How do I set up a general lighting scheme

[shamanskyh]

I work at my high school doing technical and facility work in our small theater (originally a gym, but upgraded in '01) and we recently had our director leave very suddenly. As a PK-12 school, we set up for 6 elementary school shows each year and we usually keep a general lighting scheme.

We need to refocus our front house electric bar, but I'm wondering where to aim (it's a newbie question, I know...) We have five cool-gelled ellipsoidals on house right and five warm-gelled ellipsoidals on the other. (There are also four ungelled ellipsoidals in the center to light risers in front of the thrust stage that we have.

Again, our theater is pretty small with 20-25 foot ceilings, and the bar is maybe 20-25 feet away from the stage. Which aim of the two I drew up is correct? (or should I be doing something else entirely?)

 

[Footer]

B would be your answer. Take a read at this... and the thread it links to. http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/glossary-m-s/11226-mccandless.html

 

[shamanskyh]

Thanks so much. I knew it would be a very easy question!

 

[DanBlaze]

Design B. If you look at design A, all the light is coming from one side (Except for the center area). This is going to be shadowy as heck. Stick with McCandless method as a good rule of thumb, if possible.

 

[gafftaper]

This approach would be my preferred basic strategy and add some top light straight down or from slightly behind if possible.

 

[Dionysus]

I have to say "None of the Above" and go with Gaff's suggestion as I find that does indeed work best.
If I had to choose one of the 'options' I'd go B for the aforementioned reasons.

 

[Smatticus]

I would also say none of the above. I would do something similar to gafftaper's suggestion. I would distribute all the cools however necessary to make sure that 1) the angle between the lights and the stage and 2) the throw distance between the lights and the stage are the same. This will keep the light coming from a consistent direction and at a consistent brightness (assuming they are all lamped identically) no matter where you are on stage. I would do the same for the warms. This would result in the cools and warms being interspersed instead of in two groups at either end of the electric. Choice A is not good because the angles and throw distances vary quite considerably from the first to the fifth light. In Choice B the angles and throw distances are also varying, just not as drastically as in Choice A.

 

[DELO72]

Gafftaper is correct and shows the best answer (C?).

B is far better than A, but neither is optimal. Your fronts should be direct for each area, and they aren't if they are all bunched in the center. It also causes your angles to be off, area to area, which hurts consistency of light as a performer walks across the stage.

 

[Jeroen]

This approach would be my preferred basic strategy and add some top light straight down or from slightly behind if possible.

I second gafftaper's method.
For standard theatre stuff with cools and warms we almost always start from this concept. Often with Rosco e-color 103 and 203

 

[shiben]

I second gafftaper's method.
For standard theatre stuff with cools and warms we almost always start from this concept. Often with Rosco e-color 103 and 203

Roscolux 302 and 60 are my personal favorites, although I have been moving away from using a standard Complimentary tints wash system, too many shows at school not living in the real world at the moment, and it makes all the shows a pretty uniform color from the front, which I find uninteresting... However, for a general rep plot, Gaff's method would be perfect.

 

[EWCguy]

In my limited experience, I concur with the many folk here re gafftaper's reply. It sounds like your un-gelled instruments have a special purpose, so I wouldn't move them. However, redistribute your warms & cools so that you have the best equidistant & equiangular balance for each pair to each area on stage.