Hey, I thought we could share pictures of our shows...

Hey Raxz, we go to WinterJam every year. Would you mind if I came by and said hi?

Here is an install we just got through with.

Mike
 

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Hey CB'ers,

Scott here, your resident 15 year old LD. I just closed some shows in the past few months and I would love everyone's opinion!

Here are the links:

"6" Photos
RENT Photos

Here are some samples:
RENT:
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6:
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From what I can see from your pictures you did a pretty good job.

Here is some feedback.
As an up and coming designer there are a few things to keep in mind when designing a show. Every style of show requires a different approach. Strictly in my opinion when it comes to designing theater the first and for most is creating an environment which flows with the show and in which the actors can be seen. Some of your photos have really cool effects happening but we struggle to see the actors faces.

Another thing to keep in mind is choosing a theme or a concept. At lot of times you will see different lighting effects that are used because they look cool but do not hold any real relevance to the show. As a designer it is up to you to find a central idea to base you design around. From what I can tell from you photos you were responding to the individual moments within the show rather than responding to the show as a whole.

As a side note I noticed that near the end of the play you had to work with a white set. White can be incredibly hard to design around, but from what I can see you worked well with it.

Keep up the good work!
 
I'm on a gig now, a 32 hour dance marathon at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Yesterday (Friday) was the setup, today and tomorrow the event, and we load out at 6:00 PM tomorrow (Sunday) evening. Here is a picture of the setup. I'll post some action shots later... It's 7 S4's plus one for a gobo, 4 Elation Platinum Spot 5R's, 2 MAC250's, and 8 Longman Parco3 LED Par fixtures. I'll post a couple of pictures here, but I think I'll start a thread if anyone is interested in this literal "marathon" gig.

http://nomadicpro.net/photos/DM11Setup01.JPG
 
From what I can see from your pictures you did a pretty good job.

Here is some feedback.
As an up and coming designer there are a few things to keep in mind when designing a show. Every style of show requires a different approach. Strictly in my opinion when it comes to designing theater the first and for most is creating an environment which flows with the show and in which the actors can be seen. Some of your photos have really cool effects happening but we struggle to see the actors faces.

as a professional show photographer, I wouldn't be so quick to say that it is hard to see faces. The camera only sees a fraction of the dynamic range of the human eye, making the difference between highlights and shadows much narrower. It is entirely possible that the show looked fine in person, but didn't photograph well. It is very hard to get a good balanced shot.

This of course is not to say that you need to be mindful of face light as a designer, but photos don't always tell the whole story.
 
as a professional show photographer, I wouldn't be so quick to say that it is hard to see faces. The camera only sees a fraction of the dynamic range of the human eye, making the difference between highlights and shadows much narrower. It is entirely possible that the show looked fine in person, but didn't photograph well. It is very hard to get a good balanced shot.

This of course is not to say that you need to be mindful of face light as a designer, but photos don't always tell the whole story.

I completely agree. I should have prefaced my statement with "From what I can discern form your photos."

As an up and coming designer myself I have to express a certain frustration with the inability to capture the full extent of my designs on camera. Its not to say that the technology doesn't exist, its just working with a college budget. Any suggestions?
 
I completely agree. I should have prefaced my statement with "From what I can discern form your photos."

As an up and coming designer myself I have to express a certain frustration with the inability to capture the full extent of my designs on camera. Its not to say that the technology doesn't exist, its just working with a college budget. Any suggestions?

I wrote a big article on the topic that can be found here. The big things are: if you can afford it, a full frame (24x36 aspect ratio) camera, and good fast glass. however these things alone won't capture the image. There is nothing you can do to increase the dynamic range the camera can see. You could shoot HDR images, but that is time consuming and would require the actors to hold perfectly still for the time it takes to shoot a 5-7 frame bracketing sequence. Then of course you have to deal with the compositing process, probably more hsaale than it is worth.

Since HDR is probably not a realistic option, the biggest thing is to make sure that you shoot in RAW mode. The RAW file format will give you the most flexibility when you get back to your computer. Shoot at the lowest ISO you can (and still have a usable shutter speed and f-stop) to minimize the amount of noise in the image. Expose for the faces. Use spot metering mode and set the spot on the actor's face. Let other things go dark or light. If this blows out too much of the rest of the fame you can dial in some negative exposure compensation. Then in your computer you can pull back some of the shadows. It is easier to pull back information from the shadows than from blown highlights.

Hope that is somewhat helpful.
 
Yeah I understand what you guys are saying and I appreciate the feedback. I believe I shot those with a Nikon D200 with a wide angle lens which definitely slowed my shutter speed and made some shots harder to ascertain.
 
Well, here goes for me, couple of my favorite looks I've created.

Conwell.jpg
Dreaming of Diamonds
DollsHouse (7).jpg
A Doll's House
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Sonso, Simians and Pierrot

More can be found at my google site
 
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A trailer I made for a production of "Gaslight" I produced and directed at Theatre West in Los Angeles a couple of years ago. Sets by Jeff Rack. Lights by Yancey Dunham. Costuming by Valentino's. I did the sound.

I told my set designer that I wanted the color scheme to resemble dried bodily fluids. Dried blood red, mucus green, pee stain yellow, etc. I wanted the lighting completely stylized, to enhance that we were thoroughly embracing the play's homage to Victorian melodrama.

We tried to eschew right angles, and played with masking walls set far back from the doorway spaces, to give the impression the house was huge and full of hidden recesses.

Onstage is Corinne Shor playing Bela, who now plays "The Matron" on NBC's "The Event". Playing Nancy the maid is Emily Bridges, Beau Bridges' daughter. They were both excellent. I dressed Emily as saucily as possible, and wanted Corinne to look fragile, like a doily.
 
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Get Smart, presented by Timbercrest Theatre Company (my former junior high school)
Get Smart | Facebook

R3316 (1/4 Plus Green) was a very good, boring, flourescent-like color that was used for the bus stop and control scenes.
It took three computers in a cramped booth to run this show: one new MacBook running iTunes for sound, an older MacBook running VLC for the TV's in CONTROL, and one Windows XP controlling the lights above the TV's.
 
A few of my favorite shows. AKA the few pictures easily accessible on my computer.
ATTWN.jpg
ATTWN2.jpg
And Then There Were None-The director wanted a "sepia, film noir" feel to his show. I also built a lot of the set.
Born Yesterday.jpg
Born Yesterday. -Simple, but one of my favorite shows and will always have a special place with me. Built a majority of the set.
The Miser.jpg
The Miser- Challange here was that this set had to depict over 20 locations. But lots of specials and gobos combined with mirrors and ETC revolutions helped do the trick. The windows changed a diffrent color to help the audience to determin each location.

The Miser and And Then There Were None were both nominated for for KCACTF awards in the Lighitng Design catagory. ATTWN also receive the National Barbizon for Theatrical Design Excellence nomination.
RRH.jpg
RRH2.jpg
Rock and Roll Heaven 2-Fun Rock Concert highlight. At Centre Stage in Greenville SC, it
is their biggest show of all time. It had a 5+ week completely sold out run.
 
I don't know that I ever responded to this post, but here is my site with photos of most of my college work. Theatrical Lighting and Sound Designs

The YouTube link at the top is to videos of a few dance pieces I've done at our university.

Check it all out. Let me know what you think!!
Thanks!
 
215518_194028733967294_189701257733375_443591_2043704_n.jpg208679_1968693819148_1297033787_2341610_5221342_n.jpg216906_194028723967295_189701257733375_443590_738265_n.jpg206662_206063052745291_143232949028302_749386_7141344_n.jpg

these are from a concert that i LDed at a local theatre. started off coming in thinking that i would just re-use most of the plot from the last show that was in... ended up pulling everything but the most basic of areas and then hanging every light in the theatre (200 plus) including five S4 juniors and a par 64 on either side shooting across the cyc with breakups and colors (as seen in pictures one and three) this was a dance show/rock concert.

thoughts, critiques?
 
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Here is a recent small fundraiser show of mine.

Youth Fundraiser at FBC Sunnyvale. 8x20 screen with 2 Dukane 8103H Projectors. Chauvet Rain64 LED PARs, Coemar ProWash 250LX, HES Technobeams. Video feed from ProPresenter on a desktop PC, lighting control on Chamsys MagicQ PC.
 

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Photos from a recent prom. We don't usually get the big prom parties where I am, so this was a new one for me. Gear list:

- 6 MAC 500's (one had a colour wheel issue, couldn't fix on site)
- 16 COLORado I Tours
- Rosco Hazemaker
- Maxxyz board

I supplied all the sound gear too, but that's for another forum :)

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