Lighting design question

seg

Member
Hi,

A few questions. I know that the designing a light show using moving heads, scanners, etc.. is an art and creative thinking is a plus. I'm a smart guy, just not a creative thinker.

Can someone please give me a few starting tips on how to design a good show?


Thanks!
 
Hi,

A few questions. I know that the designing a light show using moving heads, scanners, etc.. is an art and creative thinking is a plus. I'm a smart guy, just not a creative thinker.

Can someone please give me a few starting tips on how to design a good show?


Thanks!

Well, you need to think a lot about how you want each scene to look like. Then you need to think about how your going to make that happen.

more when im out of work.
 
I think you will get more useful answers if you provide a little more background information.

Knowing what type of show would be a good starting point. Are we talking concert (rock, jazz, classical, etc.), musical, stage play, musical revue, solo act, dance (ballet, jazz, contemporary, etc.) or something other.
Understanding the venue would also help (arena, auditorium, gym, mall, conference room, outdoor concert, etc.) determine what sort of plot you need and what sort of physical limitations constrain your design.
Other useful pieces of information are the equipment available for use, and budget for supplementing the existing equipment.
 
Hi,

This is for DJ purposes. So it is a different venue every time.

Either for school functions or weddings.

What do you think some good scene ideas are?

Thanks!
 
Hi,

This is for DJ purposes. So it is a different venue every time.

Either for school functions or weddings.

What do you think some good scene ideas are?

Thanks!

Ah, so if your DJing, you basically need a low power rig with lots of interesting things. So several smaller moving heads are probably a good idea, along with a couple LED PARs to color things, some strobes, a hazer, and maybe some effects lights. A basic controller is all you really need for that.
 
First of all welcome to CB! Stop into the new member forum and introduce yourself.

What gear do you have to work with? You have essentially asked for ideas on what you should paint without first telling us if you are working with spray paint, water colors, or finger paints.
 
What types of ideas should I throw into my scenes?

Fast moving, sound active for fast songs. You will probably realize pretty quickly that you don't want the entire event to be preprogrammed. It's a lot of work. Many DJ DMX lights can do master/slave and/or sound-to-light. This will be your friend.

If you program anything, do your slow songs. Slow moving effects, cool colors, maybe a few well-placed cues for gobo change, rotation and fly in/fly out effects.
 
For DJing, if I have a hardware controller, I use the bump buttons (brings the light to full when held) with color changing LEDs, and press them at a similar tempo as the beats of the music. Apparently the human eye will interpret this as the lights changing to the music. It's remarkably easy, and looks pretty decent.

Slower songs you may actually need to program.

Also, as a DJ just starting with lights, you should borrow or rent as much equipment as you can before making purchases, as it saves you money and helps you find the stuff you really like.
 
I work with a DJ company, providing lighting, almost every weekend these days. This is anywhere from a pair of movers on vertical truss to full grid above the dance floor with 6-8 moving lights, LED's, etc. Sometimes there's room uplighting (also DMX controlled), sometimes not. My typical scenes for the most basic setup are:

1. Circle (with control from slow to fast)
2. Color Scroll
3. Entrance spot
4. Cake spot
5. Dance spot
6. Dance wash (my ML's have frost filter for spot/wash hybrid)
7. Strobe
8. Dinner "look" that I go to anytime there's no dancing (before event, dinner, dessert, leaving, etc)
 

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