Lighting tips and tricks

[Mitch]

Hi, I'm fairly new to the art of theatrical lighting, I started out running spots for a couple of ballets for my high school, then a few weeks ago I was offered a position running the light board for the musical we're are putting on in May (My Favorite Year). I readily accepted, and the past few weeks the theater directer and I have been replacing gels and bulbs to get ready for the first rehearsals. I'm supposed to come up with a rough lighting plot by April 30th. Does anyone have any tips or tricks for a newbie? Anything you could give me would be of great help, whether it's specific to My Favorite Year or to theater in general,
Thanks, Mitch

 

[derekleffew]

"Point the bright end toward the stage."
"Green is ground."

From Lighting Concept/Lighting Statement :

There are exactly FOUR hard and fast rules for lighting.
(In order of importance):

1. Don't burn down the venue.
2. Use light to make it possible to see the performers.
3. Satisfy the Producer/Director/Artist.
4. Satisfy yourself.

 

[shiben]

"Point the bright end toward the stage."
"Green is ground."

Power comes from the female end.

Dont touch the lamps.

 

[Ric]

Hi Mitch,
Starting from basics.
Work through your script and work out what and how many different scenes there are, and how large a duration each scene is as a proportion of the show.
I.e does it have a single room, or is it day then night or are there a lot of changes for inside/outside/at thebeach/park/nightclub.
Now assign enough lights to do each scene effectively, noting position and colour requirements for each light for each scene.
Think of any special effects that you may need a specific light for, i.e. a Moon gobo

Then draw the lights in position, in relation to your available lighting bars/locations, for each scene. Ensure you look at power capabilities on each circuit to make sure you are not going to overload a dimmer. Make sure you're not over weighting a lighting bar.

... oh you ran out of lights? This is where the design aspect becomes challenging!

You now need to work out which lights can serve multiple purposes; which lights are really important to light your scene effectively.
You can then decide what can be cut from that scene in order to use the light for important things in another scene.

Redraw your plot... again & again, until you think it's ok and will work for each and every scene.
That's your starting place.

Advanced tricks include using the same lights at different intensities to highlight areas, and knowing what the lamp will do to gel colour as it dims.

I hope this helps a bit.

 

[venuetech]

there are times that turning another light on may not be the answer.
The answer may be turning some lights off.

 

[Mitch]

Thanks Guys, You have been really helpful, hah even if it was just stating common sense stuff. now can you please give me specifics on writing lighting plots? Specifically what proper formatting is and if you could post some examples that would be awesome.
Thanks in advance, Mitch.

 

[ship]

Remember that if you cannot see the talent's eyes, if in shadow they don't give an honest preformance - this unless intended for the scene by way of design. Not back to foots and floods but the same concecpt still in lighting from a normal at least "McCandless way" given what you have. What do you have and how is it located?

Not stated in above perhaps more helpful info, but if readying to use what ever light board it is, that is a great step to learn and get the chance to master by way of experience in on while in crew doing the focus. In other words, one cannot really learn design until one can see in the head or do at least Photometrics math for how that beam will look on stage, until endless hours of experience. What's the difference between a 6x9 or 6x12 and or 26 degree verses 36degree Leko, only something one has experience for minds eye in focusing them experience for future design overall.

Seems a little mission creep for you in running follow spots in the past to also be helping design the show. It's a musical and probably a lot of people on stage. Stuff like acting areas, specials etc... Done a number of ballet shows in the wings, asked to design for one and I said I wasn't qualified even if trained as a lighting designer. Only asking if too late for you to first master this lighting board, than perhaps next time in more study experience design?

There is a lot of details and deifferences in now doing both for the first time I fear might overwhelm you in this first time. I would think learning and mastering the light board you are to control should be enough, not also designing the lights. Given this request of you I wonder what this director is thinking. No, if of help, don't do both and focus for now on the light board.

Lots to learn and I really really believe that by the end of the month with school, you will be challenged enough to figure out the light board and do not need to help design look or cues for stuff well over your head at this point on by way of also design concepts. Sorry but I hope it gets you focused on what you might be able to manage instead of all study's dropped at school to get done and still a failed show in just too much not yet known and most important - expected of you to "help with." Caution you in doing both design and light board you are now new to at the same time when learning both.

Not possible to both learn the light board before the end of the month and master lighting design for a musical - this in helping where asked by an an adult for you to do so, this and also master what classes you are in at school.

This director either had at best master his or her lighting design problem or hire someone. I highly recommend you take a step back, master if the option of light board only in working to take and study that and don't agree to do more than help as it were while programming cues but no responsibility after that form the booth. Lighting design is cool in so many concepts.. but also so many ways to use a light board and or figure it out.

Got X amount of days, if asked to do light board best master it or you will have both studies in school not studied, only limited mastery of the light board and only marginal mastery of lighting on the stage as a result feared.

 

[Mitch]

An excellent point, friend, excellent point. I shall have to post the specs on the equipment, but the board is simple and already mastered. I already know how to program in the sub-masters and know where almost everything is, from the rails to the washes (my term for the lights that project onto the cyclorama). Your information is helpful none the less and I appreciate your warning as my extra-curricular activities do tend to cut into my school work.

 

[ship]

Thanks on friend and and warning taken, in taken as advice, re-read further editing on it also my post, but also in even if you mastered the light board, there is style and other stuff with it still to master. Really until you have run a few shows on it and developed an as if it were typing for it, you really don't know that board yet in doing the deal with it. Still a waring overall in doing more than that light board for also helping in design. While smart in knowing lots about the equipmenent, still just a caution to keep it simple in your requirements. LD shoudn't be on the light board etc.

 

[Mitch]

I shall Keep in in mind. And further more I shall suggest (to the Director) That I shouldn't take the whole thing on by my self..

 

[Pie4Weebl]

OR just jump in head first and go for it.

I started learning as much by mixing submasters of systems together and discovery on my own as from other people.

 

[chausman]

OR just jump in head first and go for it.

I started learning as much by mixing submasters of systems together and discovery on my own as from other people.

That's my method. I've found it to work well. That and, you're already better off then I was. You found ControlBooth early.

 

[derekleffew]

... now can you please give me specifics on writing lighting plots? Specifically what proper formatting is and if you could post some examples that would be awesome. ...

Examples can be found by typing "light plot" into the search box and following the links.
Semantics. One doesn't write a lighting plot; one draws (or drafts) a lighting plot, either by hand on a drafting table, or on a computer using CAD. Or in a bar with a Sharpie on a cocktail napkin, but that's for when you are older, see note[SUP]2[/SUP].

As for "proper formatting," every stage lighting textbook[SUP]1[/SUP] includes a section on Creating the Light Plot, and no two are the same. Every lighting designer has his own conventions and styles. Further, the light plot can exist in various forms depending on its function. I see it as primarily a communicative tool--to convey information to the electricians who will be hanging, circuiting, and coloring the fixtures. In many venues, once the fixtures are focused, the light plot is discarded, and need never be seen again. Lighting paperwork (the HookUp, Instrument Schedule, Focus Chart) and other documents take its place. If you and one or two cohorts are doing the lighting, a quick drawing on a napkin may be all that is required.[SUP]2[/SUP] Once you get into writing cues, a Channel HookUp scribbled on a yellow legal pad can tell you that Channel 1 is the Warm Lights for area I, ch2 for area II, etc. You may find a magic sheet or cheat sheet more useful.

[SUP]1[/SUP]One of the best on the topic is A Practical Guide to Stage Lighting, by Steven L. Shelley. Put it on your xmas/birthday list. In the meantime, check your school and local public libraries for other books on stage lighting. Sometimes (often), books can do a better job of covering all that is required than can an Internet forum.

[SUP]2[/SUP]One can use as much or as little of the following software packages: Vectorworks, Lightwright, Excel, WYSIWYG, ESP Vision, but none will necessarily make the lighting any better.

EDIT: Much of what I've said above is also in the wiki entry http://www.controlbooth.com/wiki/Light Plot . I should have looked there first.

 

[JChenault]

I see it as primarily a communicative tool--to convey information to the electricians who will be hanging, circuiting, and coloring the fixtures. In many venues, once the fixtures are focused, the light plot is discarded, and need never be seen again. Lighting paperwork (the HookUp, Instrument Schedule, Focus Chart) and other documents take its place.

Fascinating how folks see the same thing differently. For my two cents the primary function of the plot is to figure out what the design is, Where I want and can put fixtures. Only secondarily it is to communicate with the electricians.[/QUOTE]

 

[josh88]

Fascinating how folks see the same thing differently. For my two cents the primary function of the plot is to figure out what the design is, Where I want and can put fixtures. Only secondarily it is to communicate with the electricians.

I would agree but argue that the act of drafting the plot is how you figure those things out and execute your design, but once the plot is actually finished, at that point it is as Derek sees it and it is handed off as a guide to other people. So I guess I see it as being both depending on which point it time we're talking about

 

[LXPlot]

Vectorworks is the primary software for making light plots. It has a fair learning curve and requires a bit of effort to secure a student copy, so I recommend using LxFree or LxFree Java. This is a lot easier and less time consuming. I find it easier than doing it by hand, as if you mess up it isn't as hard to fix, and my hand drawn stuff always seems sloppy looking (that's just me).

Francis Reid's The Stage Lighting Handbook gives a fairly decent explanation of what fixtures should be used for what, and it's smaller than Steven Shelley's book. Drew Campbell's Technical Theatre for Nontechnical People has only two chapters on lighting, but it is a very easy read and covers the basics fairly well. This website and the wiki here have tons of information on the subject.

 

[Mitch]

Thanks a ton! What I was referring to was the Channel Hookup xD My Directer calls all of that stuff a lighting plot. Thanks for all the advice.
Thanks again, Mitch

 

[AdeptMechanicus]

I was inspired to go into theater lighting by Sidney Lumet's book "Making Movies." He says the most important key to lighting and cinematography is to figure out how lighting affects the meaning and mood of the show. For instance, a harsh, off-white color evokes fluorescent lighting, which can be used to create a sterile, oppressive atmosphere used for things like totalitarian states or office cubicles. Alternatively, blues, reds and purples can be used for a more magical environment (like Midsummer Night's Dream or Into the Woods). It all depends on the show. Sometimes, for contemporary plays like Neil Simon's Rumors, you just want a single, simple plot. This allows the acting and humor to drive the plot.When you make a lighting plot, think first about the mood you want and what colors you'll use to create it. Make your first plot based on that without worrying about whether it's actually achievable. Specifics don't matter at this point.Next, you want to make an actual, feasible plot after you run the other one by the director. It takes a while, but it pays off most of the time because it allows you to see what ideas are good enough to withstand scrutiny.

 

[ship]

Primary concept in doing this is in making "Art." Plot a function by way of design. From the plot or expressed concept helps to make that art designed in a way of it and not function, but form makes it become.

Expeience in learning say not just what fixture to use for a place in a plot but why and how to use them over going creative or how in doing so didn't work out so well. Yea, a 6x9 anyone that has focused a few hundred of them can see in mids eye how in this new position it will do for this purpose. Could be a wash or crappy dim area light. Still for that focal length, knowing a 6x9 or 6x12 is experience based in seeing what it looks like.

A combination of living the fixture and focusing them, learning from other designers in doing so and from there training yourself on what gear or how far you can go with your concepts when designing. Gotta experience lighting with the gear and design before you really have a other than at best computer design concept for how best to use it.

Sorry in if harsh the change around of inspiration and general advice to that of "design" real design that takes work - while still in school and trying to get out of school where one can graduate and get onto college studies for design - once basic high school is done. Read really good books - I'm prone to Gelette, McCandless or Fuchs but have read many and have a big wealth or reading on the science. Can and have designed shows in the past - even with minor awards.

Get out of High School in time spent on general classes, than fight the battle of time in making art and productions produced verses grades overall. Literally, "History of China" as per class in college, more important to make the grade on now or get the show out the door will become a question for later. And later how what's learned in college in "History of China" as with other classes in school from High Shool to College Math to foreign languate, will help you later. That's college with the benefit of high school in making choices a few years from now I hope.

This helping to design is a High School choice in anyone that's been to High School and made such choices of getting out of it and getting onto career, verses "saving the show" or concept of being ready to make art yet. AT some point I have failed at in times, I have saved shows to the detrement of my career in that school. I'm at least thinking while you might have mastered how to control the light board so far, it in design is a bit more taking away to master design. This even if only helping the director do so.

Not yet ready even if good and great tech person. Just a caution in saving your rest of studies before getting too far into helping the design and making real art over studying for other classes it would probably require.

No matter how good now, later you will be better. Focus on what you learned and mastered now and don't take on more that will if you try it with intent will replace class studies in other stuff you should be knowing. In other words, focus on the fun and what you can master in High School, and concentrate on getting to college. Don't put too much effort in the show being done that I say is above skill level, will hold you back in at least learning what not needed to know yet. Years ahead yet, design than. Learning now I just don't think that other than while sitting at the board and viewing it, giving frank advice is any better role you can give. This in programming the cues and giving advice on what you see if wanted. Master that board for your first show,

See what's done and learn. Might be wrong but a caution of were I... what I might stick with.