Streetlights. What kind, gaslight,
sodium vapor,
incandescent,
mercury vapor, tin hallide, multi-vapor, gas?
What era is the
play might be useful in determining what type of color this say down light, grainy directional beam of light should best be.
The street light is a directional beam of light motivation for the scene. If you use a actutal
fixture as a
practical in showing where this light comes from, you will with out a doubt need to modify it to operate it on
stage. Don't expect for instance you have a 277v
outlet on
stage. This can cost time and money much less in modifying a actual
fixture, will require a expert in doing the modification. Fine as long as it is desired by the designer to use a
fixture as part of his or her set design and it's a period
fixture. If not, I would not waste time on it when not a necessary
element to the
stage picture. In other words, verify that the designer wants such a thing because a actual
fixture when visible than becomes part of the set design more than lighting design.
What most people are saying in having some form of overhead lamp is that the street light beam of light is a motivating
color temperature and
intensity for the scene. It's also a source of light for those within the scene in a directional type of way.
Let's say there is one street light on a street placed every 100 feet on a street. In placing a say
Fresnel or Wide Flood beam of light as a downward beam, we are than saying that there is a street light overhead providing a downward
key light to all those in the area of it. This is not all the light on the
stage, just the primary motivational lighting for it as far as
intensity and a directional source of it goes.
We in addition to this have various lights at lower angles from houses and from other street lamps up and down the street that while less intense still are providing some light on the target. On a
stage, perhaps a wide beam of light representing that street light in beam spread, than high side
beam angle lights to representate other street lights, if not some side beams from all around from the houses and buildings in the area.
All supplement each other as light is collective from sources. In addition to this, as opposed to a actual person at night, on
stage, we normally as a
stage convention replace a lack of light with dark blue to help the visibility but still represent night time. Can be a warm verging on lavender or cold steel blue dependant upon the time of year as long as it's fairly dark blue and representing shadow.
Cyc lights are really good for washing a general color.
Say 100% from above, and 40% from the high side other street lights, than 20% from the lower all around as far as some form of white light. This supplemented by a
wash of blue night.
This might be what we would see in a photo, but given we are only representing what we see but still attempting to put light on the subject, and a down light in general makes the shadows on the
face, much less visibility especially towards the
edge of the beam rather dark, we than take this motivation for the light and modify it as necessary to get the job done. Say as opposed to a single overhead source, we now hang a bunch of fixtures from the basic center all using their beam spread to motivate this center of light source but
cover the
stage. - This given our streetlamp is center and directly overhead as a design choice for the primary source of light.
So we now have some form of
hub of light covering the
stage and supplement it with other more normal lighting to fill in the shadows and gastly looks you other wise would get from a down light or high side source. Designed visibility is the thing, those other sources of light might be necessary to boost up their
intensity to help see the actors or at least make them seem more natual at least at night as opposed to ghouls. Such a bad look can be appropriate given the situation, but otherwise in using these motivational sources including moonilight in replacing the sun as a
wash of light, you might boost up certain while motivated sources to supplement the look desired.
This all given and after the period and type of lighting in
color temperature by design is to be represented for the feel of the look you figure out. A gas light as opposed to
sodium vapor as opposed to
incandescent as opposed to
mercury vapor in look will be much different. These all also directly opposed to the moonlight and
house ambient lighting already out there which will have their own color temperatures or
gel colors you represent.
Finally, beyond the real perod of time and fixtures you want to reproduce the look of, what is the reality of the scene elements you wish to add to this night scene? If fantasy, perhaps blue, white, amber, you wish to do something completely different beyond even determing a warm or cool blue light to the scene. Perhaps in say MacBeth, you wish to introduce more red into the scene to make the blood pop more.
Perhaps otherwise you wish to introduce a more white light theory into the scene either by choice or by lack of fixtures available where by as opposed to similating shadow with blue
wash, you need to use real shadows. Given otherwise the blue lighting allows for less
intensity on the other lights, you than very much would have to re-adjust to compensate by re-adjusting not only
intensity but also possibly color if not
fader levels to compensate for the lack of other lighting. Yes you will have shadow, but without more white light making half a
face say grey, the half a
face or half actors not seen completely won't be heard either.
Jumping in and out of dark shadows can be useful especially at night and under a street lamp motivational source, but it also can be distracting to the audience if the actors are not able to find their light while playing their
role. Someone speaking an important
role while in the dark or wrong lighting shadowing
effect in these cases can at best give the wrong mood to what they say, at most cause the lines not to be remembered in being thus not heard.
Old westerns and other old movies were not able to film at night for fairly obviously technology reasons. Instead they simply filtered the
lens to make the scene a little more hard to see. This than is the intent in such situations as per a
stage convention. After initially you realize that it's
daylight but say the black and white film is not refined to see in the dark, you than accept as a viewer what look representing night is presented. In most instances for us, we use a blue like Rx80 to similate night as opposed to the harsh shadows otherwise. In the case of such blue
wash not available, than a more
brad wash of white and fill than is necessary to get at least the shadow down to a
level you can still see.
Final note, if going from day to night, one might do a very bright night at first, and dim down in compensating for the audience's eyes. If you jump too fast from lots of light to little light, it will take a while for the audiences eyes to compensate. During these moments, any lines spoken in the dark will be lost.