Lights to create Shadows

[martinkings]

I want to fix some (small) lights to the front of stage, so that I can throw shadows of the cast onto the back wall - I've seen this done at a few theatres, but what lights should I use for this? Would par 16's be the correct ones?

[JDLX]

Yeh Par16's otherwise known as 'birdies'. Be sure to get the 12V versions with the wide angle lamps. You could also use Howie battens which are a series of these lamps in an array.

[paulears]

MR16s are the smallest, and they're reasonably bright unless you but really saturated colour in them, The PAR16 fittings are pretty easy to mount, and it's just the transformers that have to be put somewhere. GU10 mains versions could also be used if you can find the fittings - the PAR16s are just easier to source. Thomas make both. These are cheaper.

[martinkings]

What would be the best way to fix these to the front of stage - I'm not sure I've got that much of a 'lip' to clamp them with

[jonathanhill]

Take the yokes off the birdies and screw them to the floor with a #8 woodscrew and a penny washer. Reassemble the light and move on to the next one.

[martinkings]

thanks

[Junior8]

This effect was used in 42nd Street at the Chi Festival this year and was incredibly effective - but they used two large castor mounted Fresnels which were moved around by members of the cast too which made it even more impressive on the backdrop (if a tad tricky to choreograph!)

[Andrew C]

To cast a crisp shadow, you will need a point source of light. Using a batten, the adjacent bulbs will wash out the desired shadow. Junior8's method is better for shadows, but perhaps not appropriate in your application. Use as few lamps as you can!

[David A]

If you use wide angle lamps you will need to get short fittings, the nose on the standard birdie restricts the width of the beam.

[Grahame]

As Andrew said, if you want crisp shadows you need as close to a point source of light as you can get, which means having your cast stand in a particular position for best effect. If you use a birdie you are even more restricted on where the cast stand, and realistically you can only expect to get a shadow from one or at most two people.

This frontcloth scene from Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake (lighting by Rick Fisher) uses a single Iadi 1kW flood, which has quite a short lamp. Depending on the depth of your stage, you could probably get away with a 500W exterior flood from B&Q, or even a 150W one:

http://www.dogstar-design.co.uk/shows/asylum%20nurses%203_l.jpg

[springgrove]

Just to follow up on a few points made here:

 

I would try a simple 'B&Q'-type flood first of all. A cheap solution, although you will want to make sure no-one can get too near it - they get hot and are only meant for external use. Risk assessment needed?

 

Another possiblity would be to take the lens out of a fresnel, so that you just basically have the small filament source of light. Can easily use the barn doors to mask extraneous light.

 

Although 12V birdies have the extra complication of a transformer, I would avoid mains birdies from my experience - the average lamp life in any real situation seems to be about ten minutes.

 

Nigel

[Andrew C]

Another possiblity would be to take the lens out of a fresnel, so that you just basically have the small filament source of light. Can easily use the barn doors to mask extraneous light.

That's the scheme I used when I last did this; a 123 without the lens.

[indyld]

Just to add, for unobtrusive fittings, Birdies are hard to beat. If you have several "turns" you need to get shadows out of, can always give them one each or use an array of Birdies pointing straight upstage to attempt a seamless set of shadows.

 

Depending on what you want to achieve, Howie battens are less useful as each batten produces multiple shadows (due to the multiple light sources). I wrote an article on shadows a while back.

 

Just to note that while a linear flood, B&Q or not, is a wide light source, they also have long filaments and this and the reflector arrangement can contribute to less defined shadows on the back wall. Not that it doesn't work, just depends on what you want.

 

Taking the lens out of a fresnel is one of the traditional methods of projecting shadows, as was removing the lens assembly from a Patt23.

[Junior8]

Another possiblity would be to take the lens out of a fresnel, so that you just basically have the small filament source of light. Can easily use the barn doors to mask extraneous light.

That's the scheme I used when I last did this; a 123 without the lens.

 

All these suggestions are good but it really is a case of suck it and see experimantation to find the right source. Nice to hear of somebody else who has been reduced to taking the lens out of a lantern for some effect or another. Patt 23s without the lens can be very useful.

[sleah]

I 'accidentally' created the effect for a dance show with eight PAR56's.....

 

Linky to YooooTuuube videos of the show