Designing for all white

[smburke89]

Hey,

I'm designing a show at a high school, but a high production value school compared to the average school, and I've been given the dreaded task of lighting a show (The Mikado) where the cast of about 15 girls are in all white "geisha style" make-up, and all white kimono's with black patterns on them, and then occasional "pops" of color to add a "harajuku" flare to it, for example the rendering I was shown was basically a white kimono with black checkers trimming the bottom 6 inches and a hot pink tutu at the waist. I've already been turned down about diping the costumes to make them less stark, and was told it would be too much dying. The scenery is a realistic design of earth tones and wood. Does anyone have any suggestions of tricks to light these girls without losing all dimensions of their faces, and making them look sickly?

Thanks!
Sarah

 

[Dustincoc]

I'd say do a warm color from one direction and a cool(shadow) color from the other.

 

[zmb]

For lighting them to look sickly, try green light as a strong side light complemented with an amberish down light.

 

[josh88]

I think he meant he's trying to avoid washing everything out and making them look sick. See if you can find anything on kabuki, I mean by nature of it, with the white faces you're going to lose some definition, it's just how it works.


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[bishopthomas]

I'm with Josh. This immediately made me think "kabuki." You may find yourself bringing down the intensity more than usual, but other than that I would think that adding in colors could be fun. You certainly have a nice blank canvas to work with. Since they're adding colors to the robes with the intention of making that design stand out you may want to stay away from any vibrant colors. I'd start with a no color blue and no color pink, maybe even leave some fixtures ungelled or maybe add some diffusion. Then you can add color as needed for setting the mood and time of day. Breakup gobos can be your friend here.

 

[patrickh]

If you would like to light them in an accurate portrayal of the kabuki style, I would try lighting them only from the front with blue. This aesthetic is classic in eastern european style and will surprisingly make them pop. This is what all of those countries would do and it has worked well for them for a very long time. It is striking and dramatic. They would usually be a saturated blue, orange, or green (but i would shy away from green). Just a cool artistic option for ya!

 

[josh88]

Green pretty consistently reads dead/ zombie, it rarely makes a person look good. Which sometimes is what you want, but there's a reason you associate sickly with green. It's just not flattering.


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[jglodeklights]

You are fighting a losing battle with attempting to keep dimension in the faces. The all white make up is designed to mask the dimensionality of the face and draw focus to the eyes and mouth; the parts of the face that convey emotion the most. You can still create dimension by controlling where light falls or does not fall. Keeping the light on the actors and off scenery behind them will pull them forward. Coloring depends upon the style you wish to create. Using a color such as GAM 109 or 108 will remove some of the green inherent in a no color instrument, and balance well against 1/8 or 1/6 CTB's.

Just to be clear, Kabuki and Noh theater both predate modern lighting methods by quite some bit. Kabuki dates to the 1600's, Noh to the 1300's. They are very different styles based on the same idea of how to communicate. Noh just happens to be proper while Kabuki was started by prostitutes trying to find a great way to advertise their services. Proper Kabuki is quite explicit in its tones and gestures. Harajuku is very much removed from both and from Geishas.

Your decisions will very much need to be based upon what you have at your disposal and what style the director actually takes the piece in.