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[jakeayrisblog]

Lighting techniques

There are many different techniques used in lighting design and operation. Some techniques used  include:

Fades: Fades are when the lights dim or brighten over a set period of time, this is a lot more subtle and aesthetically pleasing than lights just going on or off.

Cross-fades: Cross-fades are when as one lighting state is fading out the next is fading in at the same time, this is useful as it means that the audience are not looking at an unlit stage every time the lights change.

Snaps: This is when there is no fade to a lighting change and the lights change instantly, this is used for dramatic effects.

Black-outs: Black-outs are when the stage is in complete darkness, this can be useful if large props or bits of set need to be moved around the stage or if you don't want the audience to see the actors entering or exiting the stage. It may also be used if you only want an actor to be heard and not seen.

Down-light: When the lantern is above the stage pointing down, the most common position used.

Up-light: When the lantern is lower than the actors or objects being lit, it catches facial features in a different way that is useful for creating dramatic effects.

side light: When the lantern is to one or both sides of the actors or objects being lit, it can create a different feeling to a location and can be used to show that the light source is coming from a particular place in the scene's setting (eg. an open window/door)

Front-light: When the lantern is in front of the actors or objects being lit facing towards them, this is the most common position for a lantern as it lights the stage well and allows you to see everything clearly.

Back-light: When light is coming from behind the actor or object and into the audience, used for dramatic effects as you can only see silhouettes.

Scrim lighting: Scrim is a material that is opaque when lit from the front and almost transparent when lit form behind, this is useful for changing locations easily and making characters appear on stage without the audience seeing them enter.

Washes: A wash is when you have use group of lights to combine their beams and cover a large area, this is very common for creating settings and moods. 

Cyc washes: This is when you focus lights on a cyc to change the colour of it, this is very useful for creating settings and moods. 

Gobo's: Gobo's are metal discs with holes in that you can put in front of a lantern to create a pattern or image with the beam. This is useful for adding texture to a state and setting locations.

Intensity: The brightness of the beam. you can create different effects by lighting something brightly or very dimly.

Beam size: The size of the area that the light covers, changing this changes what is lit onstage.

Specials: This is when you have a light focused on one specific thing to make it stand out in a lighting state.

Follow-spots: Follow-spots are lights that are not rigged in a position but are manually moved and operated live during the performance, these are useful as they can follow an actor as they move ensure that they are always lit. 

[jakeayrisblog]

Lighting Colour theory

For Lighting there are two methods making colour, one is the additive method where you focus more than one light on the same thing to mix colours, and there is the subtractive method where you use more than one gel on the same light so that they take things away from each other.

The Additive method:

The three primary colours are red, blue and green, The three secondary colours are yellow, cyan and magenta. Putting all three primary colours together creates pure white light as all the colours of the spectrum are present.

Example - You want to light an area with Magenta, so put put a blue gel in one light and a red gel in another. Then you focus both light on the area, the colours mix and you end up with magenta.

The Subtractive method:

You start with the secondary colours as you are using two gels. These are Magenta, cyan and yellow. These are then subtracting from the light and only allowing their common primary colour through so you can make the primary colours, these are red, blue and green. If you use all the secondary colours then no light can get through which leaves you with the absence of colour, more commonly known as Black. Black is also known as the constant and is represent by the letter K.

Example - You want to light an area with green, so you put a Cyan gel and a yellow gel in the same light. Each gel only allow it’s own colour to pass through, the only colour common to both gels is green and so that is what you are left with.

[jakeayrisblog]

Lx 16th June

Today we focused the rig for “Oh what a lovely war.” I called the focus, whilst the others took turns up the tallescope focusing the lanterns. We did bars 2 and 3 easily, bar 4 was a bit more tricky because of the thrust, but we managed to do it using the tallescope where we could get it and the zarges where we couldn't.

The lamps on either end of bar 5 we managed to reach by climbing the front structures. However we couldn't get to the middle of bar 5 or bar 6 Because of the raked stage, so we had to use a technique called bounce focusing.

We also had to bounce focus bar 1 as the only ladder we have that can reach it has gone missing.

Bounce focusing is when you lower the bar to ground level, then attempting to guess the focus of the light without being able to see our in position. You then have to fly the bar back out to see if you got it right, if not you have to lower it and try again. Bounce focusing is not the preferred way of focusing, nor is it good industry practice, but we couldn't find any way around it.

To do this focus I learned to use the riggers remote, which allows you to perform basic operations on the desk without having to be near it, this was helpful as it meant we could have everyone down on the stage helping instead having to keep someone by the desk.

The actors did not come in today as plotting has been pushed back to tomorrow.