Lighting for Puppets

[Logos]

I've just come back to CB after a gap of maybe two years and dvsDave asked me a question about the puppetry work I've been doing.
Here's a description. Actually if anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them as I am new to this and still exploring.
The first type of production I've been doing is fairly straightforward booth puppetry with hand puppets. It's a matter of scaling down full stage lighting. I find myself using birdies a fair bit and because, in this country at least, birdie barn doors cost more than the lights, I've been using blackwrap to make barn doors for them. I'd kind of like to get hold of the small fresnels you guys call I think inkies but have so far been unable to.
The second type of production has been far more challenging. It's a sort of scaled down Bunraku puppetry where two or sometimes three operators move the puppets. Sometimes we do this on stage level and I have to create very precise corridors of light so the puppet can be seen but the black clad operator is almost invisible. Until I started doing this I thought I understood what precision focusing was all about. I'm using zoom profiles with shutters and then fitting them with barn doors to kill the final spill. Seriously a 10 millimetre difference in the way a barn door is set can make a difference.
It's great, I'm almost 60 and suddenly I'm learning again every time I work with these guys and the shows.

 

[derekleffew]

... I'd kind of like to get hold of the small fresnels you guys call I think inkies but have so far been unable to. ...

Yes, inky (singular), a Fresnel with a 3" lens. Still in Altman's catalog, model #100.

Perhaps a more likely candidate, ARRI 150. 50mm lens, 150W 230V GX6,35 lamp. Likely to use up one or two year's budget.

See also Altman's Micro Fixture Series; not sure about the availability of these in AUS, but they have European versions, and that's almost the same thing, isn't it?

Got any pictures? We love pictures!

 

[Chris15]

but they have European versions, and that's almost the same thing, isn't it?

After 15 minutes with side cutters, a screwdriver and a new plug it is

 

[Logos]

15 minutes is a bit slow Chris. I reckon I could change a plug in less than 10 more likely 5.

Derek, there are some photo's on the Lighting page of my website.

Tony Moore

We had a front gauze as we were also projecting frames.

 

[Chris15]

15 minutes is a bit slow Chris. I reckon I could change a plug in less than 10 more likely 5.

I haven't had the "joy" of terminating an Aussie plug for a while, the nightmares are fading. Yeah I probably could do it in less than 15, but by the time you run it through the PAT afterwards...

 

[derekleffew]

Nice pictures Tony.

This was my first attempt at lighting Booth puppetry with corridor lighting.

Is "corridor lighting" a common term down there? I'm guessing Americans would call that zone lighting or alley lighting--a head-high unit from each side of the stage, de rigueur for lighting dance.

 

[MNicolai]

That's a very interesting show you've been working on, Tony.

Sexarella: Queen of the Galaxy
See puppets where no puppets have gone before, doing things you've never seen puppets do.

The Pooka Puppet Company has spent three weeks in the Adelaide Festival Centre developing Sexarella - Queen of the Galaxy, based on the 1968 sexploitation film Barbarella starring Jane Fonda. Three shows in mid-May, as part of the inSPACE:development series, are expected to lead to a full-scale production later on.

Welcome to the year 40,000AD, an adults-only, largely puppet-populated era, in which our heroine Sexarella is sent on a mission to rescue Durran Durran from imprisonment at the hands of the despotic ruler of the planet Lithium, and save the universe. If only the journey were so simple - Sexarella finds herself in direct confrontation with peril, intrigue and unsexpected sextraterrestrial sexploration.

"We are all getting really excited about the possibilities of using psychedelic oil lamps and retro spaceship props," says Pooka Puppet Company movement director Ninian Donald.

The Pooka Puppet Company is a recently formed company featuring Lachlan Haig's artistic direction and Donald's movement direction, totalling more than 40 years of combined performance experience both in Australia and overseas.

Lawrence Bull

 

[David Ashton]

A common but cheap way is to use linear 300 or 500w TH lights mounted vertically, [using the tubes which are designed to work vertically] in boxes with slots about 6" away to let the light out, you can fit gel over the slots if you want.If my description is unclear I could do a drawing.Phillipe Genty brought some here many years ago, they looked like rubbish but worked superbly.In cross section they are a point source so you get a hard edge cut off, a bit like a cyc light on edge.