house lighting

[Jayke93]

hi,

sorry if there's a topic like this already on the br but I had a look and couldn't find anything

I'm doing lighting for my old school doing bugsy malone next year.

the school doesn't have fading house lights and I really want / need fading house lights! :** laughs out loud **:

 

they would need to be temporary and easy to rig.

I was thinking maybe have a couple of PAR 64's facing out towards the audience.

 

any help much appreciated!

 

Thanks

[dunk_1984]

Sorry if this sounds silly, but if you don't need them, don't have them, just use whatever they have in house. You want them, doesn't cut the extra expense to me, let alone a school.

[Tom Baldwin]

Sorry if this sounds silly, but if you don't need them, don't have them, just use whatever they have in house. You want them, doesn't cut the extra expense to me, let alone a school.

 

Rubbish!

 

The soft fade of the houselights is part of the theatrical experience, and is just as important as the fading of cues during the performance.

 

Try to ensure that whatever houselights you do rig are pointing as close to straight down as possible. Using over-powered lanterns is fine, as the warm glow of a dimmed unit is nice... but PAR64s might be a bit too much (depends on the size of the venue), and may be a bit narrow beamed to get coverage with just two units (try some heavy frost?).

 

Without knowing what's available to you, and the space, it's hard to be specific, but anything than can get a good coverage from top light would be acceptable.

[tokm]

If you've got some spare dimmer channels, just acquire (hire or buy, both very cheap) some 500w outdoor floods..

 

Can't get much easier than that! Hardest parts working out where to put them. Overhead of/above the audience if possible, would be the best IMO, things pointing at the audience'll just be annoying (blinding and such).

 

HTH,

 

Tom

 

*edit - Tom B's comments seconded!*

[mac.calder]

If you have white/light coloured walls, and a box like room, par cans on H stands, uplighting the wall can often give a lovely "glow" to a room (especially when gel is in the mix). I am a fan of reflecting houselights off of walls and ceilings as much as possible. I hate being blinded by lights when I look arround a theatre (I do spend quite a bit of time with my eyes on the roof), and as such, I design my houselight rig with that in mind.

[Wuddy]

Hi,

 

I sometimes work in a school hall with only fluorescent lighting. What I do is on the lines of what tokm has said.

 

I place a stand in each corner of the hall with two common or garden 500watt flood lights suitably positioned and pointing to the ceiling, using the reflected light rather than direct light onto the audience.

 

Just remember, if that is your only source of house light and it fails any emergency lighting won't operate, appoint someone to be in control of the usual hose lights who can step in if such a problem occurs.

[Psychedelic Theatre]

The auditorium (excuse for a theatre) where I live uses a pile of Pars as house lights. Not sure if they're 56s or 64s. They are in groups of two, creating a grid across the roof. They probably have about 15-20 groups in total. None of them are gelled.

 

Bearing in mind this is a 1200-ish seat venue, so probably larger than your school theatre, and so this many would be overkill!

 

At school, we use the local town hall for our performances. They have a load of strip fluoros...so not the best house lights in the world!!! I tend to use four Strand Coda 1s as house lights. The roof of the hall is an orangey-red colour, so I aim the Codas at the roof, and the reflection makes a nice even orange glowy house light while avoiding the lights in eyes problem that may occur with Pars.

 

Depending on the size of your venue you could adapt one of the methods I mentioned. It really depends what your roof is like, and how big the venue is!

[cedd]

Up until 4 years ago we had no fading house lights, and things still aren't brilliant. Flourescents are the main source of light and then about 15 downlighters (flush ceiling fittings, no more than 100w each) are on a dimmed circuit from a domestic dimmer (actually slightly more industrial, but nevertheless not a dimmed channel on the desk) at the desk position mounted on the wall. Not what I specified, and probably more expensive to wire than a straight dimmed channel, and all the knobs are now missing from the dimmers!

But, they provie more than enough light for people to find their seats. That is after all, all we're after people doing. Flourescents go off as the house opens, people sit and read their programme in comfortable but not over-garish light and then we dim as the show starts.

You won't need much in the way of houselights, but definately overhead or uplit/downlit walls. Par64's out into the audience won't be too dissimilair from stage blinders, and the name says everything!

 

You can then do a nice timed fade on the desk easily.

[karl]

My local theatre has a small secondary performance space with a lowish barrel vaulted ceiling and they use parcans pointed up into the vaults as houselights. They use a variety of gels and it gives a pleasant effect.

 

Recently at another venue I used parcans for houselighting as the director wanted the audience to feel as if they were inside a goldfish bowl (don't ask)! I placed them high up at the side of the auditorium aimed straight across at the opposite wall with various shades of blue gel. I liked the effect but a couple of patrons complained that the light was too bright even though I was careful to keep it above head height. As mentioned above, aiming the light up and bouncing it off the ceiling is probably the best bet if you can do it.

[mark_s]

I had the same problem for a summer production at my old school. I just stuck two 500W Nocturnes with Bastard Amber (or similar; it was a random offcut but looked like bastard amber) in them on the ends of the FOH bar. Worked quite nicely. I don't think PARs would look particularly good, or get a particularly even coverage. Floods are the way to go in my opinion.

[paulears]

You can get away with pretty well any kind of fitting and even play with colours. You just want an inviting feel before the show starts, so it can be even, patchy, or downright odd - AS LONG, as it can do a gentle fade up and down. A switched plunge into darkness is simply horrible.

[DaveBeattie]

I have tended to use larger numbers of smaller lanterns for houselights. This tends to be less intrusive. It also gives a more diverse light, which prevents shadows. This becomes important if you want the audience to be able to read the programme. I have used 12 x 150W floods (approx £3 each to buy). If you run out of things to do and have some spare channels you can even set them so that they fade down towards the stage and fade up away from it. It sounds a bit corny, but it does draw the eye to the stage and doesn't actually take that much more effort.

 

Dave

[Andrew C]

If you do go down the garden flood route, beware! The holes in the yoke don't take M10, and you MUST use the glass fronted type. I have seen the lamps explode and spread molten glass all over an auditorium. Having said that, it is the way I'd go, bouncing the light off the ceiling if I could.

[peternewman]

The holes in the yoke don't take M10

The 500W ones I've got do take an M10, although it may be a little tight, I can't quite remember. I guess this is another YMMV thing.

[erik10_4]

I'd like to second (actually probably third or forth ) the advice already given; bounce a couple of beams off a light coloured ceiling (or walls) if possible. Did this on the spare of the moment last year in a village hall and it was very effective. It's actually amazing how much light a couple of Par 56 lamps reflected from the ceiling provided before dimming. Even my Health & Safety Manager wife was happy!