Randy,
Thanks for your reply to the post, I appreciate all of your responses and I'm sure all of us can identify with everything you had to say! Sorry it taken so long since your post for me to reply, I've been busy (and maybe a little lazy too
)!
The last three weeks of the school year here I was doing the lighting design for two consecutive dance recitals, the first shows I have ever done the lighting design completely on my own. The dance recitals are done by two "competing" dance studios in our community (the first of which is the better one in my opinion, though they both have their own pros and cons). For the first show we did something really different, atleast in what I've done before. We took down five of our striplights and put them on the floor shining up at the
backdrop they set up; the
backdrop was just a bunch of white fabric pinned to a
base backdrop in all kinds of fancy and decorative swags or whatever you want to
call them. The last row of striplights I shined on the
backdrop as well, so we could alter the colors between the top and bottom; it created some really, really cool three-dimensional illusions, it was awesome! I ordered a video from the show so hopefully at some
point I will be able to get some pictures from the performance up on my website.
In response to what you said about the SF PARs I definitely agree distance plays a very big
role in addition to the lense. For Guys & Dolls I used a
PAR on one of the Havanna wagons and it looked really good. For the dance recitals I actually altered the design and used Elipsoidals for the zones across the front of the
stage, as I didn't like the way the PARs looked for the same purpose for Guys & Dolls. What I did was use the PARs for all my washes, four lights to a
wash, but I also tried the Wide Flood lenses in the fixtures... I think the next show I'm going to change them back to Medium Floods; they didn't look bad but I think they are just too wide for our
stage and I got a lot of extra light I didn't want on the surrounding wall so I had to keep intensities of the washes a little lower... They really had to stay lower though because of the shadow caused across the
backdrop from the Grand
Teaser... I HATE that shadow!!! Another thing I will change next show: When I focused the ellipsoidals for the zones across the
stage I did it with the Grand Curtain closed, so I could make all the ellipses even across the curtain and what not... but I think it would have been better to do it with the curtain open, so the light blended farther backstage a little better. Just another thought.
The other thing I did with the dance recitals was I added more sidelight than I have used previously; on four arms that dropped some lights closer to the
stage on each side, and on two trees at each corner of the
stage. The
system we developed to help the lighting go as smoothly and as easily as possible was this; I sat down with the director of the studio and we decided where she wanted special pools of light, for entrances, for focal points,
etc... so we came up with six major zones on the
stage, Right, Center, and Left, (Up and
Down Stage). That way she knew what specials she had available for her entrances and exits in her dances and we didn't have to try and custom tailor the lights to every dance
etc.
I thought your comments about not having to leave an area dark to remove focus were particularly helpful. If there is one thing that I found the most difficult with doing a lighting design on my own it was definitely, WITHOUT A DOUBT, COLOR SELECTION! Color selection was the hardest part of the entire process. I like the idea of washing the
stage in a color and emphasizing an area with a more intense color, but still the same as the whole
stage in terms of warmth or coolness. I've been told that having a warm and cool color for each space I light is important and that is the general rule I follow with every area I light, but when I have to start combining those colors with more colors I find it really hard to pick which colors to put where... especially because for the dance recitals there were no
props... so it was basically like lighting an empty
stage. What I did learn is that lighting an empty
stage is deceiving, because a
stage is never empty... if there are no
props it is especially important that when focusing, you have a person to stand in the light you are focusing, because the people, in this case, were the only "objects" if you will on the
stage. The other problem I have, after having the problem with color, is with
intensity... sometimes it was just really hard to
gauge whether or not there was quite enough light on
stage. Which brings me to something else REALLY ANNOYING; does anyone else have a
stage that is not painted black? Our
auditorium stage is like light hardwood... and it really makes it impossible to tell how much light is on
stage because so much reflects right off the floor, it's like we light the floor more than we do anything else, it's really annoying!
I agree that focusing isn't necessarily the most important thing to making a good design, but I'm probably a perfectionist too, so I can focus something five times and still not really be happy with it. But you are right, altering
intensity can give you alot of flexibility. I would also agree with your more detailed break down of the lighting process, I didn't include too much when I first described it. I definitely agree that all of thoes parts of the lighting process really blend together and one is never quite finished before the other begins, atleast that is how my experience has worked as well. I'm scanning through your message as I go so I can make sure I hit on everything; back to color again though I agree color is probably more important than focus though focus is important too and on that note I should probably expand my use of color and experimentation with color (and
intensity)!
In response to your question; our entire
system is
ETC, 96 dimmers. I really like the board as it is really easy to use even though it isn't the first one I experimented with and learned on, but it is really easy to train someone on the basics if someone else has to run it. In early August I'm going to get the opportunity to go over to a neighboring school district and take a look at their
system and help them out with trying to use their board, I think that their whole
system, to my understanding is
Strand so that will be a new experience. Our elementary school's
auditorium is all
Strand equipment but I haven't worked their with lighting and they don't even have a board, or the need to even touch their lights; the
stage is SO SMALL it's ridiculous, and it is way over curtained for its size. As far as
community theatre goes that is actually where I started working, at our local
community theatre just volunteering, I've probably done maybe 20 shows there. That's where I started learning everything about lighting under the Tech Director there that does lighting and what not; they have an older style 36
channel ETC board... When our high school was renovated and got the new
system I was the only person in the entire building, staff and students, that had any idea how to operate it. Since it was installed I have been doing all the lighting for basically every show in our school.
I don't dislike community or high school
theatre... I was paid for the first of the two dance recitals and I get paid once in a while if I'm brought in for emergency help at the
community theatre, for the bigger shows it's volunteer though. I like the experience of both but I'm pretty sure that there is much to be explored beyond this.. possibilities I have even yet to grasp.
I have to give him a
call but the TD at the
community theatre is going to arrange a visit to Glimmerglass
opera house to take a tour and what not, they have over 200 or 300 lights or something like that, it will be a little overwhelming compared to what I'm used to.
But not a bad thing!
I'm probably getting pretty long winded now myself!
I do have some in show pictures I got after I posted those on my website... when I get them up I will post a new message here to them so people can check them out. I noticed you said you were a freelance
lighting designer, how does that work versus or compared to working only
in one place as a
lighting designer? Do you ever find yourself in competition with lighting designers that are hired steadily
in one place? I don't know how much of an upcoming
lighting designer I am, I really like it but it seems like it can be a very difficult lifestyle too, I know I don't really want to be on the
road so if I did pursue it I think I would probably work in theatres and not with a traveling band or something like that... probably anyway... but I don't really know if that is what I want to make my career... I definitely have a good start if that is what I choose but I still don't know, and I feel like I'm supposed to be deciding very soon. :-O Thank you for your post though! It was very interesting and I look forward to your reply, hopfully I won't take nearly as long as last time to respond!
