Cool things to do with a few M250's

[tobybennett]

Ok, heres the situation!

 

I've been programming up the lighting for Jesus Christ Superstar in a mid-size theatre, over the last 2 weeks. The technical rehersal is in another week, and until then, there is very little more I can do to the stack.

There are;

 

4x Mac 250 Wash

4x Mac 250 Krypton (yes, the noisey ones!)

6x Mac 250 Entour

 

A numerous amount of Par 64's, and other strand fresnels.

 

So, with little left I can do, and quite a large stage, is there anything cool I could do to wow the team of technical product funders for the theatre (they're popping in tomorrow to check out the prompt corner)? Maybe persuade them to buy a few more movers, effects, or hazers etc..?

 

Toby

 

 

 

A concurrent post has been automatically merged from this point on.

 

Oh, and by the way, it's all done on a Zero88 Leapfrog 96.

[son of lx dad]

hire a hazer, little point to all those toys if you cant see the beams

[Ynot]

.... is there anything cool I could do to wow the team of technical product funders for the theatre

Hmmmm...

Well, yes, there are LOTS of 'cool' things you can do with movers.

[tobybennett]

Haha, I know.....

 

I'm trying to think of something specific!! Colour Mixing, intellegent moving.... something which looks impressive!

[Ynot]

Yes.

Exactly.

But we can't hope to tell you what sort of effects will suit your production.

We know nothing about it, and to be frank, you can't give us anywhere near enough information about the style, scenery, actors, etc etc to allow us to make any informed and useful comments.

 

Sure - we could suggest different ways of using the Macs, but that simply won't help you.

Lighting design is about fitting the lighting to the performance, not thinking of an effect then trying to fit it to the show....

 

Sorry, but...

[tobybennett]

I see your point, but I was just asking what to do with an empty stage; i.e. nothing to do with the production. Just so that the commitee which invested the money for the MAC's can see that they have spent there money well (or in some peoples opinion; not!)

[frazer]

Just so that the commitee which invested the money for the MAC's can see that they have spent there money well.

 

How on Earth can anyone tell that they have spent there money well by watching someone waggle a few lights about on a stage? "Money well spent" IMO will be when the investment in lighting has been proven to improve the quality of productions, or the knowledge of the students.

 

IMO good use of moving lights in a theatrical production is when you hardly notice that the lights are moving - it just appears seamless. As YNOT has already said, fit the lighting to the show, not the show to the lighting!

 

I do however like the effect of gobo beams through a colour wash. Nice and simple.

 

Frazer

[vbm]

Lighting design is about fitting the lighting to the performance, not thinking of an effect then trying to fit it to the show...

 

Damn, that's where I've been going wrong all these years...

[smalljoshua]

Show them the Most advance features on the Macs and run them through a couple of scenarios that would have meant extra cost to them.

 

One that comes to mind is

 

You can say something along the lines of "A song is set to have two people together on one side of stage" Bring up fader on desk with Profile on one side of stage "The Director decides to split up a duet on stage so one person is on each side of the stage, before we got the Macs we would have had to hire in an extra profile at a cost of £xx to you, now we can just do this" fade down the profile and bring up two movers one on each side of stage

 

You can then elaborate this with something to do with the colors and the cost of gel and having more than one lantern for more than one color wash.

 

go on like that for every feature the movers have.

 

HTH

 

Josh

[bilsta1000]

Can't you have the Entours/Kryptons "singing" along to the music with their deafening hums?

[tobybennett]

Ooh, thats a good idea... just making the features seem amazing. Just have to dumb it down; the people on that commitee probably won't know the difference between a mover and a conventional latern.

 

Haha, the Entours aren't that bad; you can fiddle about with the fan speeds, but the kryptons.....

[themadhippy]

Remove a couple of bubbles,put in some burnt out gel in the generics,programe the cues with a few "stutter steps".or a mover with a diffrent colour to the rest ect.Fire of your show for the suits and point out all the faults and blame the lack of funding

[paulears]

Just so that the commitee which invested the money for the MAC's can see that they have spent there money well

So you invested in the hire/purchase of your equipment without having an actual plan?

 

 

I'd say they didn't spend their money wisely at all! What excuses (sorry, reasons) were given to the committee for getting these particular items?

 

Lighting Operation is a technical discipline - you have to know how to rig, cable, program and operate

Lighting Design is an art. You have to make the directors vision become reality - in most cases.

 

What does the Director actually want, and what does s/he need? Without these answers there's no way to do a proper lighting design. What I'm getting from your posts is that you're trying to conjure up something impressive that kind of stands alone without actors, costume or dressing. Non-technical people rarely appreciate the effort put in to programming - they do appreciate what it does for the actors.

 

You need to sit down with the Director and discuss what s/he would like, you then do your best to achieve it.

 

You have bucket loads of kit - this is where you do the design. We can't help you because we don't know the space, the set, or the action. Lighting design needs to be developed - usually by doing lots and repeating successful elements, while avoiding those that didn't. You can pick up ideas from books and from watching other people's work, but this doesn't make you a designer - your designs do!

 

Do you have a cross? If so - the crucifixion scene is in my view the most powerful, so if you need to impress, this is the one to go for. Uplight, downlight, colours, haze. You won't even need the huge pile of kit you have. Where you put it, and the colours you choose are your call.

 

To be honest, you have a pile of movers, loads of PARs and some Fresnels already - and you want MORE??, but don't have any ideas how to produce good lighting results? Shades of Oliver!

[berry120]

Fairly fast strobe moving about on stage with haze looks pretty cool. A tad of haze with 4 beams from different directions cross-pointing at the same object looks nice, especially if it's shiny. Depending on the setting, a yellow searchlight effect or the same thing blue for sirens can also be pretty effective...

 

...yet having said all that, there's plenty of times when they're best used stationary and just moved silently between scenes.

 

It feels like I end up saying this a lot, but experiment! IMO YNot's got it spot on, there's no way we can know what effects will look good for your particular production. The best thing you can do is talk with the director about what kind of effects and suchlike he wants, then fit it round there. But thinking along the lines of "hmm heres the script, what scene would be best for some haze and fast strobing?" really isn't going to look good or go down well.

[paulears]

Have you ever seen Jesus Christ Superstar? Yellow for searchlights, Blue for sirens - which particular scene in JCS did you have in mind? What bit would the strobes be used for. JCS is a rock opera, not a music gig.