Eriksrocks
Member
Hi guys, my high school is doing our annual "rock concert" this Friday where a bunch of student bands get together and perform. I've been designing lighting for the past couple of years but am by no means an expert, and I was wondering if I could get your advice and tips/tricks on how to best control/improv concert lighting live given that our rig will be almost all conventionals and we only have an Express 48/96.
In past years I basically just re-gelled what lighting we had left from our fall musical, but this year I want to make it look as good as possible. I'm probably going to divide the stage into 4 general areas in a diamond formation, with two colors of backlight from fresnels and S4 PARnels for each area, then the rest of the (2nd) electric will be filled with 19 degree S4's aimed DS in random directions to give that "concert" feel without the moving lights (we do have a hazer). I'll probably have more ellipsoidals on 1st aimed down and/or out into the house, as well as some toplight and frontlight for US, and then probably just general washes on the catwalks. Plus a ton of sidelight and maybe a couple of S4 PAR's on the deck for effect.
Anyways I'm mainly looking for advice on how to best control all of this live. Given that I don't know any of the music or the order that the bands will be performing in (i.e. no set list), programming to the music is out of the question. I will have to improv it all live. In past years this usually meant picking a primary backlight color, setting levels for a song, and then just slowly fading between two backlight submasters or something similar. Pretty lame and not at all that 'concert' feel. This year we've got a Radiance Hazer so I want to try something more ambitious and get that 'rock concert'/club feel even though we don't have movers. I'm assuming it would be extremely difficult if not impossible to improv a complex lighting design to the timing of the song without ever hearing the music, so what's the best way to fake it? I want the lighting to look as complex as possible without me having to rapidly bump subs and fixtures to each beat as I'm trying to guess how the song is going to progress. It needs to be relatively easy to control, but I still want to be able to adapt to the tone/pace of the song, if that makes sense.
Anyone have experience with doing this on an Express or a board like it? Any tips or tricks? I have ~20 subs available to me, so would the best method be to designate 3-5 subs for general area washes and then program effects into the rest that I can fade up and down or bump as needed? So for example one sub would be "ellipsoidals slow moving fades" and then another would be "ellipsoidals chase" and then another would be "ellipsoidals fast chase" and then maybe "purple backlight forward chase", "purple backlight reverse chase", "purple backlight random strobe" etc. Hopefully you get the idea. My only concern is whether I would be able to find and use these fast enough to improv and keep up with the music. Would programming effects into cues be useful at all?
I guess my biggest fear is trying to improv and "guess" a moment in the song and being wrong and then the lighting is just awkward or off beat.
How do small clubs typically do this? Do they just run a few standard chases regardless of the song, is there a board op that is constantly improvising with the band, do they use a controller that activates the chase with the beat, etc? I can understand how maybe a random chase between lots of lights in close proximity would work in a small club, but this is a stage with a proscenium that's 46' x 33', electrics will probably be about 30' in the air - I want as much of the full concert lighting feel as possible and as you can imagine a random chase between all the fixtures probably isn't going to look that good.
Anyways I apologize for the wall of text and any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
- Erik
In past years I basically just re-gelled what lighting we had left from our fall musical, but this year I want to make it look as good as possible. I'm probably going to divide the stage into 4 general areas in a diamond formation, with two colors of backlight from fresnels and S4 PARnels for each area, then the rest of the (2nd) electric will be filled with 19 degree S4's aimed DS in random directions to give that "concert" feel without the moving lights (we do have a hazer). I'll probably have more ellipsoidals on 1st aimed down and/or out into the house, as well as some toplight and frontlight for US, and then probably just general washes on the catwalks. Plus a ton of sidelight and maybe a couple of S4 PAR's on the deck for effect.
Anyways I'm mainly looking for advice on how to best control all of this live. Given that I don't know any of the music or the order that the bands will be performing in (i.e. no set list), programming to the music is out of the question. I will have to improv it all live. In past years this usually meant picking a primary backlight color, setting levels for a song, and then just slowly fading between two backlight submasters or something similar. Pretty lame and not at all that 'concert' feel. This year we've got a Radiance Hazer so I want to try something more ambitious and get that 'rock concert'/club feel even though we don't have movers. I'm assuming it would be extremely difficult if not impossible to improv a complex lighting design to the timing of the song without ever hearing the music, so what's the best way to fake it? I want the lighting to look as complex as possible without me having to rapidly bump subs and fixtures to each beat as I'm trying to guess how the song is going to progress. It needs to be relatively easy to control, but I still want to be able to adapt to the tone/pace of the song, if that makes sense.
Anyone have experience with doing this on an Express or a board like it? Any tips or tricks? I have ~20 subs available to me, so would the best method be to designate 3-5 subs for general area washes and then program effects into the rest that I can fade up and down or bump as needed? So for example one sub would be "ellipsoidals slow moving fades" and then another would be "ellipsoidals chase" and then another would be "ellipsoidals fast chase" and then maybe "purple backlight forward chase", "purple backlight reverse chase", "purple backlight random strobe" etc. Hopefully you get the idea. My only concern is whether I would be able to find and use these fast enough to improv and keep up with the music. Would programming effects into cues be useful at all?
I guess my biggest fear is trying to improv and "guess" a moment in the song and being wrong and then the lighting is just awkward or off beat.
How do small clubs typically do this? Do they just run a few standard chases regardless of the song, is there a board op that is constantly improvising with the band, do they use a controller that activates the chase with the beat, etc? I can understand how maybe a random chase between lots of lights in close proximity would work in a small club, but this is a stage with a proscenium that's 46' x 33', electrics will probably be about 30' in the air - I want as much of the full concert lighting feel as possible and as you can imagine a random chase between all the fixtures probably isn't going to look that good.
Anyways I apologize for the wall of text and any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
- Erik
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