To echo what icewolf and esoteric said, there are several "methods" or "conventions" for lighting the stage that have pretty much become standard for front light because they are simple, effective and easy enough to execute in almost any venue with any equipment.
However, once the student of light (really, we are all students, because the learning process never stops - personal philosophy) has mastered and understood these methods, they are certainly free to design from whatever artistic or inspirational standpoint they find for the production at hand. Lighting is an art, there is no right or wrong way, but there is what works, and what doesn't work, and those are variables that are dependent on a whole host of factors.
I'm kinda against the McCandless method, especially for High School Musical. My reasoning is because Stanley McCandless created the McCandless method to create a realistic way to light shows. Nowadays, people don't want to see theatre for realism, they want to see a broadway piece. Especially for High School Musical 2, it is anything but REAL.
The more saturate I was talking about was more like a R55 or R56 not R26. R26 front light? EWWWWWWWWWWWW....
Yes right I was merely using the R26 front light as an example. It's something I see done often enough in high school settings, and, likewise, the use of such a saturated gel as a dead on front wash is something I have a hard time stomaching.
His post hinted to me that he might be concerning about the McCandless method eating dimmers that he would use for front color washes, thus the 90 degree system becomes more attractive for conservation of dimmers.
First you learn The Rules. Then you learn how to break them.
Most of what I light is at an ill-equipped high school and in community theatre (also poorly equipped) -- in fact, after I get done typing this I'm off to watch a rehearsal at the community theatre. At the high school, I have (42) 2.4ks total. Six of them are downstage of the grand. No floor pockets that are useful for much anything, and so on. The overhead electrics have a dozen circuits each, both of the two electrics. Not a lot to work with.
I use some variation on the straight-fronts method with sides and bax. I usually will twofer areas together, because like I said, there are a dozen circuits on each electric, and if I eat up five with fronts and five with bax then I've got two whole circuits left on that one pipe to do anything creative with. I start, in my head, with an ideal situation like Mike was describing, and then once I figure out what things I want to be able to do, I get out a piece of paper and list them by lighting positions (which have N circuits on them), and trim it back until it fits into the space. Usually I'll have to make compromises -- for example, when I lit Little Shop some years ago, I had to decide between curtain warmers and the dentist special. At the time it looked like I'd need warmers more, so I did that instead of the dentist special. Guess which one I really needed later? The other one.
Another trick that may not be obvious to everybody, especially in fancy high schools: every light doesn't have to be on its own dimmer. If you foresee running them together on the board, may as well plug them into the same hole (within the limits of the circuit and the dimmer); that frees up more circuits (and probably dimmers) to do other things with.
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