School Production Side Lightin

Hi There,

Am designing lighting for a school production in about 7 weeks and would like to have side lighting. The production is in a professional venue, The Berry Theatre, Hedge End which has a large lantern stock and has sufficient 3 phase power. So lanterns and power is not the issue. The issue is that it is a school production and so therefore boom poles are not practical as it could cause danger to actors. Therefore how can I get side light but on a budget. The theatre has a variety of clamps G clamps, O clamps and some other MISC ones and also has lon battern poles which could be used. How do I get side light without getting in the way of the actors?

Thanks,

Tim
 
Hi Tim,

I don't know what type of house this Berry Theatre is, (Fly or grid?) but often, you will see side light coming from suspended light ladders from the grid. Some theatres also have positions running upstage to downstage to facilitate hanging masking tabs. If there are multiple of these positions, they are also good for side lighting. Lastly, side lighting can simply be light coming from the end of the batten. If you are looking for low side light solutions that are found in dance lighting, then booms and pigeon plates are about the only solution. The angle of your light will always depend on the location of the source of light. ALWAYS.

I don't know who is dictating that boom poles are too much of a danger to be used, but know that the actors are in more danger of falling off a stage or walking into a wall than something that is lit up. Even if it not lit up, you can always tape the floor around it to emphasize it's location or buy those really cool 9V blinky lights to attach to your booms so that their location can be identified in the blackouts. Booms are used all the time in hundreds of theatres every day without incident.

Hope this helps!

Nik Robalino
 
I don't know what type of house this Berry Theatre is, (Fly or grid?)

There is a tension grid FOH and 4 motorised dedicated lighting fly bars over head with a variety of hemp bars also available to use as well as some winch based bars.


I don't know who is dictating that boom poles are too much of a danger to be used, but know that the actors are in more danger of falling off a stage or walking into a wall than something that is lit up. Even if it not lit up, you can always tape the floor around it to emphasize it's location or buy those really cool 9V blinky lights to attach to your booms so that their location can be identified in the blackouts. Booms are used all the time in hundreds of theatres every day without incident.

It is annoying, I haven't really considered the exact plotting (Because the set hasn't even been built yet!) so haven't really discussed it in much detail with the director or TD. I think I could probably persuade them to let me use booms if it was the only solution. There are floor based 16 amp power outlets which would be able to power the booms so the only issue would be the safety.

Thanks for your reply!

Tim
 
You can do ladders off the pipes off stage, you can build box towers that keep the fixtures from getting bumped, or you can simply put boom, base, glow tape, and a little bit of actor-training on the stage. It's certainly not uncommon, and actors can't completely dictate what we do with our lights ;) Unless set pieces are an issue......
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back