DJ Lighting

[shiben]

So I am currently working at a techno dance thing at my college, and there is a DJ. They had requested a lighting rig to compliment their ADJ rig. I had a few source 4s up and geled in the most saturated colors i could. Still hat to turn them off, because they were too bright. Does anyone else (mainly looking to college events staff people here) ever have to do this kind of thing, add in lighting to support DJs? If so, what do you do to avoid washing out their gear?

Note: I do not know why they wanted support, they just asked for it.

 

[mstaylor]

What were you washing, him, the dance floor, or the stage? It really depends on what he is asking you to do.

 

[NickJones]

I use our portable dimmers to avoid washing out stuff if I'm in a situation where there is no dimming

 

[shiben]

It was in our black box theater, cleared of everything. He wanted more lights on the floor, a light on him, and them to generally flash.

 

[derekleffew]

shiben, you've (indirectly) reinforced the point many of us keep making when someone asks about using DJ-style lighting fixtures for theatre use. They simply cannot complete in intensity against stage lights. Short of gelling everything in L181 and/or running all dimmers at 50% or less, there's not much you can do.

Next time they ask you to "compliment their ADJ rig," say "That's a nice rig." Then walk away. Smiling. http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/members/shiben.html

 

[shiben]

Hehe, I like that idea, Derek. It was actually not bad, because I spent 2 hours in the office, surfing controlbooth (no joke, thats all I looked at). Also, L181 probably would not help, unless it is even more saturated then R85, with a 3% transparency rating, which washed out their "movers" at 40%. I told them to buy some techobeams.

 

[derekleffew]

FWIW, my swatchbook lists the transmission (tristimulus Y) of Lee Filters 181 Congo Blue as 0.78%. (But what a fantastic color, as long as you have the horsepower behind it.)

 

[shiben]

Oh wow. We dont stock Lee colors, so I didnt realize it was so low! What kind of fixture do you put that in front of? A 2k fresnel or something?

 

[Sayen]

What about indirectly lighting the floor? Shine some lights on the wall or ceiling and let the reflections carry the show?

Moving away from ellipsoidals might help too - dim PARs give a nice glow without the solid lighting effect.

 

[Esoteric]

Yeah, I did L181 once, with 32 1kW PARs behind it. It was beautiful.

Mike

 

[len]

For party lighting, it's as much about programming as it is about the fixtures.

For high energy stuff like techno, hard house, hard bounce, etc., you want a lot more strobing, because a lot of the punters are on speed or other stimulants and they like that kind of stuff.

Down a notch is the trance, and more melodic techno stuff, which appeals more to the X users, which means lots of longer chases and big movements from moving lights.

The hip hop crowds seem to like more saturated colors, and gobo projection type stuff.

As for lighting the dj, just a par or two on it's own sub and leave it at 50% or so.

So get yourself some moving lights, or if you're only using conventionals, get some bright colors, and some heavily saturated ones, find ways to get control of the speed of the chases, and go to town.

 

[AaronS102]

Ya most DJ events want "flash and trash". They want it dark want flashy. Iv done several dj gigs and theater stuff and thats adj stuff works much better than trying to use bright theater lights unless your using a really dim chase or own some movers. Now if you have some intresting gobs and possably a rotator on hand...

 

[BillESC]

Thnik beams. Very narrow shutter cuts at different planes. Also break up gobos through the air. Haze is a must.