Just drafted as "LD" - need help with rep plot approach

Stuart R

Member
Hello all! I’m the new arts chair at a high school in Miami, and our lighting designer for our spring musical, going into tech in two weeks, has flown the coop, and I haven’t been able to find a replacement, so it’s going to be me. The good news is that I’ve been around tech theatre for a long time, know how to hang and focus instruments, know the difference between an ERS, a Fresnel and a PAR (etc.) The bad news is that I’ve never done an actual lighting plan/plot before. [And have never dealt with a “hybrid” LED/conventional rig, and I know next to nothing about LEDs and DMX channels (etc.), which is another challenge.] What I really need at the moment is some advice on a general approach to take to the space given our instrument inventory.

This seems a perfect opportunity to create a rep plot that I can use both for this show and as the starting place for all of our events (lectures to concerts to plays/musicals), reserving a certain number of instruments for specials and so on. I’m familiar with McCandless 3-point lighting theory, but also know that there are other schools of thought. I’ve also encountered folks with small instrument inventories who do a “modified” McCandless by using a dedicated front light for each acting area but then use generic side and/or top washes for fill instead of doing these area by area. I also don’t know what to add beyond area lighting. In my research I’ve seen a lot of designers who seem to use additional front washes for blending, and washes from the side or above, in more saturated colors, for mood and/or time of day. So lots of ideas and notions but I need help settling on a solid plan.

Attached is a schematic of our space (cafetorium – yay!) and our instrument inventory is below. I’d love some Big Picture advice on a general approach to take for a rep plot (i.e. how best to use what we’ve got).

In terms of lighting positions, it’s a cafeteria, so none of the pipes are that high, making for shallow angles from a distance. There are also no side ladders or booms; I’m told that past designers have often trees (pipes and bases) for this purpose for shows and put them on either side of the main thrust stage. I’m happy to do that as well.

Thanks!

Inventory:

(5) ETC Source 4 Lustre+ LED ERSs
(8) ETC Source 4 variable zoom (25-50*) ERSs
(5) ETC Source 4 50* ERSs
(1) ETC Source 4 26* ERS

(10) Altman 65Q Fresnels

(10) AmericanPro LED PARs

(2) ETC Sixpar100 LED PARs

(6) ELAR EX LED Tribar cyc strips

(2) Martin Quantum Profile variable zoom (12-36*) LED moving heads

Board: ETC Element
 

Attachments

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PDF not working.
 
Hi Stuart - I can't get the PDF to open either, so I'm making some assumptions. FWIW, I'd suggest:
- attractive even front wash, McCandless style, probably 3areas wide by 2 deep, to stop using all your instruments on the first task. Gentle warm gel one side, gentle cool the other looks nice and works for most shows. Source 4 zooms and fresnels.
- led front light - 3 led source 4s out front should cover this
- led high back lights - anything will work, maybe led pars?
- led cyc wash / set wash, with led cyc strips
- led side lights for dance etc - leftover led pars, on stands or the new bars you get fitted :)
- moving heads - everyone will have an opinion, but I like mid stage side positions, hung high so each can point just about everywhere, but if this doesn't give a wide enough beam in real life you may need to pull them out the front.
- and lastly a few leftover profiles out front for specials, and in side or top positions for gobo washes - any led source 4s left over will do great for this, but conventionals and gels are great too!

This should cover most needs, with a few instruments left over for when it doesn't!

Hope this is some use to you!
 
SR-SH.jpg
Hi Stuart - I can't get the PDF to open either, so I'm making some assumptions. FWIW, I'd suggest:
- attractive even front wash, McCandless style, probably 3areas wide by 2 deep, to stop using all your instruments on the first task. Gentle warm gel one side, gentle cool the other looks nice and works for most shows. Source 4 zooms and fresnels.
- led front light - 3 led source 4s out front should cover this
- led high back lights - anything will work, maybe led pars?
- led cyc wash / set wash, with led cyc strips
- led side lights for dance etc - leftover led pars, on stands or the new bars you get fitted :)
- moving heads - everyone will have an opinion, but I like mid stage side positions, hung high so each can point just about everywhere, but if this doesn't give a wide enough beam in real life you may need to pull them out the front.
- and lastly a few leftover profiles out front for specials, and in side or top positions for gobo washes - any led source 4s left over will do great for this, but conventionals and gels are great too!

This should cover most needs, with a few instruments left over for when it doesn't!

Hope this is some use to you!


Hi Duncan -

Yes, very helpful, and very much along the same lines I was thinking, which is comforting. I'm sorry about the PDF, by the way. I just tried converting it to a JPG and it seems to have uploaded more successfully. It's called SR-SH.jpg and hopefully is lurking there somewhere on your screen.

Can I ask you a few questions about the advice you gave me?
1. Your Item 1 says "attractive even front wash, McCandless style" and suggest a gentle warm gel from one side and a cool gel from the other. Got it. The next item, however, says "LED front light - 3 LED Source 4s". Is this separate from Item 1? In other words, use a warm and a cool front light for each area *plus* an additional general front wash from the three LED S4s?
2. Item 3 (high back lights) - one per area, yes?
3. Side lights - what would you suggest, PARs? I've certainly seen side lights and shin-kickers used but don't know the theory behind them. Are there low, medium and high bands of light? What about color?
4. The moving heads we have are mounted out front but would definitely be more versatile a little closer in and more to the sides, I think. Looks like it might be a pain to move them though.
5. I agree with reserving some profiles for specials and gobo washes - great idea.
6. What if the director wants a night scene - where would that deep blue wash come from?

If you are able (now) to open the JPG, you'll see that the acting area is actually deeper than it is wide, so the director wants 3x3 areas. It's the upstage areas that are a bitch, because the onstage electrics are limited in size and not wonderfully positioned.

Finally, do you know anything about LED lights and dimmers? I understand that LEDs are built to be connected to constant power, and execute their changes in intensity internally, so it's not healthy for them to have them on traditional dimmers where the power keeps ramping up and down. I know that 100% LED rigs actually tend to use on/off relays rather than dimmers for that reason. We are running our rig off a very "mature" ETC 96 x 2k dimmer rack with traditional dimmer modules. I was told by a sales guy that I could respond to your hybrid situation by replacing a bunch of the dimmers with relays (which would mean deciding which circuits in our system would be for LEDs and which not, which would be a terrible nuisance), but someone peripherally involved with our shows the last couple of years said that my predecessor thought this unnecessary - he simply parked the dimmers powering the LEDs instruments in the on position. Does that make sense? Those dimmers are always at full power but the DMX signals are actually controlling what the instruments are doing with that power in terms of intensity?

This week I've been trying to document the lighting instruments that are still in the air from last year's shows, and honestly, what I'm seeing doesn't exactly fit the approach we've been talking about. I know that some people think the McCandless approach is hopelessly old school
I just noticed you're in New Zealand - that's awesome. Even before the LOTR films I was a big fan. One day when I can afford the ridiculous airfares I'll come out and do a nice two week two island ramble. What do you do down there?

Thanks again for your help.

Stu
 
View attachment 15945


Hi Duncan -

Yes, very helpful, and very much along the same lines I was thinking, which is comforting. I'm sorry about the PDF, by the way. I just tried converting it to a JPG and it seems to have uploaded more successfully. It's called SR-SH.jpg and hopefully is lurking there somewhere on your screen.

Can I ask you a few questions about the advice you gave me?
1. Your Item 1 says "attractive even front wash, McCandless style" and suggest a gentle warm gel from one side and a cool gel from the other. Got it. The next item, however, says "LED front light - 3 LED Source 4s". Is this separate from Item 1? In other words, use a warm and a cool front light for each area *plus* an additional general front wash from the three LED S4s?
2. Item 3 (high back lights) - one per area, yes?
3. Side lights - what would you suggest, PARs? I've certainly seen side lights and shin-kickers used but don't know the theory behind them. Are there low, medium and high bands of light? What about color?
4. The moving heads we have are mounted out front but would definitely be more versatile a little closer in and more to the sides, I think. Looks like it might be a pain to move them though.
5. I agree with reserving some profiles for specials and gobo washes - great idea.
6. What if the director wants a night scene - where would that deep blue wash come from?

If you are able (now) to open the JPG, you'll see that the acting area is actually deeper than it is wide, so the director wants 3x3 areas. It's the upstage areas that are a bitch, because the onstage electrics are limited in size and not wonderfully positioned.

Finally, do you know anything about LED lights and dimmers? I understand that LEDs are built to be connected to constant power, and execute their changes in intensity internally, so it's not healthy for them to have them on traditional dimmers where the power keeps ramping up and down. I know that 100% LED rigs actually tend to use on/off relays rather than dimmers for that reason. We are running our rig off a very "mature" ETC 96 x 2k dimmer rack with traditional dimmer modules. I was told by a sales guy that I could respond to your hybrid situation by replacing a bunch of the dimmers with relays (which would mean deciding which circuits in our system would be for LEDs and which not, which would be a terrible nuisance), but someone peripherally involved with our shows the last couple of years said that my predecessor thought this unnecessary - he simply parked the dimmers powering the LEDs instruments in the on position. Does that make sense? Those dimmers are always at full power but the DMX signals are actually controlling what the instruments are doing with that power in terms of intensity?

This week I've been trying to document the lighting instruments that are still in the air from last year's shows, and honestly, what I'm seeing doesn't exactly fit the approach we've been talking about. I know that some people think the McCandless approach is hopelessly old school
I just noticed you're in New Zealand - that's awesome. Even before the LOTR films I was a big fan. One day when I can afford the ridiculous airfares I'll come out and do a nice two week two island ramble. What do you do down there?

Thanks again for your help.

Stu
Hi Stu - hit me up if/when you get to NZ, I'm always keen to meet other theatre people! I'm a freelance LD and lighting tech, and the LD for the Pop-Up Globe (popupglobe.co.nz) here in Auckland.

I see what you mean about your stage, that is very deep. One option would be to make it less deep by moving your cyc downstage, or to use less of the enormous apron, but I'm guessing that's not going to happen :). So 3x3 areas is sensible, but you're going to struggle for fixtures given each needs two front lights in the traditional method. Given the gear you have, I'd be tempted to see if you can get away with 3x2 and leave the deep upstage area in front of the cyc wall dark - will make the cyc look better! But if you have to do 3x3, you have enough conventionals to do it with your profiles and fresnels, albeit only just!
You could use the LED source 4s as front wash, but only for the downstage zones, leaving you with a problem for the upstage zones. If you had 12, I'd say just use them! But based on what you have, I'm suggesting conventionals for the front wash, with the three Source 4 LED pointing straight in to wash the whole stage in saturated colour when you need that. I'd use the other two in high side positions for gobo washes across the stage.
High backs - ideally one per area, although I would usually try to get away with less, but given you have a proscenium half way through your stage, I think you will need all 6.
Side lights - I'd use LED PARs if you have enough to go around. The traditional dance positions are high, head height and knee height, but if you don't do a lot of dance (more musicals with dance routines), you could get away with highs only on the outer ends of the bars. Strong colours are great, hence the LEDs.
Movers - can be a pain to move, if it was me I'd either move them one time and never again, or just leave them where they are!
Deep blue wash would come from your LED fronts x3, your LED tops x6, and chuck in some LED sides for luck!

And finally, re the LEDs and the control system. I strongly advise against powering them from dimmers at 100%. This will inevitably go wrong and kill your lights, it's only a matter of time. One day they will come off 100%! Dimmers are for conventionals only. You just need to run hot power to your intelligent lights ie ordinary domestic power. DMX relays are awesome, but for most of us we just run extension leads back to a convenient wall outlet so you can turn them off at the end of the night. Definitely do this, it's a pain but you only have to do it once, and they can usually all go back to the same outlet. Just use lots of short leads to plug them one to the next to the next, and finally one long lead down to the ground and the waiting outlet.

And lastly finally... yeah, I've heard often about how the McCandless method is old school and hopelessly outdated. I think this is nonsense! It's not the only approach, and it's not always the best approach, but it gives reliable predictable attractive even coverage and reasonable flexibility. I use it for most of my shows, and it does a good job.

And lastly lastly finally, and again FWIW, I have given up trying to adapt odd existing rigs to make them do what I want them to. It sounds like it may be more work, but it definitely gives a much better result to pull it all down and start with a good plan and a clean slate. May actually be less work in the end! Good luck, happy to talk further.
 

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