Week 9: Cityscape Over Water

A few nights ago I took my girlfriend to the aquarium in Long Beach and we ended up walking around the harbor later that evening. Looking out at the water, I just had to snap some pictures. The way the color on the water rippled got me thinking about how I could create something like this on a stage. For our class plot we've only ever had one pair of cyc lights on each side, but I wondering if a larger cyc with more individual units could produce an effect like this. Then again, it would probably be easier to do something like this with a dedicated system of lekos, although that then presents the problem of using up a ton a lekos, which wouldn't work unless it was a space with plenty of instruments and dimmers to spare.

Lately I've been working as light board operator for Darrin and Ebony on New Slate and I've gotten to see some of what moving lights can do. I'd love to see how close to a look like this I could get with some movers. I also wonder how a more abstracts interpretation of this would look on a cyc. Perhaps just a regular cyc wash with a just one or two textures thrown on top of it (maybe a twinspin for the rippling). For still another option, I might try creating a ripple animation video and projecting it over a cyc wash to add some moving texture.

Week 9: Night Light

As I was driving around town this evening, I was on the lookout for photo opportunities that would be appropriate for our weekly blog.   I started to notice the different outdoor lighting fixtures that were placed along roadsides, and how they illuminated the immediate area.  There were definitely similarities to some of the brushstrokes we've been looking at in class.  With all it's spill, the unfocused quality of the light reminded me of pars, and the amount of spill we see with pars was definitely similar to the quality of light in these sources.

I enjoyed the unobscured sources of light - rather different from what we do onstage, where the goal is usually to hide the actual source of light.  This reminded me of concert lighting, where things are rougher and more exposed, generally going along with the feel of the music.

I also started to think about how to create a similar look onstage:  where there are lots of small light sources in the distance, keeping the surrounding darkness at bay.  One idea would be to create some sort of toy-theatre set-up, where you could possibly use Christmas tree lights or small battery-operated fake candles, and allow their small pools of light to be surrounded by darkness.  And perhaps incorporate traditional tonals into the composition to give a more lush, rich feel to the darkness.

Week 9: Light Tests

One of the many things I have learned while working on Blood Wedding is doing light tests with the costume designer. At first, I thought that this was a semi-important step in designing for a show. That was before I saw a black dress turn red because R80 has a large amount of red in it. So, light tests have definitely been bumped up in the lists of important things.

When I went outside this morning to check the weather, I saw that a similar thing was happening with the leaves as the sun progressively rose. The leaves that we being hit with the sun light were a different shade of green than those that were not, which conveyed a different emotion and atmosphere. The color of the leaves with the light also varied as a result of  the actual color of the leaf. This really shined a light(pun intended) on the fact that you must be cautious of what lights and gels you put on which costumes because you never know what the output may be.

Week 9: Tinsel Time

I was sitting in my living room this morning when I looked up and saw that the sun was hitting our Christmas tree at the perfect spot! The natural source of the sun was hitting the tinsel on the tree and bouncing every which way across the living room and kitchen.

The effect made an awesome design of squiggles everywhere, patterning the room with light. It didn't even occur to me until now that tinsel is a reflective surface, thus perfect for a Christmas tree with lights on it. I know tinsel is pretty and messy, but I honestly never put it together. With the power of sunlight, the textures on the wall are very interesting.

This reminded me of a post that Gabri made earlier in the quarter about finding a texture on the ceiling of her apartment. It's incredible how light can be reflected on so many surfaces and at the weirdest angles.

I wish the squiggles could move! How neat would that be? To have this texture in a moving light, and use it in a dance show or something? It's like art is happening right in front of me.

Week 8: Stages of Stage

I found "depth" to be an especially challenging subject to find in the everyday, but just when I'd all but given up hope, I sat down at the board in the Claire Trevor Theater and saw this.

There's a slight difference here in the quality of light between the apron and the main stage area, but much cooler, is the difference between the main stage area and the back wall. There is a transparent drop that adds a mist-like quality to the back wall. It also serves to separate the warm light in front from the industrial greenish light of the work lights behind the stage. 

I really like the way that the drop separates the stage into distinct sections and I'd be very interested in playing around with one to see all the different ways that I could use it with light. I'm also interested in this idea of progressive shifts in light over different slices of the stage. For example, I'm thinking of a how it could be used to create the effect of a creepy hallway that gets progressively darker towards the back. There are tons of possibilities here.

Week 8: Dep

I found inspiration for this week's topic when flying home for Thanksgiving. As I passed over Orange County at night, I realized how the light emitting from the cities below further emphasized how far away I was from the ground below.

The light also seemed to be warmer the further away it was from the plane. The closer I was to the ground, the lights appeared cooler with an almost greenish tint to them. Very urban, kind of industrial. It got me thinking about depth on stage, say for a cityscape, and how smaller lights such as Christmas lights on a backdrop or the scenery can create perspective for city lights that are farther away from the audience.


I going to be honest and say that this actually made me think of the Peter Pan ride at Disneyland. On the ride you fly over the city of London, and the blinking lights below were designed to create this sense of great depth between the people up above and the city below.

I wonder how this effect could be replicated onstage...

Week 8: Depth

As I was walking to tech this morning, the light in Aldrich Park was really stunning.  I snapped a few pictures, and enjoyed the way the visible beams of light helped define the depth of the space - it always seemed as if the light where you could see a physical beam was in the mid-ground of the picture.



As I got closer, the visible beams kept changing - I never got to where I was walking right next to them. They remained in the not-so-far-distance, peaking through different trees as I walked.  I found this interesting, even though I don't have an explanation for that.

 Regardless, I think this would be pretty striking to recreate on stage, using some sort of fog or haze to catch the beams of light.