Design Special lighting on a Budget with limited resources

[amberjel]

Hello!
I am helping a local school get their lighting on track and up to snuff for their next musical. I have a problem that I could use some help with. They have a cutout of the NY skyline as the backdrop with a painted backdrop behind it. The Director would like lighting back there that will change with the mood. Normally, I woud light from above with a strip light, but this school does not have one. They also have 0 barn doors and 0 cable (like not even one piece of cable). I was thinking I could light from below with some stand alone up lights and just have them run to a power strip and station some poor kid there to turn them on and off. Does anyone have any ideas? It's greatly appreciated!!

 

[shiben]

do they have no dimmers? ERSs could be used to light a cyc, but obviously cyc lights or strip lights will work better... what kind of gear does this place have?

 

[SHARYNF]

how big is the skyline, how big is the cyc(?) behind it, and the distance?

Are you trying to change the color of the cyc or the skyline?

Do you have any budget at all?

Sharyn

 

[Syphilis]

Some quick beam diameter calculations can probably answer one of your questions. PARS on shinbusters as high as you can raise them (without being seen) would probably work best, or Source 4 70 degrees or something of the kind. I would suggest an RGB kind of mixing, with three sets of lights with three different gels, but if you can't dim that's probably no good (although you could still get six different colors out of it without any dimming at all).