Many On Stage Lighting readers are young aspiring lighting designers, keen to get into the industry and begin their journey to the top of their chosen profession. In this guest article, Lighting Designer, Author and all round stage lighting guru Richard Cadena tells it like it is.

How do I get to be a top lighting designer, then?

One of the most common questions I’m asked is, “How can I get into the lighting industry as a top lighting designer?” or something similar. It always reminds me of the punch line, “I don’t have to outrun the lion; I only have to outrun you.” (Oh, come on! Don’t tell me you’ve never heard that joke.  OK,  it’s at the bottom of this page)

But in this industry it’s not a lion that’s chasing us; rather, we’re chasing the lion and we have to outrun everyone else in the industry if we’re going to catch the prized position. If you want to be the one that chases down the king of all lighting positions, you’ve got to be prepared to put in some extra effort to prepare for a long chase. Here are some of the things you need to know.

You’re young and don’t know any better

That’s good because most people I know in this industry who are over 30 years old are trying to figure out how to come home off the road without giving up the salary to which they have become accustomed. And most people I know under 30 who want to be in this industry are trying to figure out how to go on the road and earn the kind of salary to which those over 30 have become accustomed. It’s a cruel trick of nature but it’s for your own good. If you knew what you were in for you might not be so anxious to go on the road. I won’t bother to tell you about all the missed birthdays, weddings, funerals, holidays, first baby steps, new teeth, broken arms, tonsillitis, first days of spring, report cards, quiet nights home with the family, not-so-quiet nights home with the family, graduations, and beautiful sunsets because you won’t listen anyway.

You don’t know how good you have it

Back in the day, there was no such thing as off-line editors, visualizers, the internet, social networking sites, smart phone apps, online user manuals, specialized books on stagecraft, lighting design software, or computers, for that matter. Nor was there Starbucks, Red Bull, cell phones, iPods, MP3s, or noise-cancelling headphones. We were lucky to have airplane travel and land lines. But here’s the reason I bring this up. There are lots and lots of resources to help you make your way up the industry ladder. All you have to do is put down your Wii, Nintendo, television remote control, and your texting down long enough to put the ladder against the wall and start climbing. Spend some quality time putting your brain in overdrive and learn the stuff. But don’t expect it to happen overnight. I hate to be the one to break it to you but it takes a lot of time and a lot of effort to master the fine art of being a master.

It takes more than automated lighting and a console, and less money than you think to create compelling lighting

Just because you can lay out dozens of automated lights, call them up on a console and record a scene in a console doesn’t necessarily make you a good lighting designer. The best lighting designers are the ones who can make a piece of wire, some gaff tape, and three sheets of gels sing like a songbird without resorting to the use of an effects engine. How do you think the great masters did it before the days of automated lighting? I’m not talking about the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, I’m talking about Renoir, Van Gogh, Monet, and Rembrandt. They did it all with shadow, light, and color. No effects engine required.

It’s easier than you think to be a part of this industry

Half the job is knowing how to get along with people, half is showing up on time, and the other half is bringing a great attitude. You don’t even have to know much math.

There are times when it’s okay to take chances and there are times when it’s not

The times when it’s okay to take chances include: moving to a different city to be close to production centers like London, New York, Paris, Chicago, Dallas, Munich, Los Angeles; taking on a project that requires you to stretch your skills and imagination; peppering the industry with resumes; asking a local production company if you can train on their console in exchange for sweeping the floors. The times when it’s not okay to take chances are when someone can get hurt: climbing without a harness on and clipped in; lifting a safety ground in an electrical system; rigging heavy objects over people’s heads if you’re inexperienced… You get the drift.

Have fun

If you really enjoy what you’re doing it shows and it’s contagious. Then people want to be around you and they’ll call you back again when they’re putting together their next crew list. You’ll be even happier when that happens and it turns into a vicious (but happy) cycle. If you don’t really enjoy this business then do us all a favor and get out. Chances are you won’t be making a terrible financial decision.

Read Rob’s On Stage Lighting blog

There, I said it. Now do it.

Richard Cadena has been in the lighting industry since the time of the bag phone.

He is the author of Electricity for the Entertainment Electrician & Technician (which is also available at in the US at Amazon.com ) and Automated Lighting: The Art and Science of Moving Light in Theatre, Live Performance, Broadcast, and Entertainment
(now in its 2nd edition) (Also available in the US at Amazon.com).

As an ETCP Certified Entertainment Electrician and an ETCP Recognized Trainer he conducts seminars about electricity, power distribution, and controls. He is also the editor of PLSN magazine and he has missed his share of weddings and funerals due to circumstances beyond his lighting control.

The Lion Joke

Two guys on a photo safari in South Africa far from their vehicle or shelter with no means of protection. All of a sudden they realize that a lioness has crept up behind them unexpectedly and that they are in grave danger of being attacked. One of them immediately takes off his safari boots and starts to put on some trainers.  The other says  “Are you crazy? That’s just a waste of time – you’ll never outrun a lion.”

The guy replies “I don’t have to outrun the lion, I only have to outrun you….”

If this has helped you, consider buying me a beer and CLICK HERE to donate a few bucks to On Stage Lighting (why should I donate?). Thanks, - Rob

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In the stage lighting calendar, the Christmas season is awash with choirs and orchestras, carol concerts and recitals. On Stage Lighting considers how to light a classical concert ,an orchestra or choir (while keeping conductors and musicians happy) including a simple rig design without overstage rigging postions.

Such musical events might not call for a huge light show of Wobbli Buckettes a-dancing about the place but lighting an orchestra isn’t a walk in the park. Despite what everyone else around you might think, lighting is integral to a successful concert.

In the world of orchestral musicians, “show” lighting is unimportant. Music is all about sound so you can pretty much wave goodbye to any of this “we are all here for the common good” guff – as far classical musos are concerned, you are of no consequence to them. Classical musicians don’t become top class instrumentalists with their ability to see the bigger picture, sometimes leaving you wondering if they would rather even the audience weren’t there.

However, they will know if they can’t see their music in the gloom and are not ones for keeping their troubles to themselves.

The audience, on the other hand, didn’t pay good money just to sit and listen to the CD while not being able to hit “pause” and pop off to the toilet. While not all of the audience delight in watching their favourites warbling or scratching away, seeing the performers is important to the rest and to the management.

Your goal as “person lighting this show” is help the show by making it possible to read dots, not to p**s any musicians off and to light the gig to the satisfaction of the players, concert manager and audience. In the controlled lighting space like a theatre venue or church, there is little ambient light so you are in charge of every bit of light needed.

Lighting The Music

A lot of tiny dots all bunched together – musicians cannot play properly without well lit music. While pit orchestras in theatre use Rat stands (music stands with a built in light), most classical players need a more “comfortable” dot reading environment. Your primary lighting concern should be to enable the musos to read their music easily but you can’t just issue the entire choir with Petzl headtorches – it’d be too expensive for a start.

Lighting the Conductor

The Maestro needs to be lit so the ensemble can see the frantic arm waving that makes sure everyone gets to the end of the tune at the same time. Being able to see music and conductor comfortably is pretty much 90% job done. You might also consider front lighting the maestro for the curtain call, so bows can be taken and flowers received.

Lighting for the Audience

Unlike theatre, intelligibilty of the spoken word is not a big issue but the audience have paid good money to see the show so it would be nice to be able to actually see their favourite artistes at it, a bit of low intensity front light “filling in” helps.. You can also push up the frontlight when it comes to bows and flowers time.

Arty/Mood Lighting. While some Musical Directors will request different colours, moods or textures, we won’t be going into how to achieve this today. The arty stuff comes down to whatever suits the performance which with 90% of these gigs is “Open white and leave it alone” to be honest

Lighting an Orchestra – Know Your Enemies

No, I don’t mean musicians – lighting enemies. The things that are most likely cause members of the ensemble to raise their hand are shadows and glare. Shadows on the page make it harder to read the score – the contrast between the white page and the black notes should be good. Uneven contrast on the page makes the eye work hard and if shadows move (like a violinists bowing arm or a percussionist arms), even harder.

Note about shadows: A light source and an object on stage create a shadow. There is a myth that adding more light sources cuts down on shadows, in fact they just increase. More light sources can mitigate the contrast effect of shadows but can also make them more complex to control. And controlling shadows is our goal, we’ll look into that further on.

Glare in the eyes of the players or conductor is a potential problem. While having lights shone in your face is uncomfortable it also effects the iris of the eye, making it smaller and harder to read music on the page.

We know some potential problems are and how they are caused, so avoid them from the start. Otherwise you will spend your time fielding complaints about the lighting and others will lose confidence in your lighting abilities. Once that happens, the world finds problems even where none exist.

Let’s look look at the practicalities.

Lighting The Scores

To light a choir and orchestra so that they can read their scores with minimal shadow or spill, you would like to use height. Putting your lanterns high up overhead and pointing them straight down means no light in anyone’s eyes, audience or orchestra. It also gives you the smallest, most controllable shadows (if you stand under an overhead light in your house and look down at your feet, you’ll see what I mean). The lower the angle of a light source, nearer horizontal like a sunset, the longer and more unmanagable the shadows become and the longer a shadow is on stage, the more performers it troubles.

The downside of heavy “toplight” is that it can make your ensemble look like they’re being beamed down from an alien spacecraft. A lot of harsh hotspots on the tops of heads and scary gaunt faces. It is also not always possible, quite a lot of concerts setups don’t have the overstage lighting positions required for these angles.

Your options are to bring the toplight a) slightly forward or b) slightly backward. Steep frontside top light can still seem pretty harsh from the audience, especially at levels that light up the music well. Steep backlight can light music while avoiding the hollow faces and foreheads that are too “hot”.

The trouble with steep backlight (directly from straight on upstage) is that, particularly for standing choirs, each persons head throws a shadow directly onto their score. For seated musicians, this is less of a problem. Lighting choirs, this can be eased by moving the steep backlight to one side and adding another backlight from the opposing angle – effectively lighting over each singers shoulder. Any shadow caused by a choir members neighbour is mitigated by the light from the other side.

Lighting the conductor is pretty uncomplicated, the orchestra needs enough to be able to see the stick and any facial expressions used to drive the piece. Light could come from upstage ish but mustn’t fly off into the eyes of the front row. Again, bring the angle steeper (more overhead) or from the side as an alternative. If there are no rigging positions overstage to light the conductor, see if you can find a cross light angle that is not going to bother the audience or the players.

Ok we’ve looked at ways of lighting musicians scores and the man with the stick, what about seeing them from the stalls? To be seen from “out front” we need to add some lighting from somewhere in front of the target (muso, singer, harpist etc). This could be from good old fashioned theatre style front light 45 degrees up and 45 degrees apart, but there are other positions that fill in here. The important thing to remember is that our biggest problem here is going to be “lights in the eyes” of players facing the conductor. This often makes the 45 degree angle less than attractive – a cello player sat in the front row will be guaranteed a front light in the face while trying to see the baton.

A more front/side or side light position fills in faces and is less of a nuisance for the majority. In a horseshoe setup, the players most likely to have the sidelight in their faces are sat either side of the conductor, facing the sidelight position. Just bear this in mind when focussing and cut off top edges at chest height on the opposite side to mitigate glare for the those facing.

The principle with this front light, is that that unlike a traditional theatre method for lighting a stage, the front light is Fill lighting that will be used at a lower intensity. If you are lighting the scores with positions from both sides of the stage, the sidelight provides most of the brightness required to see the orchestra from the back row of the audience.

Looking at the image, you can see lighting angles that are useful marked in green while red ones are going to cause problems. The arrows are not fixture positions but indicate direction with stubby ones being steeper (from over stage). As the graphic shows, any lighting angle that travels straight into the face of a player, particluarly via the conductor, is to be avoided. The angles that travel from upstage to down vary according to venue design, just make sure that audience members are not in the firing line when shooting from lower rigging positions.

Lighting a Concert in Reality

Many church recitals and school carol concerts are in venues that aren’t “the ideal world”. So, having looked at how we would really like to light our concert, let’s look at a common setup. Makeshift concert spaces often have no facility for rigging overhead, making wind-up lighting stands the only option.

We don’t have option to use high fixture positions overhead to light our orchestra – we need to be clever and even more aware of our angles, shadow and spill. Common wind-up stands go to a maximum height of 3-4 metres, a lot of our lighting angles are going to be shallower than we might prefer.

The benefit to portable stands is that we can place them pretty much where we like around the perfomance area – within reason. The other key to success is using a decent number of focussable fixtures with barndoors. 650W or 1000w fresnels are fine, depending on the size/throw of the venue ( 750w Source Four PARs/ PARnels are common in my world). The final piece of the puzzle is to use a number of stand positions to get “localised” light around the stage.

The first example here is scaled down version of a setup I have used regularly to light a choir and orchestra. The actual rig version uses double the number of fixtures to cover a larger area, but here we’ll use 12 fresnels for simplicity of demo and to allow for the smallest of budgets. We will pretend that the choir is also stood on one level. Tiered staging is often a feature of professional choir setups. Ideally, each lantern should be individually dimmed to allow for the maximum intensity control. Pairing two fresnels on each stand, while convenient, can cause intesity problems expecially as often the fixtures are working on different tasks and throw distances.

Looking at the diagram, one the lights on one side are numbered (the opposite partner of each lantern performs the a mirror task).

• Light 1 provides some front face lighting and a bit of light for the conductors stand. This is the danger angle that you probably won’t want to use too much apart from the walk-on and calls.
• Light 2 provides music sidelighting for the DS ensemble members facing across stage, lighting their music AND creating friendly front light for the players on that side of stage.
• Light 3 does slightly back lighting for the next US set of musicians. It also lights the conductor for the players.
• Light 4 side lights along the next row and a bit of front fill for the opposite side choir ranks.
• Light 5 creates front fill across the back ranks and is at an angle that troubles no one.
• Light 6 cross lights the rear rows of the choir ranks, far side. Music light, enough for 2 or 3 rows if you’re lucky.

Focus Notes:

Like most lighting, it’s all in the focus.

The FOH face lights are the worst offenders for “in the eyes lighting” of the opposite musos. Don’t forget to run them at a low intensity during the show, you can whack them up for the curtain calls.

Any light going downstage of the conductor must be cut off the front row of seating at chest height. Barndoor off to suit .  Although the conductors face is important to the players, you can cheat this by top dooring lower. There is often enough bounce from the score to see him grimacing.

Downstage crosslight/conductor sidelight – watch the DS b/door and long door off the audience seated.

Far cross lighting along the singers should be top doored off to just above head height on the other side of stage. This sidelight is going to be lighting faces as well as music.

Near lighting fresnels will need to be as wide as poss. Spot the far lighting ones down a touch to get a bit more oomph out of them.

You can let all US back/side lights light as far downstage as they go unless you think that their shadows are going to be a nuisance. Look out for the eyes of any front row audience and the two most downstage musicians.

Keep all barndoors tidy– every door should be in to at least the start of the visible beam.

Check light levels on stage by holding your hands out, squatting down and generally doing things that approximate where the scores and seated players will be. You can’t predict where every shadow will come from when a stageful of players appear, but you know you’re on the right track.

While the basic 12 light version of lighting an orchestra is simple, it’s a pretty blunt instrument that will only really cut it on a smaller orchestra and a handful of singers. A larger ensemble and some tiered risers for the choir mean you could do with some more fresnels (18-20) and a some larger wind-up stands or extensions that lift our rig higher , 4 – 5 meters should give the additional height to accommodate the rear riser lift. But the principle remains that same.

What next? Orchestra Rehearsals

Having set up the kit and a rough focus (often known as the focus in these situations) you await the influx of odd shaped intrument carriers, the rustle of scores and the sharpening of the conductors baton – the orchestra arriving for rehearsals. With any luck you have done your job so well that, after ascertaining that everything is good for them, you can slink off for a cup of tea. But how do you know if your lighting is to the choirs satisfaction?

Although you’d probably like the world to know that you are lighting the show, it is better not to make yourself to obvious and keep a safe distance, while watching players unpack and set up their music. You can easily tell if someone is uncomfortable or having trouble with the light levels on their scores. Often, musicians will adjust their chair position or rearrange their stands to get rid of unwanted bow shadows and you should let them get on with it. Only get involved at the behest of the conductor when there is something that only you can solve.

There is a rule amongst technicians that you never ask a musician if they are OK – they feel the need to find something to give you as an answer which is likely to result in pointless work on your part. Avoid direct questions like that. I usually prowl around the ensemble for a few minutes early in the rehearsal to see for myself if I would be happy with the light levels on each music score.

On a recent show, during this prowl I noticed that the organist had moved the organ into a position that meant no significant direct light was lighting his music. I quietly approached him in a break to see if he needed an Anglepoise or to move his intrument. We discussed the possibilities and he decided in the end that he didn’t want an Anglepoise for fear of knocking it overe during the show, and was happy to live with the light levels as they were. The guy was amazed that someone cared about his personal comfort that, despite my stupidity of breaking the golden rule, it was resolved by his rare “make-do” attitude.

If anything really needs adjusting, you obviously can’t clatter around with ladders during rehearsals so it must wait until rehearsals are over unless the problem is too intrusive to continue. For now, the orchestra and conductor just need space to get on with their bit.

After rehearsal, you can get on with whatever jobs you have left to do. But there is one more person you have to consider, now the orchestra have gone: The Tuner. There are two things that make their life harder – a lot of noise and working in the dark. If you have stuff to do, leave a light for the tuner to work by and keep the clatter of ladders to a mininum. They’ll finish much quicker.

All Done

Hang on Rob, what about the show?

As an On Stage Lighting reader, I am sure you have the show under control. The thing about lighting an orchestra or choir concert is that the rehearsals are the break point. A successful gig in this case is getting to the end of rehearsals with no questions about dimly lit music, glare or your focus.

After that, the show is just the thing between you and the load out.

If this has helped you, consider buying me a beer and CLICK HERE to donate a few bucks to On Stage Lighting (why should I donate?). Thanks, - Rob

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This week we look at attribute inversions in intelligent lighting control, the use of Pan or Tilt Invert in particular. So what is attribute inversion, why would a console programmer use it and when is an invert most useful? On Stage Lighting turns your world upside down.

What is attribute inversion?

If you have some understanding of intelligent lighting, you might know that the word “attributes” refers to distinct fixture parameters such as Intensity, Pan, Tilt, Gobo Wheel 1 etc. Each attribute channel is controlled by a value between 0 and 255, in the case of Intensity 0 being 0% dimmer output, 255 being FULL. Pan, Tilt and other gradually controlled attributes such Cyan change on a similar sliding scale.

Attribute inversion is the practice of reversing the behaviour of the parameter relative to it’s control channel value – in the case of Intensity, a zero value would result in the dimmer output of FULL. An inversion of the Intensity attribute.

While it maybe possible to invert the behaviour of any fixture attribute, in practice the most common inversion is that of the Pan or Tilt parameter of a moving head or mirror. The end result of an invert of either a Pan or Tilt attribute is that it makes the control channel behave “back to front”.  Instead of panning left, the fixture moves right. Instead of tilting up, it goes down.

Reasons for inverting a Position channel could be to either fix a rigging error or create any easier environment for programming moving lights.

Fixing an error – If the crew happen to have rigged a moving spot the “wrong” way round (180 degrees to the rest of the fixtures) then selecting a whole bunch of fixtures and moving them all together doesn’t work. The misplaced fixture moves in the opposite direction and pre programmed effects also run backwards during playback. Rather than bring the rig in and rehang the spot, the programmer can simply invert the Pan/Tilt channels at the console and order is restored.

Another common error is that many moving lights allow the user to invert channels at the fixture itself, using the on board menu or switch settings. This might be left over from a previous show, the heads not having been reset to factory settings during a hire prep.

Making programming easier – This is a positive move to speeding up position programming and fixture behaviour in some circumstances. Inverting the Tilt attribute of fixtures on the deck (sat on their bases) means that they move in the same direction as those hung in the air from clamps. Selecting all the heads and tilting them, all move upstage and downstage together.

Inverting the Pan attribute fixtures on one side of the centre line creates mirrored movement, where opposite pairs move toward centre together. This can speed up programming certain rig layouts and can even be used to rough-in a full rig of positions with only half the fixtures working. If you think this sounds pretty far fetched, it isn’t – I’ve done it. This workaround requires that at least one of every fixture “buddy” is running. More about these buddies later.

Another product of Pan inversion is that movement effects generated within the console, and moves from one position to another, happen symmetrically across stage.

Where to invert fixture attributes

There are two choices to setting a parameter inversion – at the fixture or within the lighting console. The worst situation is some inversions at the fixture, some set within the desk and know one knows what’s going on.

The preferred choice, given professional level equipment, is at the lighting desk. Knowing that all your heads are physically set up the same and leaving patch editing functions in the programmers hands is reassuringly structured. Inverting a channel at the console is usually part of advanced patching, setup or fixture editing control functions.

Setting an invert within the function menu of the fixture itself is usually reserved for situations where you are using control equipment that doesn’t provide the facility to perform inverts. Controllers with less than full functionality can often be quicker and easier to use if these local inverts are set. Something to think about when you are next running 4 scanners with a 12 channel, 2 preset desk.

Which ever way you decide to set an attribute invert, the most important thing to remember is that it must be done BEFORE any position programming takes place. Setting inverts will ruin any position work you have already committed to the desk.

The Downside to Inverts

The negative side to setting Pan inverts is that they make some fixtures move in the opposite direction. OK, you say, that’s what we wanted right? Having some fixtures pulling when others are pushing can be good or bad depending on rig layout and your aims as an LD/programmer. You might have a rear truss loaded with 16 moving spots and planning to use Fan effects on the desk to create some awesome looks. You may want to create some offset Pan sweeps, creating a horizontal wave effect from one end to the other. Modern lighting consoles have tools to speed up the programming of this kind of sequence but the effects are harder to achieve without all the heads moving the same way by default.

So you choose your poison.

Rigs for Pan inversion

The type of rig that can benefit from a few Pan inversions could be a concert or dance rig that requires quick position programming and symmetrical effects. Fixtures that have an “other side of stage buddy” are ideal candidates for pairing with one of the heads having an inverted Pan channel. Far Stage Left and Far Stage Right, Drum Riser Left and Drum Riser Right etc. Having these buddies working symmetrically means fine tuning your positions is often a matter of selecting a pair and moving them in one hit.

Top OSL Tip – You might find that you need to move both buddies in one direction, maybe to centre them up on stage. The quick method for moving both these guys, toward stage right for example, is to use the Fan tool. As one fixture has a Pan invert set, they actually move in the same direction.

Obviously, you might have some fixture positions that would be prime candidates for some inversions plus others that aren’t, like our rear truss spots.

Part of the rig could have inverted buddies, other banks of fixtures might work together. Some say that you should use fixture orientation and Pan/Tilt inverts to make sure that every fixture moves in the direction that you would expect uniformly across the whole rig eg. Wheeling the Pan encoder clockwise results in every fixture moving to Stage Left. This is dogmatic simplification that misses a host of programming and playback possibilities and can make certain looks a whole lot harder to create. If you are working in a 360 degree environment like a large night club, the idea of a “correct” way for a fixture to pan is plain silly anyway. Perhaps this is why such invert techniques are more likely to be found in the work of club or concert programmers, rather than theatre ops.

Tilt Invert

As we are talking about the nature of the rig helping to choose invert tactics, we come back to tilt inversion. Although Tilt invert is commonly used to align fixtures sitting on their bases with those hanging down from a structure, it can be used for other purposes. Perhaps the fixtures are laid out in both forward and rear positions and you wish to be able to wheel the entire rig either toward the stage area or away in one motion.

Once again, the choice depends on not only your preferences for programming but also the resulting playback of pre-designated effects.

Pan and Tilt Swap

A setting that does what it says on the tin: Swaps the Pan control with the Tilt control channel. This used for fixtures that are rigged on their sides, such as the side of an upright truss, that makes their pan/tilt movement apparently “wrong” in relation to the stage. Swapping the Pan and Tilt doesn’t allow us to reap any other programming benefits unless you’d just like to confuse the next person to use your console.

Inverting other attributes

There are occasions where it might be necessary to invert other attributes apart from Pan and Tilt. This sometimes applies to other linear parameters like Intensity and CMY or RGB colour mixing and can be done at the console or within a personality file. This kind of invert is a more unusual kind of housekeeping required when the fixture personality file is incorrect and the fixtures do not behave as expected. The inverting of other attributes is not usually employed to create a useful programming or playback tool.

Turn Your Life Around

We’ve taken a quick look the practice of fixture position attribute inversion, the different methods of doing it and some advantages for the moving light programmer. As setting inverts is something that should be done before any programming begins, it’s important to think about the pros and cons early on. Trying out position invert tactics on a small set up of around four moving lights should give you an idea of what they can do. If your control won’t do it, even the most basic scanners have some on board setting. When you are comfortable, you can unleash the power of “back to front” on your next monster rig.

Let us know how you get on.

If this has helped you, consider buying me a beer and CLICK HERE to donate a few bucks to On Stage Lighting (why should I donate?). Thanks, - Rob

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A guest post from Lucas Krech, a Lighting Designer with a passion for lighting dance performance. An great introduction to dance lighting that looks at some history, theory and the use of side light in particular.

Dancers live in light as fish live in water. The stage space in which they move is their aquarium, their portion of the sea. Within translucent walls and above the stage floor, the lighting supports their flashing buoyance or their arrested sculptural bodies. The dance is fluid and never static. Designing for the dance has been my most constant love. I have designed the decor as well as the lighting for a good many ballets and I have installed the basic systems with which I have worked in dance repertory. If I leave anything to posterity, it will be, I think, most importantly in the field of dance lighting. My extraordinary good fortune was that I came along at a point in time when Martha Graham was creating and when Lincoln Kirstein was backing George Balanchine to create new and fresh uses of the ballet form. ~~Jean Rosenthal, The Magic of Light

Lighting the Dance

These first few sentences are perhaps all one needs to understand the dance. The rest is style and historical aesthetics. “Dancers live in light as fish live in water.” If you have ever seen a truly first rate dancer glide across the stage effortlessly and with infinite grace, you know what this means. The relationship between a dancer and their light, between a choreographer and their lighting designer, is unique among artistic collaborations. Perhaps the closest analogy would be the relationship of the composer to their conductor. So much of dance, even when dealing with classical story ballet, comes down to the lighting that one must almost unlearn everything you know about lighting in order to learn how to light for the dance.

Dance lighting is unique among performance disciplines in large part because dance is concerned first and foremost with movement. While in all performance mediums our focus is on bodies in space, it is the dance where we focus on where and how that body moves. Perhaps there is a large sweeping arc of an entrance that spirals to center for a pirouette where our dancer is joined by a partner who then jaunts about the stage with her. In short, we are concerned with the whole stage and the quality of movement rather than where someone is standing for such and such a monologue.

My background and training as a designer is in modern ballet and post-modern dance. The following essay is written primarily from the perspective of designing for modern dance forms. While many of these principals can be applied to classical ballet and some post-modern styles, those forms are not the focus as they demand their own unique approach.

For the purposes of this essay I am assuming the use of a conventional modern dance space. This typical dance space has several wings, perhaps four per side, with a boom placed in the center of each just out of sitelines. Sidelights are hung on the booms and point straight across stage. These low hung units allow for color changes between pieces in repertory and allows the entire stage space to be filled, with very few lights. The wings and dance floor are black and there is often a white cyc in the background. Should the cyc not be used for a particular piece, there is a black curtain immediately downstage of the Cyc.

The Angles of Dance

Because our interest in dance is based first on movement, the lighting must be grounded in an approach that seeks out interesting ways to reveal that moving body. While in a play, where our concern is dialogue and plot, we focus on faces through the use of frontlighting. In dance, to show off the musculature and movement, we rely primarily on sidelight positions.

While sidelight is a primary tool in dance lighting, at a more basic level the use of different angles in dance is often treated in a more minimalist or poetic manner than one finds in a play or musical or television. While in a play or television, you might have a key light that is brighter than the myriad other lights used in the scene, for a dance, you might only have that one light or a very few lights from a tightly controlled palette of angles.

Sidelighting

The sidelighting conventions for dance developed out of the twin needs of a body’s movement in a kinesthetically focused art form and a touring repertory. As such this system was devised to achieve the maximum variety in lighting looks with a minimum of instrumentation.

The first lighting position to consider are the shinbusters or shins. As you might infer from the name, these are lights hung at or about shin height. They are typically elipsoidals with shutter cuts taken off the floor and focused to head height at the centerline. With these, it becomes possible to brightly light the dancer without illuminating the floor. The effect is one of making the dancer appear to float as if by magic.

After the shins, the next most important position are the head highs, or heads. These are lights hung at or just above typical head height. They are also focused to centerline, but unlike the shins they do not cut off the floor. While the light does graze the floor, the effect is minimal and allows the dancer to be brightly light while keeping a minimum of notice on the floor

These two positions are so fundamental to dance that many designers, should they find themselves in severely limited situations, would utilize only them. This system of sidelighting was developed by american designer Jean Rosenthal and is covered in more detail in her seminal text The Magic of Light.

Through the use of low angled sidelighting like this a designer may fill the entire stage space with light using as few as 8 or 10 lighting instruments. In a touring situation where venues range from having large compliments of lighting fixtures to incredibly limited options, this system allows the basic integrity of the design to be maintained in virtually any performance space. I discuss the implications of designing in repertory for tour in more detail here.

While Shins and Heads are the two primary angles utilized in dance, larger companies and dance venues will have a much more extensive lighting system for their home season if not also on tour. A more expanded low boom might have Low Shins, High Shins, Mids, Low Heads and High Heads. Classical ballet companies will also have high booms, typically in a pink and a blue that hang at 3-4 meters above the stage floor. Pipe-ends and other high-side lights may also be employed.

Other Angles and Lighting Options

Dance may begin with sidelight, but that is not to say that other options are unavailable to the designer. Backlighting, toplights, frontlight and foot lights should all be considered part of the designer’s tool kit. In addition to all these, lighted drops and cycloramas play a critical role in dance lighting.

Backlighting and top lighting often play a very prominent role in dance. Because the primary lighting angles keep the majority of light on the dancer and off the floor, the floor is left relatively dark. From this place, the designer has at their disposal any combination of overhead lighting positions to design shadows and patterns on the floor itself. Through the use of color, texture, shadow angle, and intensity, the designer can cause the dancer to appear to traverse entire worlds, while merely crossing the stage from down-right to up-left. For a more detailed exploration of lighting floors, see my essay here.

The use of a cyc in dance, or painted drops in ballet, can be quite effective as well. The color variety afforded by a three color cyc can give limitless variety to a designer when combined with the color options in the low booms.

Beyond the Basics and a bit of History

The advent of modern dance brought with it several changes that would rock the dance world and significantly impact the lighting designer in the process. The first was the elimination of toe shoes and ballet slippers. While not directly impacting lighting, this did lead to radical new explorations of form and movement, thus shifting the aesthetic center of the field. The second change, and one directly relevant to lighting, was the elimination of scenery.

With scenery gone, or relegated to a few gestural sculptures, lighting no longer had to contend with pesky walls that would block it. This freed the lighting designer to use whatever tool they saw as necessary to light the dance. It also shifted lighting to a more primary role in the creation of a visual space.

Lighting now had double duty of creating mood and atmosphere as well as setting. Lighting as scenery is commonplace in the dance world today. Be it through the use of toplight boxes, texture and color, or a partially obscured cyc, there are limitless ways to define the dance space architecturally with light.

Dance, in many ways, allows light to exist in its purest form. With little to no scenery and a focus entirely upon lighting a body in space, the medium lends itself to the poetic essence of what stage lighting can be. While theatre production can use quite a number of lighting instruments and angles to construct the various looks, dance is often content with a few clean, clear, simple gestures. Dance is an opportunity for the lighting designer to let their inner poet run free. To take light as a formal art and dance on stage with the performer. The lighting designer constructs the aquarium wherein a dancer may swim in their light.

Images are courtesy of Lucas Krech. The main photograph is copyright Julie Lemberger.

If this has helped you, consider buying me a beer and CLICK HERE to donate a few bucks to On Stage Lighting (why should I donate?). Thanks, - Rob

You May Also Like:

• Reflected Colour in Stage Lighting Design
• Stage Lighting Tutorials – Stage Lighting 101 Review
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Programming moving lights is complicated, especially when you’re taking those first steps with some hired waggly heads and an unfamiliar console.On Stage Lighting lists 21 ways to make programming easier, more efficient and how to avoid mistakes that waste valuable time.

Based on an image by Jason Gulledge on Flickr

Compared to conventional fixtures, the intelligent light programmer has at least 10 times more information to wrangle. Many parts of the industry rely on the combined LD/Programmer role, meaning that design decisions have to be made by the unfortunate performing the frenzied button pressing. Time to get organised.

1- Be prepared

Turning up with the patch done (at least) saves time on the load in. Get the patch right in the quiet of the office, rather than trying to concentrate on 100 fixtures and their DMX addresses while some noisy chippy is jigsawing right next to you. Being able to slap a file into the desk and get it up and running while the rig is at working height makes the crew feel like you’re on the case. If you can’t access the console before the gig, most have an offline editor of some sort that is easy enough to patch with.

2 – Create a cheat sheet

Cheat sheets come in all shapes and sizes. Some easy to use reference material about your groups, fixture numbers or other stuff you will use regularly. When you develop a “system” to your programming with similar patching and desk layouts, the sheet becomes a routine in your head.

Another useful cribsheet is notes of ideas, scenes or looks considered during the design process – it’s amazing how your mind can go blank when faced with a “virgin” console. “So many things to program, I just can’t think what they are!”.

3 – Start early

While you won’t make many friends by slinking off to fiddle with the desk while the truck is being unloaded, don’t forget that nobody wants to be here all night. If programming is your responsibility, make a beeline for the console while kit is still being rigged. Depending on the complexity of the entire control system, there might be system issues. This needs to be done while the rest of the lighting crew are still putting barndoors in and colouring up – and the rig is still easily accessible. If the lighting department is just you, starting early isn’t so easy.

4 – Find a decent programming position

This is a lot more important than it might seem. Many final operating positions for the lighting console often have a limited view of the stage or are offset from centre, making programming positions harder. Auditorium centre and high enough to see the stage floor if possible. Seeing the floor gives a reference point for positioning and helps with sorting out beam symmetry. Different venues call for different programming positions – on an outdoor Orbital concert stage, I like to do most of the programming from Down Stage Centre and tidy up “in the crowd” positions from the FOH tower later. Being on stage makes it easier to see what’s going on when programming in daylight and you can check the band members focus by walking a just few metres from the desk.

Time spent moving the console to a good position is paid back ten times later. Just be prepared for a certain amount “no, I am not going to be here for the show” to the world and his wife.

Don’t let anyone hustle you off back to your final resting place until you are sure that most of the programming is done. Be friendly and ask if you can set up your cans (comms headset) and do the rehearsal from this position. Otherwise, those post rehearsal changes are going to take twice as long.

5 – Get comfortable

My inner Occupational Therapist says so (me, sitting on a roadbox typing on a tiny netbook). Chances are, you are going to be stuck at that desk for the next xx days with little chance of parole. Dedicated theatre style production desks are great but a significant number of shows are programmed from upturned Martin cases and the like. I prefer to work standing up if possible, but however you arrange your desk make sure that:

• The console is at the right height so you don’t have to stoop.
• You can see the stage and the desk without too much neck or eye movement. This can involve jacking the desk up a bit on boxes.
• Layout any peripherals/ plans/ keyboards/mice to be easily used without cables being snagged etc.
• If you have a chair, make sure that is the right height/ back is supported etc.

I have been known to spend 20 minutes hunting for boxes exactly the right size to bring the desk to a position that isn’t going to be a pain in the back/neck. The next 4 days went much better as a result.

6 – Check the fixtures

Check all the available fixtures are responding correctly. Pan and Tilt the right way and that the attributes are controlled correctly from the desk – colour1, colour2 etc. Winkling out any heads with an onboard Pan Invert or finding out that you have the wrong personality file version is a lot less heartbreaking at this stage.

Having “started early” you might not have the entire rig of fixtures available, some may still need to be rigged. At least you can check out what’s there. Many of the following tricks can be used with only a partial rig – in the world of corporate gigs and one night stands, you regularly get zero time to program with a full rig.

7 – Save a patch file

Once the desk patch is installed and checked, save a patch only show file with any amendments you have made to DMX addresses, fixture order etc – hopefully in a seperate file to the orginial patch. If you already have some colour / gobo palettes, great, save them too. Any spectacular screwups in the early stages of setting up the desk can be easily sorted by clearing the desk without having to repatching from scratch. Many consoles allow for incremental/ multi file saves nowadays but for the ones that don’t, taking the time to create a new disk/card is well spent. Especially when you realise that you wiped half the patch, thinking that you were programming.

8 – Set up Pan and Tilts

Many rigs involve some Pan/Tilt swapping (for fixtures rigged on their side) and you might like to invert the Pan attributes of certain fixtures for symmetry. Check these and sort them out early on – it’s no good programming position palettes until you are happy with the way the rig responds. Again, in three days time you will wish that you had corrected that accidental Tilt Invert on the second Spot from the left on the FOH truss.

9 – Create groups

Don’t skip creating groups just because your desk has a seemingly easy way to select individual fixtures. If the console has not got a macro to change the selection order (such as Random or Inverse) create some groups for that too. You can create groups without control of the entire rig but check them later.

10 – Create palettes

One of the fundamentals of moving light programming, palettes for colour and beam effects can be created early on (if not before) and should ideally be of the “universal” type. These apply to any fixture of that type (even those not patched yet,) meaning you can program the palette with only one head running. Adding more fixtures, they assume the programmed palettes too.

11 – Create a See Me position palette

Depending on the console position, you may not be able to see beams on the floor well . A position on the cyc, ceiling or other plain surface that you can see clearly and use to sort stuff out on. Create colour and beam palettes in this position, using it send a fixture to to check the colour or prism alignment during programming.

12 – Set up a quick “Director” look

Despite the fact that you have a mountain of things to get sorted before creating great art, it is a fact that if you linger near the desk for more than 5 minutes, the Director/Client/Money Man will come over and ask you to show them some looks. Swallowing the urge to tell them to leave you alone to get on with it, the best way to get shot of them is to have prepared some big n rough looks that they can gaze at while the Production Manager comes over to steer them off to catering and leave you in peace.

13 – Create some “Focus” looks

Once at the desk, the crew will delight in shouting for test channels, conventionals to rough focus and other general tasks. If you are using a programmer based console, you can placate the shouters by playing back memories that don’t interfere with your programming. It avoids the sinking feeling when you find that you have recorded some random Source Four into the last 20 memories.

14 – Minimise hand movement

Economy of hand movement and streamlining workflow are two useful tactics in programming of moving lights, particularly with large numbers of fixtures and cues. Different desks have different time savers, but just considering how much actual “doing” of stuff you can cut out is a start. On the GrandMA full size, a lot of economies are found by creating custom buttons and macros on the right hand Screen 3, near the encoders. One of the attractions of command line data entry is is the physical economy of entering data in one small area.

15 – Get “Herding” your heads

One of the biggest indicators of an inexperienced programmer is treating each moving head as an lovely individual to be nurtured and tended carefully on a 1:1 basis : Starting off – select 1 spot – move it into postion – set colour ….like focussing conventional lighting.

Think of them more like sheep. “Herding” fixtures into toward the stage, tilt up the entire back truss , tweak positions save a palette, set ALL colours to red, set half the heads to amber before quickly running through tweaking focusses.

The key point is to try to perform the big adjustments, before splitting the rig into chunks, then smaller chunks, then maybe opposite pairs before finally tweakin’ the odd head or two. When controlling a whole bunch of fixtures, get them all doing the same thing by winding an encoder (like Zoom/Focus) all the way down until every head hits it’s 0 point. Winding them all back up again, the parameter is now in sync. Or you could hit a nearby palette to line them up before adjusting once more.

16 – Use the mirror or fan function to position multiple fixtures

If you set half your symmetrical rig to Pan Invert, you can speed up the positioning of sets of fixtures by controlling them together. Use a Fan or Align (MA term) function to tidy them up in the same direction. The great thing about this method is that you can (and I have), program and entire rig with only half of it working (outdoor gig, wet distro, only six channels of hot power, don’t ask) as long as you can see at least one of every “pair”. If you prefer to have all your Pan set the same way across the rig, you can still use Fan or Align functions to wind fixtures into symmertical positions.

17 – Build looks from other programming

Cut and Paste whatever you have already to build palettes, looks and new shapes. No point in doing things twice. This applies at show level too – many LD’s have “previously enjoyed” showfiles based on certain fixture sets that they can use as a major building block for a new show. Already having the basics laid down give you more time to create.

18 – Use the tools

Whatever labour saving devices the console has, use them – Shape Editors, funky selection tools,mapping from video, whatever. We are all impressed by your ability to program 100 step Mexican Wave chase but we have computers to do that now – thank god!

19 – Keep lists

I note down everything that still needs sorting. Things that need tidying/fixing or programming that needs removal. Ticking things off on a list is satisfying and, if you have a memory like mine, vital.

20 – Discourage visitors

Some production desks have a big jar of cookies that create a hub of what we might call “connectivity” today. Directors and Production Managers need to constantly connect with the rest of the team – an LD/programmer often just needs to be left alone. The 1st law of programming is that within five minutes of sitting down at the desk either a) Someone will come and talk to you and you can’t get away or b) Someone will come and talk to someone else and stand in your line of vision.

No need to be antisocial, just make sure that your programming area is not the social centre of the universe and isn’t next to the tea making facilities.

21 – Get an iPod

I picked up this idea from a RnR programmer about 10 years ago, before the Ipod was the byword for personal stereo. This guy used to program the desk with a Walkman, supposedly listening to the next band he was LD’ing. I was struck by the genius of this plan – it cut out all extraneous noise and meant that you left him alone. The tinny sounds of Thrash Metal coming from the earphones and the cable dangling down to his pocket contstitued the subtlest of “F*** Off!, Go and chit chat to someone else” signs I’ve ever seen.

Phew!

So, over 2000 words and we haven’t even programmed a decent look yet. So far, we have spent time checking stuff, fending off distractions, hunting for furniture and recording memories that probably won’t be used in the show. Still, start early enough and maybe we can fit in some programming!

Hope the desk is the first thing off the truck

If you have any favourite ways to make life easier when programming, put them in the comments below.

If this has helped you, consider buying me a beer and CLICK HERE to donate a few bucks to On Stage Lighting (why should I donate?). Thanks, - Rob

You May Also Like:

• Concert Lighting Programming in 30 Minutes
• Pan & Tilt Invert – Why Life Is Sometimes Better Back To Front
• Moving Light Control – Palettes – Lighting Desk Basics 4

Media Servers and Digital Lighting was a quick introduction to “convergence” and the technologies involved in using digital media for stage lighting. Current lighting trends include the use of arrays of fixtures such as RGB LED units to replay images and effects, using Pixel Mapping. This article looks at the basics of pixel mapping and asks if it is possible to re create some of these effects on a budget.

What is Pixel Mapping, exactly?

Pixel Mapping (in the World of Lampie) is the use of software to map and replay media such as bitmaps or video on an array (AKA grid or raster) of lighting fixtures. The fixtures could be anything; moving spots, PAR cans, Birdies but the use of colour mixing LED kit (inc Pixeline, Versa Tube or Color Web) is a common and appealing technique. You effectively get a low resolution screen to display your goodies, made from “pixels” of red, green and blue LEDs. In this article, we will refer back to the RGB LED model as it’s easy to understand.

Displaying the image on the screen is the job of the pixel mapper. Professional lighting media servers have mapping functions, pixel mapping software (like PixelDrive or the Arkaos Pixel Mapper) is available to run on a laptop and some lighting consoles can cope with a degree of mapping all on their own.

Pixel Mapping isn’t projecting media content using a projecter and firing it from the lighting console. The main brief of mapping is to turn your array of “simple” fixtures into a giant telly. The “screen” doesn’t have to be rectangular or even one complete surface – using pixel mapping, you could create some great effects with a long single strip of RGB LEDS or play a huge image across a number of different elements.

How does pixel mapping work?

The pixel mapper treats each fixture as an individual pixel and sends the correct information (usually colour and intensity) to the array.

Lighting fixtures are still commonly controlled using different implementations of DMX. With our LED “pixels” using up at least 3 DMX channels, you can see how even a small surface can use up hundreds of DMX addresses. Some control systems and media servers have their own proprietory network protocol to talk to each other, but talking to the fixtures themselves requires a standardised approach. Currently, the most common control signals are sent using ARTNet, the open source protocol for sending mulitple DMX universes. This can be split down at the surface or go straight into a proprietory control box for the LED sytem.

Pixel mapping is only an interface tool. It lets you create complex effects the easy wasy – with digital media. It certainly beats programming a 1000 step chase of complex RGB levels. It doesn’t have to be a full colour “screen” of LEDs. There is no reason why you can’t send the output to dimmers connected to a grid of PARS.

What information does a pixel mapper need?

Take the simplest system – a 3 x 3 grid of PARs (yes, you can’t display hi res video on this but it’s a good starting point). The pixel mapper needs to know that your array or grid is 3 pixels by 3 pixels – 9 PARs in a square.

The system also needs to know that PAR 1 (DMX dimmer A/001 for example) is top left and that the number runs from Left to Right, Top to Bottom. This means when media pixel 1 is ON, the correct PAR (Top Left) fades up.

If we had a 3 x 3 grid of RGB leds, it would need to know that DMX 0/001 was Red, Top Left; 0/002 Green, Top Left etc. When media pixel 1 needed to be Yellow, it would send 100% ish to 0/001 and 0/002. (If you are wondering what 0/ is, it’s just the numbering system we are using to identify DMX universes this time. The first ARTnet DMX universe is 0)

So, the pixel mapper needs to know the number of fixtures and the shape of the surface plus the positioning (ie. DMX addresses) of the fixtures. Media server pixel mapping software can have the fixture personalities of particular instruments to help with the DMX channels. The personalities are handy for the quick set up of large arrays using common fixtures such as Color Web or Pixeline. In our examples, we’ll just think in terms of a few simple RGB elements.

Pitch or Offset

Many products and layouts have a set pixel “pitch”. This is the distance between each pixel, vertically and horizontally, and is important when mapping onto surfaces where the pixels/fixtures aren’t jammed up tight together.

Mapping a screen image onto a surface with a wide pitch, the image ends up stretched all over. Digital media usually has a 1:1 pixel pitch ( the horizontal pitch is the same as the vertical). If your fixtures were 300mm apart sideways but 1m up/down from each other, the resulting image is stretched and squashed all over the place. Distortion of media might be a nice effect but only if you intended it to happen.

Some mapping layouts consist of a number of different “bits” of surface, spread apart from each other across stage. Getting an entire image to work across all the surfaces requires the actual positions of each piece being entered into the pixel mapper. Getting the heights and offsets correct, in the mapper as well as in the rig, can be time consuming. The final effect is worth it.

Content for Pixel Mapping

The suitability of content for pixel mapping depends on the arrays they will be replayed on. A really low resolution grid like our 9 PARs isn’t going to look much with an XGA full colour image across it. Although it is not always necessary to create media content at exactly the right resolution, understanding how the images will actually look is important. Great effects can be created with a low resolution array and some carefully chosen higher res media but think of the result of 16 million colours on those 9 PAR Cans. A bit of a dimmy, flashy mess. I don’t recommend trying to get those colours using scrollers – heh, heh!

Pixel Mapping on the cheap

We bet that you want ways to experiment with pixel mapping without going the expense of full on media servers or Grand MA’s. Quite a few cheap lighting control software has some form of pixel mapping function including the OSL favourite – Cham Sys MagicQ PC (some tutorials on pixel mapping the Cham Sys are in the pipeline). The onboard array control on the Cham Sys is similar in nature to the system on the Grand MA – creation of grids, applying fixtures and mapping images, text and other effects to them. The MagicQ also has the facility to preview the resulting output in a window, so you can see the result.

Previewing your pixel mapping is ideal when you are looking for a cheap solution to experiment with this kind of digital lighting. Even if with some free pixel mapping software, the chances of being able to set up a vast array of real RGB LEDs to work with are slim. Even getting hold of 9 working PAR cans is a struggle in some places

What cheap pixel mapping options are there?

I have done some hunting around on behalf of the On Stage Lighting readers. Many of the software mappers have free trials but some genuinely free pixel mapping software is .Matrix, a project developed by a student from Tulsa. Although not in current active development, .Matrix maps Quicktime files to an LED Matrix,.outputs ArtNet ArtNet and developer Landy Bible, tells us that current features are stable and show ready:

“.Matrix is stable in my experience, and none of my users have reported any problems with it.
The biggest problem that anybody wanting to use .Matrix will have is getting it working the first time. It relies on Java and Quicktime to do its magic, and Quicktime doesn’t always like to play nice with Java. Typically, reinstalling Quicktime after Java is installed will correct the problem. “

Landy also says that he has currently put extra features on hold ( more I/O devices like the Enttec Pro USB DMX) but hints that if enough people are interested, he would continue working on the software. So, why not download it and let us know how you get on.

On Stage Lighting readers always want to know how they can learn this kind of technology without huge budgets. Do you have experience of any free/cheap solutions for pixel mapping? Tell us about your experiences in the comments box.

If this has helped you, consider buying me a beer and CLICK HERE to donate a few bucks to On Stage Lighting (why should I donate?). Thanks, - Rob

You May Also Like:

• Media Servers and Digital Stage Lighting
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In this guide to “the dark side”, On Stage Lighting looks at light’s oppo – shadow. Understanding shadow, the lighting designer can control it, avoiding unwanted shadows while creating others for effect.

Image by svofski on Flickr

A troublesome Director may have heard me say “Sorry, I can’t make light go round corners. And I can’t make it stop in mid air!”

It’s simple. Light travels in straight lines until it hits something, then it does something else simple. Like bounce off in another straight line. I like this kind of predictability in an otherwise hap-hazard life. Shadow, being an absence of light created by an object (we’ll call it “the subject”) blocking those straight lines, are equally predictable. We can plan shadows using simple technical drawings and control them just as easily as light.

The Basics of Shadows

• Each light source creates one shadow per object. A myth about lighting and shadows is that you can make them go away using more light sources – this isn’t true. More light sources = more shadows.
• You can “fill in” shadows with an extra light source (like the “fill light” a photographer might use). This adds light to the dark areas, flattening the visual contrast and making the shadow less obvious. It doesn’t make the original shadow go away. The extra light source also, of course, adds a shadow itself. (Area A in the first sketch shows where a shadow has been filled in by another light source
• As light travels in straight lines, the area that a shadow will be cast can easily be calculated using a straight line from light source, via the subject, to the next surface behind.

Planning shadows

Using a lighting plan and elevation/section, we can work out how shadows will behave just as easily as our light sources. The image shows a section, with 2 light sources and some surfaces that our shadows will fall on (hope you enjoy the Biro sketches – there’s a time and place to break out the CAD and this isn’t it). Again, it’s just a matter of straight lines from light source, through subject creating an absence of light on the background surface.

“Reading” shadows

If you have read Focus Stage Lighting… you will have some understanding of how a lighting designer can use shadows to judge the effect of a light at stage level. Seeing your own shadow standing “within” the pool of light tells you where you are lit and not, when you move out of the light and whether two pools of light are “joined” together successfully. As lighting the human form is a pretty big part of the job, reading a human shadow is ideal.

The shadow can tell us other things:

• Where the light is coming from? You might have several light sources – how do you know which one is causing that spill over there? Follow a straight line from the shadow, though the subject and back to the source of the spill.
• At what horizontal angle is this source hitting the stage? A short shadow indicates a light source high over head, a long one shows up a much shallower angle. If your shadow is roughly the same length along the floor as your own height, we’re at around 45 degrees. You get the idea.
  With a number of different coloured light sources mixing on stage, you can also read or predict the “colour” of shadows. Blue and green light sources from either side will create a Cyan mix on a floor. Stick something in the way and you will also get one blue and one green shadow (shown in simplified form below). Cool colours, huh. This kind of shadow interaction that can make a colourful scene even more vibrant.

Planned Shadows

Often, Directors don’t like the thought of shadows – “ I want good lighting and definitely don’t want any shadows!”. What they mean is “I want my show lit well, so that no one is saying their lines in the dark.”. That’s understandable but we can’t have light without shadow.

There are times when you want to use shadow for a specific lighting effect. When planning our effect, we can use drawings and the “straight line theory” to work out where our shadows will fall and how big they are.

Bad Shadow!

Some shadows are just not wanted. Shadows on a musicians score make it difficult to read the dots, shadows on a painted backcloth that depicts a landscape can ruin the illusion of perspective. Understanding the angle of a rig and using those straight lines, we can forsee any “shadows of doom” and work out how to avoid them. In the case of a backcloth, the answer is usually to light the cloth well enough from close up and overhead, washing out any stray shadows from frontlight further down stage. Putting some distance between the rear of the performance area and a cyc, while front lighting from a steeper angle, also prevents a shadow on your “sky”.

Hard or Soft Shadow

The harsh or diffuse nature of a shadow depend on it’s light source. Light from a tiny point source (such as a lamp filament) travel from one place as very structured, straight lines that create hard edged shadows. Stick a bit of frost into a lantern and you have a more diffused, area source of light, creating lots of individual shadows near each other. Really soft edged shadows are favourites of photographers who use a “softbox” or a TV style light with Tough Spun diffuser over the front. The softest of all shadows come from larger, area light sources – the largest on being a daylight sky. (If you were wondering, the sun is effectively a point source from earth even though it’s a big area – such a long way away that the light beams are fairly parallel when they get here!)

Hard Edged Shadows and Projection

To rear project a shadow play onto a surface, you might want a wide “acting area” of light from a single source (only one shadow per subject). We know that if you put the source low down / closer, it will make the subjects loom large on a big surface – it’s predictable using our section drawing. Higher up and further away, the shadow players get shorter. We also know that if we want a hard edged shadow, we need a small point source of light. Shadow puppetteers use this to alter the size of their projected images, actors can do the same.

The image shows a backlit shadow scene projected onto a cyc with the light source in different positions and the resulting shadow heights. Moving the actor in relation to the the source can have a similar effect.

The traditional theatre method to do a projected shadow scene is to take the lens out of a large fresnel, so that there is nothing between the filament and the subject. Depending on the reflector type, it’s worth experimenting with or without reflector. Pushing the lamp tray as far forward as it will go, gives us the largest possible beam width for our shadow acting area. As a safety measure, it’s worth also deciding how you are going to protect everyone should the lamp unexpectedly explode. A bit of mesh in the colour frame or whatever.

Have you hugged your shadow today?

Far from being the devil in lighting, shadows can be a lighting designers friend, helping you to create great effects and “read” the interaction between your lighting and the world.

The fact that Messrs. Light & Shadow are so predictable makes controlling them incredibly easy. You couldn’t always say the same about Directors

If this has helped you, consider buying me a beer and CLICK HERE to donate a few bucks to On Stage Lighting (why should I donate?). Thanks, - Rob

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On Stage Lighting looks into a current hot industry topic – the immediate and and long term future of jobs in live events .

The entertainment business is not immune to the general ecomonic picture, as has been demonstrated by a number of production companies pulling down the shutters. Difficult times can also be the catalyst for reflection and change, specifically when it comes to how the production industry conducts it’s business.

This week, the most interesting of Blue Room technical forums has been The Office – a space for discussion on life as an production professional. Alongside reports of UK companies in trouble, topics have included a forced change in freelance staff payment terms, the tax status of sub contracted labour and so-called “part-time” freelancers.

It all starts with how showbusiness in the UK is run.

Theatre shows, concerts and other live events are staffed, sorry crewed, using temporary employees. Freelance management and technicians, the business couldn’t function as it does at the moment without a flexible workforce. Teams of skilled workers are assembled together for a particular period and then disbanded as soon as the show is over. Us “freelancers” crawl back off under our stones until the phone rings again.

Most freelancers are engaged on a self-employed subcontractor basis. Paying their own Tax and National Insurance they get none of the perks that a temporary employee would be entitled to. As a free market it’s pretty unregulated and most areas of the industry are untroubled by pesky things like unions.

What’s wrong with that, then?

The Taxman (Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs) doesn’t like all this. He says that temporary, labour-only employees should be treated as such and don’t really fit into the HMRC definition of genuine self-employed subcontractors. Small businesses, if you like.

What the Taxman doesn’t like, the production business loves. They’re blowed if their gonna start paying extra contributions, tax and giving these filthy freeloaders employee rights as well as cash. It makes sense to keep them on a string and use buying power in a saturated market to pass the business risk onto casual labour.

The freelancers are, for the moment at least, happy with the flexibility that the status quo affords. But it can seem like large employers want it both ways. They want to be able to treat you as a small business but then start trying to dictate terms, leaning on the unwary and using their large freelancer list as some kind of overdraft facility. “Well if you don’t want to do it, I can just call the next lampie on the list!. People will do anything to get into showbusiness”.

When a labour market is this flexible, shit always rolls downhill – and it doesn’t stop ’til it gets to the bottom.

So, we’ve established that the Taxman doesn’t believe in our system and is looking at ways of changing it. It’s reasonable that, as supply outstrips demand, freelancers (the bottom) start to ask questions about their future prospects. This begs the question “Can we really sustain this model of supposedly “freelance” temporary employees and still meet the needs of the market?”. After all, what we do seems to require a greater skill level than ever before and we ain’t going back.

Evil Part-Time Freelancers

When reflecting on “where it all went wrong”, people look for someone to blame. In the lighting industry, we don’t have a herd of eastern european migrants so instead some of the blame goes to freelancers who aren’t “keepin’ it real”. Part-timers who come in , undercut us and depress our fees (don’t forget, the Taxman told us we can’t do day rates anymore) and then go back to their day job. It’s all right for them, they don’t need the money. It’s all a bit of jolly day out of the office.

Well, I don’t agree and I’ll tell you why.

I don’t doubt that these extra bodies in the market have an effect on pay.

I believe in free enterprise. I am also the (almost) sole breadwinner for a family of four and have worked as a freelancer since 1995. I’m the guy who is supposed to be getting screwed by these moonlighting cowboys, food being ripped from the mouths of my children.

I believed in free enterprise when I pitched and won that gig over another LD. And when I was introduced to a client by a LD friend of mine, who I subsequently accepted work from. Some of which would probably have ended up in that mates lap. All’s fair and no hard feelings – that mate outbid me for a series of gigs later on.

I know freelancers whose partner has a good steady job. They have no kids and decent income even without the odd gig. I am the only earner.

I know freelancers who live with their parents or in a cheap bedsit. I have a house and mortage to pay.

I also know freelancers who spend all their time flying helicopters and parachuting in exotic places. I can’t afford to do that.

The point is, you can’t make a distinction. Part-time freelancer or gig slogging “lifer”, you either believe in “the market” or you don’t. When supply is greater than demand, fees take a bashing but there is an upside to the economics. When work is tight, you can bet I’ll be calling in favours, ringing up old chums and getting around. If in lean times, a freelancer is making their way just “below” my usual hunting ground, you can be sure that I will be looking to eat their lunch. It won’t necessarily be by cutting rates but it will be having a better “offer”. All’s fair and no hard feelings.

The Future

Freelancer or not, we could do ourselves a great deal of good by taking a more optimistic and pro active view of our own talents and marketable skills. Get more training, build more relationships and have more “offer” than the last guy. If you find that the supply is saturated, it makes business sense to become “ in demand” by upskilling and evolving. But don’t forget it’s people that count, not just skills. Let’s not blame the Eastern Europeans or the local house tech.

If it takes the Taxman to propel the UK events industry into it’s future employment system, that’s fine. If employers are forced to rethink how they do business in order to retain high quality talent, whatever. If all the good freelance crew upsticks and go away before London 2012, that’d be funny. One thing for sure, the status quo is not an option. If we want highly skilled, motivated home grown professionals in our business we need to offer them a bit more that the chance to work 15+ hours a day just in the name of showbusiness.

And you need to realise your own worth.

If this has helped you, consider buying me a beer and CLICK HERE to donate a few bucks to On Stage Lighting (why should I donate?). Thanks, - Rob

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This article looks at lighting design using moving lights and helps you think about what to do with those four waggly spots you were hoping to hire in for your next show.

Reviewing Richard Pilbrow’s Stage Lighting Design book recently brought a number of modern lighting design problems to mind. The book, produced in 1997, describes lighting designs using the early generations of moving lights. Because the kit/control systems were complex and separate from the rest of the lighting rig (not to mention a bit unreliable), the lighting designer worked with two rigs. Those early designs began with a traditional theatre rig of conventional lights and dimmers, supplemented by moving heads. Times have changed and, despite still using multiple programmers on large scale shows, life is more integrated now.

Lighting for Bon Jovi. Pic by Anirudh Koul at Flickr

If you are designing a show for your local theatre company or school, you may get the opportunity to include some moving lights in your rig. Regarded as a special luxury, the director has approved the cost in the hope of bringing a touch of the West End to their production.

Hiring a few moving lights, you probably already have conventional kit which will do most of the work and may also have to use separate control systems (analogue and DMX, for example). This means that your first steps in designing with intelligent fixtures , your mind will be split. There is nothing wrong with that but keep in mind the goal is to design with ONE rig consisting of a range of instruments, some more complex than others.

What do you do with luxuries?

Having hung your hat on four fixtures, you are faced with how to incorporate them into your show. There may be some parts for which they have already been earmarked – disco dancing waggle effects, moonlight blue wash, whatever. Those parts of the show that the Director agreed to the extra cost for. Although obviously important, don’t forget that others might not realise that these jobs are not always compatible from a positioning point of view – you can’t get the ladders out during the show and move the heads from over stage to front of house. This is where the term “moving lights” confuses others, including our bosses.

Before we go any further, you might like to make use of the following:

An open letter to Directors

Dear Mr Director,

Congratulations on specifying some intelligent lighting to be used in your forthcoming production. I am sure that you have considered the additional expense and hope to be handsomely repaid by the uplift of performance from the lighting department.

A word of warning. Hiring in four 250w TiddlySpots ™ will not suddenly turn your show into a Bon Jovi concert or a grand scale epic to rival the Royal Opera House. These fixtures will not bathe your entire stage in intense colour wash, spray gobos all over a 15m area or create 40 moving beams cutting through the darkened auditorium. When you tell your Lighting Designer “This is the point when I want to go all out with the lighting.”, it is unlikely that they will be able to fill your your space with myriad looks that build to a heart stopping conclusion, leaving your audience gasping for breath.

Your TiddlySpots will reward you with some flexibility, dynamics and a range of effects. They will enable your small rig to change throughout the show and may create some memorable moments. Remember that getting the most out of a few moving lights is challenge even for professionals and that your Lighting Designer will need time to get to grips with the equipment. You should also make sure they read On Stage Lighting to make sure they are fully prepared for the invasion of nodding buckets into their world.

Thanks

Rob

With the addition some “magic” robotic lights, there is a tendency for everyone to assume that they have hired in a whole new lighting rig. In fact, you have four new light sources. Just like four extra 500w fresnels – useful but still only four of them.

It’s important to manage expectations, both yours and other peoples, even before you open that flightcase.

Having established that you get four new light sources, they (like all your fixtures) need to positioned in the best possible place. Lighting design is about where your light is coming from, as much as going to.

Let’s look at the possibilities of four TiddlySpots for the lighting designer.

Colour and Gobo Washes

Sheer brightness make moving heads a great source of colour and texture. The ability to change and animate the colour/gobos give you a range of options throughout the show. Because many small spots are narrowish, a throw distance from 3m overhead is unlikely to cover an entire stage even using the prism. The greater distance from FOH gives more coverage but colour washes from straight on look dull. How about a high side or high front/side position? This provides a degree of “modelling” (showing the form of a 3d target) while the full force of the colour/gobo is still reflected for the audience – and the director .

Colour and Gobo washes on the Cyc or other scenic elements also benefit from a decent throw distance, something hard to achieve in a small venue particularly with a proscenium. The top of a flat Cyc can get colour/texture from a low side position, crossing the beams up and across to the opposite corner. Just make sure that there are no entrances between cyc and fixture, the director might not want giant shadows moving across the sky.

Colour in small moving spots are most often provided by dichroic filters in a wheel. Each wheel has 6 – 10 colours, most of which reside in the saturated part of the spectrum. This means that vivid reds, blues ambers and pinks are available but the wide range of pastel colours in the Lee swatch book are more illusive. Trying to match the colour temperature of your halogen conventionals and wobbly discharge kit is hard.

Nice “split colour” effects are possible by setting the wheels between full colours but the choice of split is dictated by the order in which the colours are made into the wheel.

Multiple Specials

The ability of a moving spot to provide a special DSC and later reposition to Juliet on the balcony is pretty useful. But don’t forget that they still light from the same position. A stark toplight spot from above DSC turns into a full frontal assault, panto style, for Juliet high USL. Or backlight for a soloist on the forestage. Our high side positions, good for the colour/gobo wash, might not work as well for repo specials.

Beams and Keylight

To provide a punchy keylight, the light needs to arrive at the stage all beams parallel. This would put all of our TiddlySpots on one side of the venue – possibly not so useful for other times during your show. Shafts of sunlight could be created using just two spots on one side, with the other two in reserve or filling with a contrasting colour/ water reflections etc.

Moving rock concert style beams are great for musical numbers, provided you have some atmosphere (haze, smoke – more expense). Without this basic commodity, the effect is non-existant and your director will be disappointed. The best positions for beam structure are somewhere within the stage picture (from the audiences point of view) – over stage or just downstage of the pros. If you want the impact of blinders moving through the audience (a 250w discharge lamp in the eyeballs has a real effect on the punters) then the “shot” is best straight into their faces and must be unobstructed by the architecture of the venue.

Rock style beams have the most impact in quantity, so a line of four moving spots is “bigger” than if they were scattered about the space. Two spots overhead downstage plus two on the floor is a pretty common configuration for small bands. However, the low pair will inevitably blast all over your backcloth when directed upstage for other purposes.

So, where do I put my four TiddlySpots ™ then?

If you have been keeping score, we have probably talked about 20 different spots in numerous positions. They can’t be everywhere. Sure they can point in different directions but the effectiveness of your goodies is dictated by where they are in your space.

Inevitably, it’s a matter of compromise (no, I haven’t met your Director). Write down some jobs your fixtures have to do, then ones you would like them to do. Choose the most flexible positions for your show and venue and check your ideas will work using the most basic of scale plans and a section/elevation.

Use of fixtures in each cue needs some thought. Just as you cannot get the ladder out and move the kit around between scenes, you equally can’t have four spots doing a gobo wash and then call one back for a repo special without effecting the original scene. Then the director wants the musical number to feature 20 moving beams. During the lighting plot it is easy to get carried away, stuffing every cue with different moving spot wonders, only to find it impossible to successfully move from cue to cue during a run through.

With only four fixtures, your conventional lighting rig is still going to have to do much of the work while your attention is lavished on those little imposters with a digital display.

Four extra light sources is not that many. Planning the position of your moving lights carefully, you can still have the great new opportunities of cheap 21st century kit.

Moving lights can provide false security- the apparent ability to delay crucial design decisions until you get into venue.

Whatever you do, don’t do that.

If this has helped you, consider buying me a beer and CLICK HERE to donate a few bucks to On Stage Lighting (why should I donate?). Thanks, - Rob

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Following Concert Lighting Programming in 30 mins, Dimitris asked for more information on organising submasters/playbacks when lighting a concert. So here it is – ideas on how to layout your lighting console playbacks for simplicity and flexibility.

In Concert Lighting… we looked at using bits of programmed data, palettes and memories, as building blocks to create lighting looks “on the fly”. Each lighting op has their own pet way of laying out their desk (the guest LD who changed all my groups last week – me fumbling around trying to select fixtures for the support act!). This article is relevant to anyone who uses a console with some moving light control and submaster playbacks.

Busking Your Show

Playing back your show, you might only have access to 10 submaster faders at one time plus the ability to change pages. Memories can be only replayed with adjacent faders, so think about the vertical layout – how the memories on submasters stack on top of each other by sub page. The word “stack” here is going to refer to submaster memories that are on the same fader, different page.

Live and Trigger Memories

The programming on the cheat sheet relies heavily on Palettes, so few actual memories are programmed. If you prefer submasters or your desk doesn’t support many palettes, the layout of your subs is even more important.

A Dimmer or Intensity Submaster is usually only “live” on stage when physically faded up. If you use similar programming to the Concert Programming Cheat Sheet, these are the PAR colour washes and moving spot dimmer memories. Movement chases or shapes also must stay up to be live on stage, as are any LED colour submasters that are HTP. We’ll call these “Live” Memories.

Trigger memories, such as Strobe On, Colour Red or Prism Rotate, only need to be triggered by raising a fader or hitting a submaster flash button. These submasters, once activated, don’t have to remain faded up – in fact, you should get into the habit of clearing them once the moving lights have responded. This ensures you don’t end up with extra faders up, confusing when you are changing pages. Activating Trigger memories has a similar effect to choosing palettes for selected fixtures – it makes them do something else.

Choosing Submaster Layout

Understanding the two memory types, helps us decide on which memories not to stack on top of each other. You don’t want to have to “lose” your blue PAR wash, just to fire a new gobo into your waggly spots. So, stacking up Live memories with Trigger memories is avoided. Don’t forget that PAR colour washes can be instantly pushed up while fiddling with the next moving spot look, so keep them handy.

The image shows a selection of methods for ordering submaster memories over 3 pages. It is not a “real” layout but demonstrates the points below.

The memory types can also help you to choose subs that you can stack on top of each other. Maybe you won’t use a Spot Dimmer 100% sub at the same time as Spot Dimmer Chase, so they can stack up. Perhaps you could stack up a Circle Shape/Chase with a Pan Saw for the same reason – you are unlikely to run them both at once.

Each submaster page might have a few live memories, colour washes etc and a few trigger subs. The next page might have duplicates of some of the live memories, plus different triggers.

Duplicate subs are often used, to provide easy access to common Live memories on several submaster pages. There are two common ways to layout dupes.

Stacked – These memories, particularly colour washes, are stacked on top of each other. They have the benefit of the memory being on the same fader, even on different pages. The disadvantage is this approach can eat up submasters.

Diagonal – Stacking related attribute submasters diagonally has the advantage of being able to cut down the number of slots taken up by Live memories on each page. For example, put Blue Wash on Sub 1/ Page 1, Magenta on Sub 2 / Page 2 , Amber Sub 3 / Page 3 etc. This has the effect of putting similar memories (in this case Colours) “diagonally” across several pages (the yellow block in the image), giving flexiblity in using different memory types together. It’s a concept used by some Avolites Pearl operators but it’s not so easy without the famous Roller.

Confused?

There’s no place like home.

Whatever layout you choose for your subs, you always need to know where you are. You can cut down “page confusion” by doing a number of things.

Create a Home Submaster Page – A lovely little page with all your favourite and most used stuff that you can feel at home in. When you have been off wandering across 6 pages of subs to get to the Freaky Techno Strobe sub, come right back before you end up staying amongst all those whacky effects you don’t remember programming. The home page could contain a “safety” look, Strobe Off or a “Just stop doing that , FFS!” memory as well as the basis of your show, good ol’ PAR washes.

Use only a few pages – A palette heavy programming style means you can fit a few colour washes, chases and shape or two on only 10 playbacks. If you need a bit more room, try using 1 page above and 1 page below your Home subs. 3 pages of good subs does plenty.

Get much further away from safety and you are asking for confusion. Straying across several pages, you end up with a handful of submaster faders running that you can’t quite recall what they do. Or even which page they are on.

Using Preset Faders

Assuming that your lighting desk allows, using Preset faders to push up dimmer levels can free up submasters for better uses. You don’t really need those Vocal spots on a sub or even your audience blinders. The layout of your preset faders is helpful here – different groups of lights in clusters next to each other. Use the whole desk, even the cue stack playback.

Find your own system

Everyone develops their own style when organising playbacks. Despite being a serial Avolites Pearl user, I have tried to keep the information to general ideas that can be used with any desks with submasters and pages. If you have any particular favourites playback tips or don’t understand anything, let us know in the comments section.

If this has helped you, consider buying me a beer and CLICK HERE to donate a few bucks to On Stage Lighting (why should I donate?). Thanks, - Rob

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