"Oil lit" scene

[richardash1981]

My church is putting on a walk-through (immersive) Easter experience for primary-school age children (daytime). This year (third go) we will also do a couple of evening sessions for a wider audience, which happen after dark. The first scene is the "upper room" of the Last Supper, i.e. inside a 1st Century middle eastern house. For this we set up a large gazebo/tent (intended to park your 4x4 in ...) inside the church to produce an indoor space. Some LED candles on the low table set the atmosphere for daytime (when a fair amount of light comes through the pale brown cover of the tent). It's a bit a harder at night (with the main church lights out), because LED candles don't give anything like as much light as the real thing! So I would like to add some additional lighting, mainly so that the audience passing through can clearly see the face of the actor in this scene talking to them (they will be standing between the table with the candles and the audience, so the LED candles back-light them).

 

For obvious reasons naked flame sources are out and I would be uneasy about tungsten sources, so it is back to some sort of LED source. A bit of research suggests that oil light would have been the major source, probably something discus shaped (https://www.mpm.edu/...story-oil-lamps, http://n0gw.net/Oil_Lamp_Info.pdf if you are really interested). What I have in mind is to put something on the "wall" behind and above the audience to do a combination of direct light across the room and reflect off the (pale) ceiling.

 

Apart from a warm yellow light (I've got some 12V yellow MR16 lamps knocking about), where do I start? Is there a practical way to replicate the motion I associate with real flames (in a draughty room)? To me, most LED "flickers" based on modulating one LED source don't cut it.

 

Some pictures from two years ago (the last time we did this) are up here: http://eastertrail.blogspot.co.uk/

[Charlotte_R]

Personally, I would have some "oil lamps" around the set as practicals. These can flicker slightly if required. Then just use ordinary theatre lanterns to provide the majority of the illumination.

[adam2]

Any chance of obtaining a fire retardant gazebo and using ACTUAL oil lamps ? Probably a no-no in an actual theatre, but perhaps acceptable in a church that almost certainly regularly uses real candles.

 

Oil lamps of the ancient style are still made, ! note that the correct fuel is cooking oil and NOT paraffin as would be used in a modern oil lamp.

 

 

 

[kerry davies]

I have used candles and flares extensively ever since I first got into lighting and in churches they are almost essential props from my PoV. If the caution is because of the tent or set then the tent or set is not appropriate for purpose, get replacements.

 

There is no better immediate mood setting lighting than candle light and in churches where you can use loads of big fat ecclesiastical candles it just screams out to be used. The human relationship to flame is primeval and hard-wired into our DNA, if there is the slightest excuse to use candle-light then do it.

 

A tip for illuminating faces with candles is to get some old used up powder compacts, scrape out remaining powder, place a tea light inside and use the mirror to direct the light. Get it right and you can get some amazing effects including putting a bunch together to create a "pillar of light". I used the effect with a group of nuns holding the compacts with their hands in prayer mode. Have a play.

[dosxuk]

Could you light the roof of the tent from outside? Bring the lights up over everyone is inside to boost the ambient light and fade them out at the end of the scene?

 

Depending on the material of the tent, you could do something with rotating gobos / projection to make it look like the light is actually coming from sources inside.

[d_korman]

Birdies on the legs of the gazebo nearest the "audience", and thus not visible to them?

[T*ny]

Lay a mirror on the table - cunningly masked with strategically placed bread rolls - and bounce light up at the actor's face (birdies from above?). Adding a couple of tea lights (real or LED) on the table should at least give an indication of where the light is coming from

[richardash1981]

Thank you for all the suggestions. Much as I would like real naked flames, even if everything in the set was flameproof the little darlings themselves will not be (primary school age group) so I fear naked flames are out. Conversely this isn't an adult audience and so a slightly lower standard of realism is probably acceptable.

 

The idea of using small PAR cans to provide light without obvious sources seems practical - maybe some black mini-PAR16 cans (https://www.stage-el...04-6939&nr=true).