Light a what?!

[gafftaper]

First all your trash talk about my ADJ theater Charc and guess what you need... ADJ baby!!

Ok, take a radio that plugs into the wall for power and make yourself a circuit map. Plug the radio in. Crank it up loud enough to hear from the breaker panel. Start tripping breakers. When the radio shuts off you've found the circuit. Now leave that circuit off and go plug the radio in somewhere else. If it doesn't work, you know what circuit it's on. If it does, go flip more breakers. Make a map as you go.

Second, I would go talk with your activity adviser or who ever the staff member in charge of the dance about how dances are usually structured and located in the facility. What do they require for ambient lighting? You want to know what sort of issues they may have with your lighting ahead of time. At the scary school I used to teach at we had to have very strict security, metal detectors/pat down searches, strict chaperone rules, strict lighting rules, strict clothing rules, strict no freak dancing rules etc... If we didn't the students would have sex on the dance floor and shoot each other in the parking lot after the dance (I exaggerate a little). While I know your school is a little more tame than mine was it would be wise for you to just get a sense of their administrative policies. And have them preview your lighting before the dance begins. You don't want them to come in and say, "it's not light enough in here, turn on the flourescent tubes!!"

Third, talk with the DJ. Most of them have some DJ lighting gear. Maybe he's already got all the ADJ stuff and all you need to think about is the ambient lighting.

Fourth don't forget the point made earlier about the smoke detectors and fog machines.

 

[Les]

And talking about gels, don't worry about psychology too much. Just some regular red/blue/green/yellow/ orange will suffice. I've done plenty of dances with my own equipment, and I also agree with bumping the lights. Just play the board like a piano. It can be fun and it will pass the time, which will probably go slowly.
Don't rule out the occasional slow dance. I use blue and green for those. If you could get your hands on an ADJ Light CoPilot (or similar) go for it! It uses a remote relay pack and an analog signal for the board. Great for motorized things, and eliminates messy cords.
Don't underestimate how many extension cords you will need!!!!! Have as many as possible and make sure they're grounded. Anything sound activated is pretty nice to have, and I know that on some movers you can set the pan/tilt limits for a room (even the cheaper Chauvet Legends do) so see if you can do that. Also take note that many DJ Lights use a pretty bright and hot lamp (normally something like a 300w. 64514) and it will need a duty cycle. Usually the manuals state a 15 minute on 15 minute off cycle, but I would usually switch the DJ lights after every song. Of course I had like 8 or 10 DJ lights so I always had some on stand by.

Don't get too caught up in programming fancy things like flyouts, flyins, chases and other effects on your movers. Chances are you will need that time for something else and dances never really go as planned. Simplicity will save you a lot of time! As far as pars go, just try to do some bumping and see if it has audio chase. Having dimming capability is also a plus. I'm usually cautious about using fog at dances. It makes the kids go crazy, takes a lot of power, and isn't usually very effective in a big place as it dissipates quickly.

 

[derekleffew]

Charc,

Tell them you simply can't do an adequate job unless they provide you with:

3 - Lycian M2 1200W Truss Spots
4 - Strong Long Throw Super Trouper 2K House Spots
21 - Synchrolites (3K, 5K, and 10K)
±50 - MAC2000 Profiles
12 - MAC2000 Performances
±50 - StudioBeam PCs
6 - VL 6Cs
±30 - VL 2402s
±20 - VL 2416s
4 - S4 5°s
1 - HES Showgun
2 - Maxxedia Media Servers
2 - HogII + Wings

Oh wait, my bad--that's the inventory from the show I did last night. Nevermind. I'm sure whatever you do will be fine. I once "lit" the Homecoming Dance in HS with (only!) a 15' Xray, RBG roundels, floor-mounted, connected to a 3-channel color organ. No, IIRC, I also had 4 - 750W Century Diecast 6x9s (Top-Loaders-I like that term) with breakup gobos connected to the Ariel-Davis slider dimmers: ceiling texture, in the cafetorium.

Just remember to have fun, stay in school, and don't do drugs.

 

[gafftapegreenia]

Suggestions made sound pretty good, here's my experience.
Find out what, if anything the DJ is bringing. 99% of the time in highschool our DJ brought a lighting kit, usually 4 moving mirrors which worked out fine. HOWEVER, if they charge for the lighting kit, and that money could be used to get more lights than the DJ would bring with them, follow that route. The Student Senate at my highschool reserved the DJ's lighting package, only to have me tell them I could have gotten 3x the lights for the same cost from our local rental house.

Stick with bright, bold colors on your pars, such as your R26, R80, R22, R91, etc etc. Find good places to use your PAR's as bounce lights or up lights, either reflected off a wall of a ceiling. Dancer's don't want to have a light "in their face" the whole night.

I like the suggestion of low energy and high energy areas. People (like me) will find their way with their glowsticks into the high energy areas, and the others will chill in the low energy.

Don't point your lights on the DJ. I did that once, left, came back and found the DJ had turned them the other way. Unless you were doing lighting for a major DJ, like Tiesto or something, most radio/party DJ's don't want to be the focal point. On that same note, the gobo break-ups I used to do on the wall BEHIND the DJ were fine.

As for "too much light", it depends on your school. Our dances were held in a room with ten, 100w sconces on wall dimmers at about 60%. I once used four, 6-inch Fresnels on a ledge washing a wall, 2 a deep red and 2 a vibrant yellow, and the senate was fine with it, but another time I used three of the same Fresnels as bounce off the ceiling with saturated pink gel and the senate felt it was too bright. If it is mostly hip/hop-rap, like most highschool dances these days, lower lighting levels seem to be preferrable. (The state of highschool dances are another topic, ask me about the time we tried to get a "techno" DJ to do one of our dances)

Secure your power supply. Dancer's will always try to defeat your set up and unplug your lights, especially wash lights. It's the never ending battle between school admin's and students, I suppose.

Rope light, when used appropriatly, is a good effect, especially if it's the chasing variety.

My favorite effects? The classic muli-colored "disco ball" (not mirror ball) that project beams of light. Cheap, trashy and effective.

Police beacons are a classic and a great way to get the mood "hype" when whatever currently hot song is being played.

If you have a really tight budget and can't get any moving heads, look at scanners. Basically, a PAR 36 that pans back and forth.

I know we love our moving head and moving mirror lights, and I encourage you to try to get what you can, but hey, its a highschool dance. Most kids don't go to look at what intelligents your running (unless someone like me is there). They go to have a good time, and you should use whatever you can to enhance that atmosphere.
Have fun with it too, it is a dance after all.

 

[Charc]

Suggestions made sound pretty good, here's my experience.
Find out what, if anything the DJ is bringing. 99% of the time in highschool our DJ brought a lighting kit, usually 4 moving mirrors which worked out fine. HOWEVER, if they charge for the lighting kit, and that money could be used to get more lights than the DJ would bring with them, follow that route. The Student Senate at my highschool reserved the DJ's lighting package, only to have me tell them I could have gotten 3x the lights for the same cost from our local rental house.
Stick with bright, bold colors on your pars, such as your R26, R80, R22, R91, etc etc. Find good places to use your PAR's as bounce lights or up lights, either reflected off a wall of a ceiling. Dancer's don't want to have a light "in their face" the whole night.
I like the suggestion of low energy and high energy areas. People (like me) will find their way with their glowsticks into the high energy areas, and the others will chill in the low energy.
Don't point your lights on the DJ. I did that once, left, came back and found the DJ had turned them the other way. Unless you were doing lighting for a major DJ, like Tiesto or something, most radio/party DJ's don't want to be the focal point. On that same note, the gobo break-ups I used to do on the wall BEHIND the DJ were fine.
As for "too much light", it depends on your school. Our dances were held in a room with ten, 100w sconces on wall dimmers at about 60%. I once used four, 6-inch Fresnels on a ledge washing a wall, 2 a deep red and 2 a vibrant yellow, and the senate was fine with it, but another time I used three of the same Fresnels as bounce off the ceiling with saturated pink gel and the senate felt it was too bright. If it is mostly hip/hop-rap, like most highschool dances these days, lower lighting levels seem to be preferrable. (The state of highschool dances are another topic, ask me about the time we tried to get a "techno" DJ to do one of our dances)
Secure your power supply. Dancer's will always try to defeat your set up and unplug your lights, especially wash lights. It's the never ending battle between school admin's and students, I suppose.
Rope light, when used appropriatly, is a good effect, especially if it's the chasing variety.
My favorite effects? The classic muli-colored "disco ball" (not mirror ball) that project beams of light. Cheap, trashy and effective.
Police beacons are a classic and a great way to get the mood "hype" when whatever currently hot song is being played.
If you have a really tight budget and can't get any moving heads, look at scanners. Basically, a PAR 36 that pans back and forth.
I know we love our moving head and moving mirror lights, and I encourage you to try to get what you can, but hey, its a highschool dance. Most kids don't go to look at what intelligents your running (unless someone like me is there). They go to have a good time, and you should use whatever you can to enhance that atmosphere.
Have fun with it too, it is a dance after all.

Thanks, this is much appreciated! All the notes have been noted, but I probably won't be replying to each.

I would like to know some more about bounce lighting. It is an avenue I had considered, I just didn't know how effective it would be, especially considering that would take away possibly all direct lighting, if I can't get the moving heads. I think my main gripe with this is power. I really need a circuit map. If I knew I had 60A to work with, I could really get a lot more lighting, or borrow theatre instruments. If I had 2 20A circuits, and the DJ had one 20A, even that would be a good solution.

Also: What about the time your school tried to get a Techno DJ?

Edit: I know the DJ he has no lighting, and has everything audio wise but amps / speakers / EQs. He will be borrowing some of school's speakers.

 

[gafftapegreenia]

Check. PM sent

 

[DarSax]

Just a quick post. I'm kind of tired so I hope this hasn't already been said, but architectural light is really really big imo. Some lights (doesn't matter which kind) gelled with some pleasing color shooting up the walls can look great.

Are there going to be tables where people can sit down? I LOVE the look of a tightly focused beam on each of the tables, it makes them glow from nothing and creates a really cool atmosphere.

On that topic, I think that rope lights are at points most effective when you can't actually see the physical rope light. Under a table/tablecloth, suddenly you have a cheap way to highlight objects without people knowing how you did it--did you really go all out and get neon lights?? How'd you do that??

I have more ideas, but for those I'd want an inventory like what derek had...

 

[gafftaper]

Thanks, this is much appreciated! All the notes have been noted, but I probably won't be replying to each.
I would like to know some more about bounce lighting. It is an avenue I had considered, I just didn't know how effective it would be, especially considering that would take away possibly all direct lighting, if I can't get the moving heads. I think my main gripe with this is power. I really need a circuit map. If I knew I had 60A to work with, I could really get a lot more lighting, or borrow theatre instruments. If I had 2 20A circuits, and the DJ had one 20A, even that would be a good solution.
Also: What about the time your school tried to get a Techno DJ?
Edit: I know the DJ he has no lighting, and has everything audio wise but amps / speakers / EQs. He will be borrowing some of school's speakers.

Like I said, get a radio and a friend (if you can) to make your own circuit map. It'll take you a half hour if you are organized and don't have to walk far between the panel and the room.

Also want to point out that it's a pretty low budget DJ who "has everything audio... except the amps, speakers, and EQs..." does he have music or do you have to provide that too? Going back to an old touchy subject, I think we can be assured that he doesn't pay his royalties on the music he plays.

 

[Pie4Weebl]

Yea, and he wants 300 bucks too.
Edit:
Gaff, which period of Gym should I interrupt in my circuit map cartographing?

I bet you $5 if you open the breaker panel the breakers will be labeled with what they power.

 

[gafftaper]

Great point Pie it's POSSIBLE the breakers may be labled. It's also possible that they are labeled "receptacles 10-14" but the receptacles themselves aren't labeled so the label is useless. But if you are lucky it'll say "Receptacles west gym wall"

Charc I bet there's a few minutes somewhere in the day that the gym isn't being used. What about the last 5 minutes of class and the first 5 of the next class when students are changing? Lunch time? 20 minutes before school? The first 15 minutes after school. Find out what time whatever sport practices end in the gym and go after practice. Do that a couple days in a row and you are done. You could do it with a small lamp and a friend and then you don't even need to disrupt a class. The only problem is that you probably have lights that need to cool for 5 minutes before you can turn them back on. So if the panel is really poorly labeled you may turn off light and have to wait until you can turn it back on.

 

[SerraAva]

I know you didn't want to before, but since you have no other choice and if you really want movement, you can put them in master-slave audio mode. You can unplug them for slow songs depending on the types of movers, Track Spot for example don't care about getting unplugged and re-plugged back in.

You could also try getting some par 38s, not as bright as 46s, but use less power, and cheap too, 120w lamps for about $5 and the fixtures for about $15 a piece. You could also try different colored glass lamps and get UV lamps from Home Depot for some color and effect. UV might have the most bang and effect for the money.

 

[ScaredOfHeightsLD]

I've been doing High school dances for a few years now and my "tried and true" package if you, will consists of:
2-10' T stands
8- PAR 38's (4 on each gelled, RGBY, on a controller programmed with chases and presets)
2- American DJ Vertigos
1- Big Strobe Light (USED SPARINGLY)
(All powered on 1 20A circuit)
Now, I do enjoy parties with hundreds of feet of truss and tons of movers, wall uplighting, breakups everywhere etc... but I also know that at most of the dances I have lit (also DJ'd) that even when I offered these things, they were often shot down by the student council not because of budget but just because it was too much. I even tried the uplighting route at one dance and when I came back to break down, I found lights unplugged and lamps unscrewed by students who thought it was too bright. In my opinion, for high school dances I think the best bet is keep it simple. On the whole I believe most high schoolers come to the dance to dance, not for lights (except for me). Again, in no way am I trying to discredit the power of solid uplighting or some well placed breakups or an intensive moving light show, but I think with the money (and power) you have, something simpler might be a better option.

 

[soundlight]

With the bux, I'd go for 2 chauvet Elans:
http://www.bulbamerica.com/-lan-3268-prod.htm

and another stand:
http://www.bulbamerica.com/12-ft-Tripod-With-T-Bar-Support-Stand-746-prod.htm

and some more conventional:
http://www.bulbamerica.com/8-pcs-PA...s-Dimmer-Pack-8-pcs-C-Clamps-PD-3361-prod.htm

Oh wait, that's a bit over $500. If you can beg for, borrow, or temporarily abscond with parcans from somewhere and just buy the dimmer pack, I'd do that. Run the Elans in sound-active mode, and use your 8-ch controller for 8ch of pars. The Elans are LED fixtures, so they require no lamps and have no duty cycle. Plus, their movement and the patterns that they project are awesome.

 

[gafftapegreenia]

I would say:

Get another stand and get the 8 light and dimmer combo package of PAR 38's.

Thats about $350.

I would get two of these Asteroids for another $100.

http://www.bulbamerica.com/Asteroid-798-prod.htm

I would also get a four-channel switch box, at $15 it's cheaper than anything you could make for yourself.

http://www.bulbamerica.com/PC-4-Power-Center-684-prod.htm?category_id=33

Use the 8 channels you have available for your PAR 38's. With each PAR 38 on a seperate channel, set up different chases on your board.

Use the 4 channel swithboard for the two Asteroids and the four PAR 48's.
The Asteroids will have a duty cycle, but this will allow them to be switched off when necessary.

Use the PAR 38's on the crowd, stick with dark colors, red, blue, green, orange or purple. Yellow often seems to overpower the others, but it's really your choice.

Use the PAR 48 WFL for uplight on walls, perhaps on a base, and use the PAR 48 NSP focused on the ceiling for bounce light, or if you end up with a fogger shooting in the air over the crowd. I'm tempted to say that the you should keep the colors constant on each spread, that is, the WFL's one color and the NSP another color. Alternatively, they could be seperate colors and do some color mixing. Play around and see what looks good.

There, your on budget, have some dynamic effects, ambient light, and enough PAR 38's to play around and have some fun. You even have a bit left over to buy some gel or extension cords.

This is all totally my opinion, but I think it's right for your event.

 

[soundlight]

I assume that you've dealt with bulbamerica before, but you need to make sure that you get on them about shipping it out quickly. Very quickly. They can take a while on that...

 

[gafftaper]

What about renting? A one night rental you should be able to rent a ton of DJ quality gear for $500. What about a little of both. Rent the dimmer package and trees then buy other stuff. Buy the things you can use again regularly and rent things that you might not need again for a while.

 

[gafftapegreenia]

So how did this all end up?