over all the lights individually, you just need to control the system) and wire as many things together as possible to free up dimmer space.

Use powerful angles of attack (LOTS of back light) in fact for concerts I do 5% front light, 10% true side light, 20% tops, and 65% some sort of back light.

Get every last bit of punch out of every last watt you have.

For me I use the cycs as tops in blue, green, red and amber (unless you have to light scenery then use them for that).
Fresnels for high back light with scrollers, 3 clusters of 4 lights each with NSP lenses
Altman fresenls in a cluster as a wash in some color dropped down on the sidearms
Strand ERS for front light
ETC 19s - a center cluster with a breakup pattern
ETC 26s - 5 sets of 4, 2 as high side fan pattern washes from the corners 1 from quarter stage pointing in with a pattern and 2 groups on the deck as upback light
Drop the 36s into 2 five unit clusters with a breakup from a traditional side position
Use the 50's as a color cluster from midstage center in a dark blue
Zooms I would use 11 in a row of 6 and then a row of 5 on their tightest zoom as down lights with no gel, then take the other 10 and put them up as 2 5 unit straight back washes in NC blue and NC amber
Spectra Strips on the floor in no color
R40 strips for scenery
Sprinkle in as many back light movers as you can afford or pods of MAC101s

This is of course if you don't want to get into projection (which is almost all we do at concerts these days).

Mike