Lighting help!

[mk_193]

Hi!

I'm working on a small amateur show at the moment and am in charge of lighting. The show is set in a living room and there is a general wash on for the most part of the show. At the moment I am using 6 743s with no gel. I've been asked to make it look a bit more 'homely' and focused in on the set as there is quite a bit of spillage onto the curtains. I am wondering if I should just focus in the 743s a bit better using the barn doors and add in a straw gel? Or I was also thinking of replacing them with quartets (the smallest ones- fresnels I think) as that's the only thing we have enough of left, so that it's not so stark. Are quartets good for general cover? Any other advice welcomed! Many thanks!

 

I should probably say also- it's a very small theatre / set with a fairly low rig ..

[mark_s]

A fresnel is a fresnel. Well, that's not entirely true, but in terms of spill a Quartet isn't going to do any better or worse than a 743. I'd also go as far as to say that a dimmed 743 will be much less stark than a Quartet at the equivalent brightness, due to the CT shift when dimmed.

 

It's always good practice to barndoor/shutter off the masking/proscenium/other bits - spill onto these never look pretty. Further than that (without knowing anythig about your design), I'd say if the Director want it more homely, whip out your swatchbook and experiment with some warmer tints. This is possibly a good time to get funky with your backlight - something like 156 in your backlight can do wonders to warm a scene up and make it ore inviting, while being fairly subtle.

[mk_193]

Thank you! I shall stick with the 743s and have a look for some gels then

[timsabre]

Backlight is the thing. (which you may or may not be able to do). If you've got 6kw blasting in from foh it is going to look quite stark. If you can start throwing some light from onstage it will look better.

[mk_193]

Ah ok, it is quite difficult to light from onstage because of the low slanting ceiling and lack of bars unfortunately..

 

What are some nice warm gels I could use? I tend to use 103 but we may not have any..

[jonathanhill]

Side light could also help, if it is well focused. If there are no bars, is there another solution that may help, such as booms or stands?

 

Front light has the tendency to flatten everything out, and make things one dimensional. Light from the top, back or side helps sculpt the actors and make them more three dimensional.

 

Any light amber filter will do, but if you have none, running all the lights at 30 to 50% will help. Tungsten lamps tend towards amber as they dim.

 

e2a: more help

[vinntec]

Do you mean all your lighting is FOH? If so, a traditional technique would be to split your 743s in two and light across the stage three from the left angled to the right (looking from FOH) and vice versa on the other side. This would allow you to put different gels in the two sides - usually warm (yellow, amber, or pink) and something else (often blue but sometimes also open white works). The first group is the direct light, and the second group the reflected light. This is known as the McCandless system which was invented in the 1930s, but still works if you are in a small space where sidelighting is impossible. You need to try and get the colours right the right way to most closely match where the light is supposed to be coming from. Backlighting would complete the picture but this is not always possible either.

 

However, now you can have a daylight scene - change the balance and it might be a brighter or darker day, or one colour only for effect. See http://www.mts.net/~william5/sld/sld-200.htm 2.05 for an outline of what I am talking about. I have lit many a musical on tiny stages with this as the backbone of the lighting system.

 

This may or may not be appropriate for what you are trying to do?

 

PS. Patt 743s are excellent lanterns (especially if they have recently been cleaned!)

[mk_193]

Cheers for all the help! I sorted it all out today- it was 2 of the 743s further back which were creating most of the horrible spill on the curtains, so we took them out and using 4 of them works fine with some added quartets. Put some warm gels in and a couple of side lights which helped majorly!

 

I do like the 743s too- (even though these are very dirty, they are old ones from the National!) dimmed down they created a nice spread with some gels

[Dave m]

Do yourself a favour and clean one of the 743s including the lens.

you'll be surprised at the difference a clean light makes.

[alistermorton]

Seconded. A nice clean 743 is not a bad lantern to be working with. One thing to watch for though is the spill from around the frame runners - there's a lot of light can escape around the barn doors and colour frame - I usually end up masking it off. I've got away with gaffa before - certainly lasted a ten night run without dropping off.

[paulears]

You need to experiment with colour - 103 isn't the most useful colour to have. Personally if I had quartets up and running, and some 743s on the shelf, I'd swap without any thought. Beam angle adjustment and the quality of the light from the bigger lens would be enough. I swapped some old 223s out for Arris - same 1KW rating, and the Arris were brighter than the old tungsten 223, but the light from the 223s was nicer - and I suspect most is down to the glass!