Lighting Design Help - Sunlight Gels?

[YardFace]

Hi there,

 

I am lighting a piece of children's theatre and I need some assistance.

I want to bathe the stage in strong, hot afternoon naturalistic sunlight and I was wondering what colours you personally would use to achieve this. I'm going to hopefully be using 1k fresnels top-lit for this.

 

I also need some help when it comes to the positioning of facelight. I want the stage to be lit evenly with "sunlight" colours but need some face light at the same time. I was just wondering where you would hang 750w profiles to achieve this look; i.e. an even cover across the stage to illuminate actors' faces but not interfere with the colour wash.

 

Sorry to sound so confusing but any ideas or info would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks.

[mac.calder]

Colour Temperature Blue - Tungsten to Daylight (aka CTB) - every gel manufacturer has a range of different CTBs, so just ask your prefered supplier... Sunlight is a lot bluer than regular light, and if you want true, realistic sunlight, CTB is the way to go. That said, if you want to give the appearance of a ray of sunlight you are often better going a yellow-er colour.

[jonathanhill]

I would consider using pipe-end and prosc PARs (or maybe Fresnels if that was all I had) as a cross wash in #07 and L206 and then wind in as little FoH as required to light the faces. The use of prosc units almost negates the need for FoH.

[Tomo]

"Hot sunny day" would usually be a straw, as sunlight is actually yellow.

 

'Daylight' is considerably bluer than direct sunlight, primarily due to cloud scatter. The cloudier the day, the higher the apparent colour temperature.

 

I quite like Lee 764 Sun Colour Straw combined with CTB or a 'cooler' straw from the other side.

 

Lee 103 (Straw), 013 (Straw Tint) and sometimes 009 (Pale Amber Gold - though I find that a bit too strong) are quite common for this effect as well.

 

We can't really advise on fixture placement except in general terms though.

- If you're hiring the venue the local crew probably have a 'standard FOH rig' that gives a decent facelight wash, so it will probably be worthwhile using that.

[Just Some Bloke]

Hi there,

 

I am lighting a piece of children's theatre and I need some assistance.

I want to bathe the stage in strong, hot afternoon naturalistic sunlight and I was wondering what colours you personally would use to achieve this. I'm going to hopefully be using 1k fresnels top-lit for this.

The top-lit is the key to this and means tha you can get away with a stronger colour than if you were front-lighting. I have to say that my first thought, when reading "hot afternoon naturalistic sunlight" was the same as Tomo - 764, which, incidentally, I am using in a show this week for a mediteranean sunlight wash from the front (with a cooler wash also in there for different times of the day when it shouldn't be so yellowy: as it's a musical I used 136 to tone it down, though I never use the 136 on its own). If you were talking less hot than mediteranean, then 764 as toplight would be OK but maybe 763 (which is paler) from the front would be better. If you were talking hotter than mediteranean than maybe 013 (which, although having the word 'tint' in it's name is actually a remarkably strong colour) would be better for overhead.

 

I also need some help when it comes to the positioning of facelight. I want the stage to be lit evenly with "sunlight" colours but need some face light at the same time. I was just wondering where you would hang 750w profiles to achieve this look; i.e. an even cover across the stage to illuminate actors' faces but not interfere with the colour wash.

 

This bit I don't understand, I'm afraid. "An even cover across the stage" is a "colour wash". You can have 2 or more of them if you want! At the end of the day facelight is facelight. You have the choice of pointing it straight on and using sidelight to provide some moulding, or to get as close as you can to 2 lights at 45^o on each area of the stage, each at a different intensity or in a different colour to give your interest. Personally I use both at different times depending on what look I want to create: for the intense sunlight this week I'm bringing it in from straight on with the 136 as sidelight to cool it down as required and some 108 on tank traps to create the moulding and help with the dance routines.

 

At the end of the day, what works for me may not work for you, so try things out and see what happens!

 

Hope that helps.

[YardFace]

Hi guys,

 

Thanks for all your responses. Always had some idea about what rigging positions I was going to use but I just needed the advice about which colours to use; didn't want to cover the stage in a disgusting saturated shade of orange!!

 

Just some guy; what I meant when I said "even wash" was I wanted to rig my lanterns where I could provide an even cover of facelight that would fill the entire stage.

 

Thanks again for your help!

[YardFace]

Just some guy; what I meant when I said "even wash" was I wanted to rig my lanterns where I could provide an even cover of facelight that would fill the entire stage.

 

"Just Some Bloke", I mean!

[Just Some Bloke]

what I meant when I said "even wash" was I wanted to rig my lanterns where I could provide an even cover of facelight that would fill the entire stage.

 

Unfortunately without either knowing your stage or having detailed plan and sections with all the hanging positions on, we can't really help there! ::D