This is a light show that another tech and I made for freshman orientation, any feed back would be appreciated. It starts around 0:50
3C Light Show 2011 ver02 - YouTube
3C Light Show 2011 ver02 - YouTube
High School Light Show
- Thread starterRed5
- Start date
Thelightinggal
Member
I would have liked to have seen more floor mounts, ERSs, cross the beams and shoot them toward the ceiling, mount them downstage in the corners. Also, around 2:15, the linken park, it gets a bit repetitive, I think the floor mounts would help with this. Also, it would have been cool to see some texture, like gobos with the beams crossed from the electrics down to the floor. It just felt like most of everything was coming from the over stage electrics, would have been nice to see some floor stuff. Also, maybe some side angles too, like lighting trees for side light, like they use in dance lighting. That would help too.
I noticed that the music gets off a bit at one point, were you using MIDI? Or, did you link all the cues together and press "go" at the same time you hit the button on the CD player? The music too, at the end, ends abruptly, maybe if you chose a song that was either really long for the entire show, or choose a song at the end and allow it to run all the way through. It just felt like it was left a bit blank at the end.
Im so sorry if this it WAYYY too much of a critique, I am a new grad student in lighting design and we are having to critique each others work. You really learn to look for things this way...I wish you luck!
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Thelightinggal
Member
Are you done with the show? Or are you going to do it again? And just wanted feed back on what could make it better?
its done, we do a new one every year, so just getting feedback on what we did this year, and any general ideas to keep in mind for next years show.
shiben
Well-Known Member
So, full disclosure: I hate this type of show as a general rule, not due to the individuals doing them, but rather the concept goes against most everything I have ever been taught/believe about a decent show, that being that the lights highlight and accent the performer, rather than become the show itself. That was possibly run-on sentence, so you should probably take that into consideration when considering my commentary. That said:
I think if you are going to do this sort of show, you need to choose one song. I think the cuts almost always sound abrupt and odd to my ear. I probably would have gone with the linkin park song, mainly because I like that song a lot, and it has some nice variation. I also think rock and roll songs tend to be better for this type of show than electronic, hip hop, or orchestral music, mainly because there is a decent mixture of vocals, driving rhythm and generally some nice variation. Also, I nearly punched the screen at the TSOroll in there. Might as well have been our friend Rick from 4chan.
I totally agree with Thelightinggal about the necessity of having floor units. You totally lacked variety in the air, and the patterns were repetitive long before Thelightinggal bothered to call them out. At least with floor and side units, you can make more interesting sculpture. I thought it was a cool thing to see a light show with all conventional units, but you seem to have taken that to mean you can only do a couple of things again and again (and again). This is boring and makes me sad. Since you seem to lack moving heads (which is not an issue, I tend to be more impressed when there are not a ton of ML effects thrown in my general direction, but some real planning happening), I would like to have seen at a minimum a ground row of blinders, a ground row of x crossed lekos, and perhaps a fan pattern of lekos in the same position. Some sidelight would also have been awesome. Think of how sweet that opening would have been if you have maybe 6 really narrow lekos on the sides, scattered at different heights and depths, and throw those out there first each on its own, building with the chugging to all of them at once, or something like that. Also maybe more lights pointed into the audience? I really wanted to be more part of the show, and having some lights thrown into the audience (the ground row would have helped with this, point them at the ceiling to avoid getting people blind) might help with this a lot. Just make sure I dont need to come over there after you point a crap ton of 1k PARs into my face, because I will fall off the deck or trip on something because I wont be able to see. Thelightinggal has a good point about Gobos, but be careful with them, I think they tend to look better in rotations and sweeps. If you had some booms (like 6?) across the back, and crossed those in x patterns straight into the audience at the back wall, that always looks really cool thru the haze, and Im more willing to run with it than PAR cans in my face. Heck, throw some PARs on there too maybe. One thing to consider is if you can come up with scrollers. These can be used in the way they were intended, which is to change colors in the same light. However, you can also make fake ML effects with them, by putting 2 very different colors in front of the beam at the same time (like, the seam in the middle), and moving it back and fourth. Or you can fling it into a rainbow, which looks silly unless your OK GO singing the treadmill song, which you are not, but maybe silly is what you want (thats up to you).
I would take your stage, haze the ever loving s*** out of it, and treat it like your sculpting looks in the haze with as many systems as you can possibly make, obviously planned to make interesting sculptures. I would almost treat it as kinetic sculpture rather than a light show. This is how I would do things, and you (hopefully) are not me. Im a bit of an oddball artist, and I am not anyone really worth emulating (at this point in my career). Now if Derek says it, you best do that...
And another hat in with Thelightinggal on the timecode issue, obviously you were not running timecode, and thats fine. However, it looked really sloppy and unprofessional without some sort of synchronization thing. When I have made shows with that many cues, I either find someone to make timecode happen (usually the programmer, that being their job or something), or I hand the LBO or SM a sheet with my cues like so:
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8
and so fourth, with the cues being the bolded numbers. Perhaps with a "Verse 1" and so fourth over each section, so the Op can orient themselves easily should you need to stop for a heart attack or something and start right back up again when the EMTs clear out
... The operator can then tap their foot on an 8 count (another benefit to using a single song, the 8s are easier to grab on to) and button press on the cues. Course, I would probably also have a layered track to the LB with a countoff or something, but Im anal retentive like that. Blue Man Group uses something similar when their timecode goes down. Of course, their SM is also calling Projection, Sound and Motion cues, so thats a bit of a different beast. That might help you in terms of synchronizing the whole thing a bit better, and practicing for a real show when the timecode bites the dust in the 2nd act.And a final note. I just threw a lot of commentary and thoughts your way. That is NOT to say I hated what you did or think your a bad person or anything. As Thelightinggal said (I really need to befriend that gal, we seem to think similar... maybe a "we are students and we will gladly comment on your work" group...), critique, commentary and basically trashing your show is the best way to get better. However, and I hope I did an OK job, when you rip into something, you should get some ideas to make it better.
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Thelightinggal
Member
When you say Duck, did you mean me? Because I believe you were referring to me when I made my critique, just wanted to make sure!
Also, about the moving heads you mentioned, I agree with you, would have been cool to see those, but I figured since it is a high school..their funding might be low (most things to go first in todays economy is funding for the arts) and they might not own any. BUT I totally agree with you, movers would have been AWESOME!
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jglodeklights
Well-Known Member
As others have stated, timecode would have helped, although it was impressive for what you seem to have been working with.
More specific remarks
1. GROUNDROW. A simple ground row, by which I mean the the short style flat, in front of your actual strip light ground row which looks like 4 MR-16 Ministrips and 2 R40s, would hide the strip lights and neaten the floor line up quite a bit.
2. Video like this tends to kill color saturation. As such, I believe you may have been a little overzealous with creating a wide range of colors. A saturated, but limited, palette can create awesome effects, be easier to program, and look less congested. For the benefit concert I am designing tomorrow I am using Amber, Lavendar, Magenta and Cyan (way more green than blue, though). By using varying levels of saturation, varying angles, planning on using color shifts resulting from intensity changes and color blending, I should be able to create a wide palette in both the air and on the performers (I already played with it during one performer's on stage rehearsal today and it made me giggle with joy). The way I have arranged the lights is also consistent and pleasing to the eye. Color is your friend, but having it create too much of a rainbow can be a little ugly. Simple is sometimes better. A nice Magenta, Cyan or No Color cleanly cutting beams into the air looks beautiful; lots of colors doing so just makes things cluttered.
3. Don't forget about preheating!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Especially with a ton of 0 counts in fast succession, you can usually glow fixtures at 5-9 percent the entire time and not notice them. This will result in much faster "snap ons" than if they go to 0.
More specific remarks
1. GROUNDROW. A simple ground row, by which I mean the the short style flat, in front of your actual strip light ground row which looks like 4 MR-16 Ministrips and 2 R40s, would hide the strip lights and neaten the floor line up quite a bit.
2. Video like this tends to kill color saturation. As such, I believe you may have been a little overzealous with creating a wide range of colors. A saturated, but limited, palette can create awesome effects, be easier to program, and look less congested. For the benefit concert I am designing tomorrow I am using Amber, Lavendar, Magenta and Cyan (way more green than blue, though). By using varying levels of saturation, varying angles, planning on using color shifts resulting from intensity changes and color blending, I should be able to create a wide palette in both the air and on the performers (I already played with it during one performer's on stage rehearsal today and it made me giggle with joy). The way I have arranged the lights is also consistent and pleasing to the eye. Color is your friend, but having it create too much of a rainbow can be a little ugly. Simple is sometimes better. A nice Magenta, Cyan or No Color cleanly cutting beams into the air looks beautiful; lots of colors doing so just makes things cluttered.
3. Don't forget about preheating!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Especially with a ton of 0 counts in fast succession, you can usually glow fixtures at 5-9 percent the entire time and not notice them. This will result in much faster "snap ons" than if they go to 0.
shiben
Well-Known Member
Holy Crap this is what 48 hours awake does to me... So sorry there lightinggal. Will edit asap. (Seriously tho. Prepping for a major critique, then work, then getting my work shredded by a committee of my peers, then going to a nice show = im tired.
Thelightinggal
Member
I have been doing light shows at my high school as well, and when I finished my first one I got a lot of feedback about how there should be more dialogue like singing. And how instead of cueing to the specific beats in the songs try to tell a story with them. Put some patterns in your next one to give better effect, keep the fog but try to experiment with it in terms of volume being put out. I agree, make some ground units, and try not to have all the lights focused the same way. Overall, good job man!
JD
Well-Known Member
If you haven't noticed, when you ask for critics on this board, Ya get it!!
That being said, although we all go under the assumption that lighting should not "be" the show, in this case it is and has to be accepted as an type of art in itself. (Of course, there are always rock shows, where lighting has long crossed over from reinforcement to part of the show itself. )
I found it quite enjoyable! Keep up the good work.
That being said, although we all go under the assumption that lighting should not "be" the show, in this case it is and has to be accepted as an type of art in itself. (Of course, there are always rock shows, where lighting has long crossed over from reinforcement to part of the show itself. )
I found it quite enjoyable! Keep up the good work.
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