It sounds like your question is one of design, not just the technical basics which you seem to have figured out. I dont claim to be the best designer in the world, or the best educator, and honestly have been learning how to do this for the past 3 years. A lot of the following are from my process, yours will doubtless be different. I read books and articles about lighting all the time, and about design. I look at photographs and art a lot, and take time to understand how the light works to make that scene. Obviously your more interested in sound, but lighting can be a ton of fun. Also, people think our toys are cooler. A good friend is a
squeak at my school, and he routinely raves over how cool his new mic/
mixer/
speaker is. However, hes the only one who finds it cool. Everyone thinks moving heads are cool.
Anyhow, the following is a general accounting of my design process. The one thing I cant emphasize enough in this entire post is read the script and understand it.
1. This wont be a four-wall rental, and unless you have a budget, you pretty much need to make your
stock work. Take inventory, make sure everything is working. If you have time, fix the things that are broken. Find out what
gel colors you have, and if you can order more. Take a look at the gobos you have. Find out if you have a budget for new ones.
2. Read the script. Several times. Decide what the show is about, and talk with the director and get your ideas for what the show is about on the same
page. While talking with the director, find out how they want the show lit (is it bright and cheery or dark and moody?). Also find out what colors they totally hate. Dont use those colors. Remember, your entire task is to
reveal the world of the
play to the audience. Thus, you are concerned with illumination, but the lack thereof is also an important thing to take into account. You dont need to light every
bit of the
stage all the time, or even all of the character all of the time. Your world needs to be defined by you and the director, and then you need to focus lights to make that world visible. If your doing Midsummer Nights Dream, your world might be very oddly colored, whereas if your doing Chekov, its probably not. Your world might be very dark and emotionally charged, or it might be bright and funny looking. Define this, and make everything happen with that in mind. Most people like to look at pictures to help them define this, I have a big 3x6 sheet of cork board that I post photos, paintings, and whatnot on while Im designing. You dont have to, but I like to be able to see all of my pictures at once, and I had a huge piece of cork board left over from a show for some reason.
3. Start making a plan. One thing that you can do is download google sketchup, make a 3d model of the set, put some people on it in various acting areas, and print out a bunch of copies in a
neutral grey scale. Use black and white charcoal to show highlights and shadows for each scene, and any changes that you think you need to do in a scene. These sketches can be as rough or as detailed as you like. I find it helpful to put a body in each area on the
stage. The ones that are not lit for each scene, I just color black. It generally is helpful to have more rather than fewer areas. It is also generally a good idea to have an odd number across the
stage, as the DS/C tends to get used a lot, and with an even number of areas, you dont have that area as a distinct set of lights.
4. Look at your sketches. It will become apparent from where the highlights and shadows are where you NEED lights. On your
light plot, start by drawing lights there. Since you have not seen a designer run yet, as its still fairly early on, if you have say 1 frontlight on the DS/C acting area, you probably want one for the rest of your acting areas too. This leads to the McCandles method, which has 2 frontlights per area, each about 45º from perpendicular to the
stage. These are colored in tints, generally one warm and one cool. Rinse and repeat for each area. Generally, a toplight and a backlight (names say where they go) are added for each area as well. You can also add several top and/or back lights in different colors, as these positions make it easy to color the
stage and figure while not darkening the actor's
face too much. Another popular addition is to add in a lower angle frontlight, sometimes on the
balcony rail, to get the actor's eyes more effectively. I believe this is called jewel lighting? This entire process is where knowing your inventory comes in. If you NEED to have 14 acting areas and all you have are 24 ERSs and 16 Fresnels, you need a new plan than Jewel lighting with a 2 tone backlight
system, which would require 42 ERSs and 42 Fresnels and/or PARs. I can do that in my theater, but your inventory is not mine, so figure out what you can and cant do, and make it work. Recently Les lit a show with something like 12 fresnels total (Just read that thread), so it is doable with a tiny amount of lights.
5. So now you have your basic systems in, frontlight, toplight and backlight. Now you need to decide if you need any other systems of light. Side light, from low angle shin busters on booms to High side
pipe ends and anywhere in between are often added, and used a lot more if dancing is to happen, but can add a killer
effect to a straight
play. Do you need to add texture? Its generally a good idea, and adding in a
system of gobos can really make a good design great. I like to have at least one
system of breakup gobos, one in sharp focus and another just enough in focus that you get a cool texture. Do you need any specials? The standard "dramatic" look is actor in a spotlight and nothing else on. You dont need to do this, but your director might want it. Find out. Do you need to have a spotlight somewhere for that actor? At some
point in here its a good idea to sit down and watch a run, maybe several times. See what kind of specials you need to hang. At this
point you can start writing your
cue list as well. It will be preliminary until you open the show, but at this
point you can start saying ok, in Act 1 Scene 1, this is the look we have. In the same scene, when x says whatever, it changes to this. One thing I learned the value of is writing maintenance cues. I generally write a series of cues that turn every light in the
plot on so that you can see them. Then there are a series of cues that show systems together, and then a
blackout. I like this
system because it forces the board op to check all the dimmers and lights before the show starts, and you can see the focus of lights in a
system, something that you cant do with the
channel check function. You can also program cues if your using an
I-Cue to have it hit all of its focus points, making sure that it is functioning correctly. This set of cues can be as simple or as complicated as you want, or you dont have to do it at all. Its just something I find valuable.
6. At this
point, you should be ready to finalize your
light plot and paperwork, which shows each
instrument and what
channel number it is assigned to, and a blank space for the
dimmer number. It also shows what color you have in the
instrument, what the lamp wattage is, any accessories in the
instrument, if you have a group or
submaster,
etc. This can be a fairly simple
channel hookup and
instrument schedule, or a very complicated packet that has group lists,
submaster lists,
channel hookups, patch lists, breakdowns by position, and all sorts of other things. It all really depends on how complex your lighting is. The things you must have, however, are a
channel hookup and a
light plot, and as a ME, those are pretty much what I look at from when I get the
plot and paperwork until its time to program the board. Making good paperwork is an art form that some designers are better at than others. I try and make as much and as complete documentation as I can, so that If I died someone could figure out my design and make the show run anyhow. However, I have had designers email me a crappy
light plot and a
channel hookup with no useful information on it, and I still got the show up and running. Just dont be that guy, but you dont need to be me either.
7. Its time to hang and focus your
plot. This is often sent off to the ME and squints to make happen in a professional or larger setting, but it sounds like the ME is you, so you get to learn how this works from start to finish. Fortunately, hanging lights is not too hard. Make sure you use the
safety cables on every light, and if they are all working, you should have very few problems. A few hints. If your lifting instruments up to height, its easier to put all the things that go in them in before you bring it up to height. Save a trip on the ladder. Circuiting can be done after all the lights are hung or as you go. Choose the one that is easier, and stick to it. Make sure the lights work before you climb. This saves you the trouble of trying to re-lamp in the air, or repairing a
connector while hanging off of a
truss. This has happened to me and it is not fun. Avoid it. Anyhow, once you get all your lights hung and plugged in, grab a bunch of 20+" pieces of tie
line or a
roll of
e-tape, get up in the air, and dress all your cables nicely. Leave enough slack on the cables so you can move the
instrument around during focus, but dont let a long run of cable just
droop. That looks ugly, and is to be avoided.
8. Now its focus time. Bring up each light in your design, and have one guy on the ladder moving it around, and you on the
stage to see where it is. It helps to stand in the area such that the hot spot of the light should be on your head. Then the electrician up top can
point the light easily. Have them lock it down, then adjust the sharpness of the
edge of the beam, and then push in shutters to where they have to go. On some blues and reds and greens, you will want to pull the color out before you do this so as you can see the beam.
9.
Cue your show. It is often good to get the director in there, and a guy up on
stage to run around and look like an actor. Write a
cue for every one that you have written down, and even if its 2 cues that are identical, write them all out in a linear sequence so that pressing Go once is all you need to do. The process of writing and editing cues will probably continue until you open the show, as even once you are in techs, you will want to edit looks and tweak things.
10. Opening night. Sit back, run the show if thats your job, and enjoy the looks you made on
stage. Collect your money if they are paying you. Congratulate the actors for hitting their light. Sleep.
Anyhow, theres my process in a large nutshell. The most important thing is read the script, and the second is have fun. By the way, what show are you guys doing? If its a dance or musical, some additional notes would apply, but even they work in the above thoughts.
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