Lighting for Fashion shows

[JakeCTG]

Hi Guys

 

I'm a noise boy so I don't have a great knowledge of lighting but we have been asked to do lighting for a charity fashion show. We have 8 Par 64's with 500 watt lamps and 2 Par 64 floors with 500 watt lamps and 6 birdies. Would these do to light up the stage and catwalk the venue is a marquee which is 9m x 13m. Also we only have 2 stands what would be best on positioning to give general light but still have enough for some colours.

 

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

Thanks

[mark_s]

Would these do to light up the stage and catwalk the venue is a marquee which is 9m x 13m.

 

What are the dimensions of the area you want to light - the stage and the catwalk? It isn't much use telling us the size of the overall venue, when you may only want to light 1/10 of it.

 

There are already some threads which may help you with the design side; try here and here as a start.

 

Regards,

Mark

[JakeCTG]

I'm not sure about the size of the stage but I think its about 7m wide and about 8m long in the standard T shape.

[indyld]

Hi there

 

Conventional fashion show lighting is positioned in the roof roughly over the front few rows either side of the catwalk plus some filling in from the ends. You could try that with the stands at either side, roughly half way down. You won't get much stand height a the sides of a marquee though.

Using the two floorcans at the very downstage end to back up the runway . The birdies would work to fill in a bit from the stage floor along the length of the catwalk

 

With the kit you have and only two stands you might try shooting your lights from stands at both ends of the catwalk if this is possible. The main trouble with lighting for an audience close in each side is it shining into their eyes on the other side of the catwalk. This would help as the lights would not be pointing at the punters so much and you would get more height from your stands.

 

 

The answer to your question about if you have enough lights is probably "not really" but if thats what you have got ... Unless the marquee is going to have a blackout lining then a few kilowatts of PARS ain't going to beat the evening sun anyhow. I would try to steer the client away from colours as well. Not really enough kit for that too.

[Ekij]

If it's a fashion show, presumably the punters want to see the colour the clothes actually are and so the only Gel you should consider is a little source colour-temp correction.

[ianknight]

If it's a fashion show, presumably the punters want to see the colour the clothes actually are and so the only Gel you should consider is a little source colour-temp correction.

 

Hmmm - but usually the models wear little or no makep so end up looking like ghosts - some pale Lavender (Lee 136) and Pale Straw (Lee 159) have served me very well in fashion shows, they warm flesh tones nicely without colouring the outfits.

 

Don't put colours in sides I.e all Lavender on one stand - straw on the other but two circuits of each on each stand. Use your birdies - rig them as face 'fills' from the floor at the end of the 'Tee' in the Lavender.

 

If you have to rig from the sides of the marquee - some customers get fussy about lighting stands amongst the audience -watch your stand height against the roof of the marquee, marquees are plastic sheet material mostly - Par Cans at full power generate some heat, so allow some air flow round them :) !!

 

It might also be worth asking the question now about power supply e.g. where is it and is it enough - some customers think "Ah yes Fashion show - it will only need a 13a plug for the lights, we can put a double adaptor in the socket for the sound system".

[paulears]

The answers you are getting are exactly the kind of comments I'd expect from those of us who've ever done these kind of events.

 

In your case the big issue is really the support system. 2 stands means uneven lighting. Is there any way you can hang a few lightweight bars from the internal trusses. The marquee contractor is your friend. They will know their structures and tell you if you can or can't hang from it. If you can spread the PARs down either side, evenly spaced, then the lighting will be much more even. I've found that 50mm thin wall tube, as is used for aerial installation is really useful. It's very light - obviously nowhere near the strength of our usual ali tube, but for a few cans, light enough to hang from modern marquees, without compromising the strength of the structure.

[indyld]

The answers you are getting are exactly the kind of comments I'd expect from those of us who've ever done these kind of events.

 

I agree up to a point ( the focus on which gels to use completely misses the issue in question ) but don't tarnish us all with the same brush. The question was what to do with the equipment listed . We have all had to make do with all kinds of problems over the years and the experience of a professional is being able to make something out of nothing. nuff said.

 

Clearspan marquee purlin brackets for 50mm bar can be fashioned out of two straight boom arms ( not twisted ), bit of m10 or m12 200mm studding with some washers and nuts. There is usually a hole through each clearspan truss at in line with the purlins that run up and down the length of the marquee. The stud goes through the hole and the boom arms hand down either side and are secured using nuts and washers. You can either use short bits of barrel as T bars or run a longer section between marquee trusses ( bays on clearspans are usually 4m )

 

I have hung loads of gear in marquees and know what weight loadings I am comfortable with but if you ask a marquee contractor they will not give you a straight answer. This is because the manufacturers won't either. A colleague of mine was trying to find out the roof and truss loading of a clearspan marquee, even ending up tyring to get an answer from the designers. They just won't commit to anything. If you really push them that you need an actual SWL for their structures they say "ok then - nothing. It is designed to hold the weight of the covering and withstand winds speeds of ,,,, etc etc etc"

 

To get back to the orginal question, yes it would be good if you could get some better rigging positions as mentioned but this also depends on your get in time frame.

 

 

 

I

[ianknight]

Clearspan marquee purlin brackets for 50mm bar can be fashioned out of two straight boom arms ( not twisted ), bit of m10 or m12 200mm studding with some washers and nuts. There is usually a hole through each clearspan truss at in line with the purlins that run up and down the length of the marquee. The stud goes through the hole and the boom arms hand down either side and are secured using nuts and washers. You can either use short bits of barrel as T bars or run a longer section between marquee trusses ( bays on clearspans are usually 4m )

 

Yes - but use the barest minimum of kit you can hang from these points (and dont forget the weight of the copper).

 

I turned out for a job in a marquee (with a 13 ton snow loading capability allegedly - so you would think ideal for the loading) however the marquee company refused point blank to allow me to hang from the structure. If you take a closer look at the structure too, you will see the retaining brackets on some of these clear span systems are aluminium bands pop-riveted onto a beam. Your 'system' is only then as safe then as the four rivets holding that beam in place - proceed very cautiously and be prepared for arguements. :)

[indyld]

If you take a closer look at the structure too, you will see the retaining brackets on some of these clear span systems are aluminium bands pop-riveted onto a beam. Your 'system' is only then as safe then as the four rivets holding that beam in place - proceed very cautiously and be prepared for arguements. :)

 

Oh god yes . DONT go anywhere near the little bits of ali riveted to the main structure. All of the horizontals are usually mounted on these and they are NOT to be loaded. The purlin brackets I mentioned are to be used with the hole that are drilled through the main structural truss sections.

 

Another way to hang to hang any sort of weight on a clearspan is to use cader clamps fitted into the channel that the linings sometimes go in. It is impossible to wrap an spanset around the trusses because of the way the marquee skins are fitted.

 

BTW I have only just joined this forum but there seems to be a tendency to wander off topic. This one seems to be turning into a " how to rig in marquees" one. Just my thoughts.

 

Cheers

[paulears]

Moderation: You are quite correct - we do seem to do this quite a lot. Often the mods then split them off into their own topic if there seems interest. In most cases, what happens is that the original question kind of runs out of steam, and the answers 'evolve'. If anyone wishes to continue marquee comment - start a new topic in the appropriate section, and let any mod know and we'll move comments here accross, if you feel it worth it

[JakeCTG]

After some consideration we have decided to hire in 4 Fresnels and a follow spot to go with the 10 Pars and 6 birdies. I think we want to keep the birdies for lighting the back drop.

What would people advise for the positioning of 10 cans and 4 fresnels considering that we will probably want at least 4-6 pars for colour on the roof/backdrop. Any plans would be appreciated. I think after looking at posts it would be simpelest to just use the 2 T-bars and not to worry about hanging on the Marquee. We have 3 4 channel dimmers that hang on the stands and have limited cable to position lights. So we dont have a huge amout of scope to move the lights.

[Just Some Bloke]

[snip] ... 6 birdies. I think we want to keep the birdies for lighting the back drop.

[snip] ... we will probably want at least 4-6 pars for colour on the roof/backdrop.

 

I'm a bit confused about why you would want 6 birdies (presumably at 50w each) and 6 pars (presumably at 1000w each) both lighting the same thing. If they're coming from the same place (your stands) then you'll be lucky if the birdies will be seen at all over the top of even just a single par. Without knowing what the backdrop looks like I couldn't be sure, obviously. Maybe if the birdies are narrow angle and picking out detail in white with the pars in primary colours lighting other areas of the drop then it might work.

 

If the backdrop doesn't need things picking out, then how about hiring some floods either singly or in battens. A few 3-circuit battens in reb, green and blue would allow you to colour-mix on the marquee and backdrop, keeping the bidies, as suggested earlier, as footlights. I wouldn't have thought that would be too expensive.

[Shez]

After some consideration we have decided to hire in 4 Fresnels and a follow spot to go with the 10 Pars and 6 birdies.

 

What are you planning on doing with the followspot? Presumably your catwalk is raised off the ground and bearing in mind the somewhat limited headroom available in a marquee, I would have thought that a followspot would be more likely to end up up-lighting your models, which won't be a good look. Apologies if you're aware of this and have a suitably high position available to operate it from.