Lighting visibility

[sunray]

I'll start a new thread on this one.

As a self confessed old fogey, I slightly resent the new fangled lighting equipment where the main function is to draw attention to itself rather than to the thing it's pointing at...

 

I'm totally with you Andy, in my school days nearly all lighting was hidden with careful positioning of borders, scenery etc. In the 'Little Theatre' I spent a little time in after school the FOH lighting was in a space above auditorium ceiling level (I'm sure there's a proper name) and no lights were ever seen.

 

I have to agree with Andy and say that the average lighting rig is one of the ugliest features of any show and highlighting it is, in my opinion, a really stupid thing to do. I was at a show a couple of years back and every one of the 24 FOH profiles was lit by a bright spot from the opposite side of the auditorium casting a significant shadow on the wall.

 

But my pet hate is the number of fittings in full view upstage pointing at, and blinding, the audience. At one show I asked for a refund during the first interval as I truly couldn't see the performance.

 

I just don't get it.

[J Pearce]

I think there’s room for both idioms. A box set drama calls for carefully bordered lights and good facial lighting.

 

A musical may want something more spectacle based and non-naturalistic.

 

Many rock bands aren’t that interested in being lit and want to see a light show around them to give some visual interest.

 

It’s a question of artistic taste, and appropriateness for the medium you are working in surely?

[Paul O]

It depends on the show, director, production style, etc. I do lots of musical theatre and tend to hide the lighting for older, more traditional musicals but usually have it in view for the more modern stuff

[willjam39]

It is an interesting idea, as I mainly light plays at the moment I hide as much as possible, but for certain effects we cant avoid it such as Sun Strips across front of stage to replicate candle light. When he first saw them the directer was worried the audience would be distracted but as pointed on stage we had no issue with it.

[sunray]

Nice replies with good comments. Yes of course a Light show needs to be on show etc, but even then blinding the audience is in my opinion counter productive. When I went to see my Goddaughter in a dance show there was a row of 16 movers (I suspect MAC250's)mounted below the proc, they spent most of the time drawing patterns on the audience and totally obliterating the vision of the lesser lit stage, almost the entire audience were attempting to sheild their eyes from the lights but the raking of the seating made it impossible for most. A surprising number of people retired to the bar for a confrontation with management but to no avail. Mostly my comments are aimed more at the more convential senarios like plays, where I'm seeing more and more distracting illumination of the lighting rig such as colour changing truss lighting for a whodunnit set in the 1950's which was there for the entire show, including during the blackout for the storm scene.

[CPlater1]

That's why I absolutely loved watching The Mousetrap (tour) last week. Apart from practicals, the lighting is hidden, which was quite refreshing!

[Junior8]

If you want to be really depressed take a look at the Michael Coveney & Peter Dazely London Theatres book and look at the desecration of some of those lovely spaces by all sorts of intrusive equipment. All black and much of it execrably designed. Edited July 1, 2019 by Junior8

[andy_s]

Just for clarity (pun not intended), I'm going to backtrack slightly on my original statement. It's not necessarily seeing the actual fixtures that I object to, its the wibbly wobbly beams sharply defined by haze., just to make a 'pretty lighting look' (for want of a better word). but it's horses for courses. There can be a time and a place for a 'light show', I've seen some great things where seeing the beam in haze is exactly right (award-winning LD Natasha Chivers created light coming through a forest canopy with nary a gobo involved - a couple of dozen pinspots carefully focussed through haze. a similar effect by another LD to create the idea of light coming through bullet holes in the wall of a war-torn barn, using adapted birdies with a very long snout to get a very very narrow virtually parallel beam of light, a train passing created by moving light beams, and many other examples. What I don't want is to be looking at the lights rather than the actors or action... I find moving / billowing haze a bit of a distraction as well. But I don't particularly mind seeing an exposed rig, so long as it is neatly done, and light leaks are dealt with etc etc...

 

of course the world of music lighting is a different thing altogether... and there can be some useful crossover...

 

I do agree about FOH positions in some of the older theatres, they need to be handled with more discretion than we often see.

Edited July 1, 2019 by andy_s

[J Pearce]

It'd be interesting to discuss how much the sharing of show photos (both press and social media) has pushed for lighting that looks spectacular on camera. After all you can't take a photo that captures the intensity of the acting, but you can photograph set and beams in haze. I've certainly had directors request certain looks because they'll look good in the photos, I wonder if similar pressure exists from producers/investors in the commercial theatre world?

[nuttytechy]

When I design lighting for a production then I will look into the genre, era and work with the director etc to find the best possible outcome.

 

To give you a couple of examples:

 

We were doing rep and also being on my own as we were a small theatre, I kept 2 of the shows to a basic but effective rig with minimal lanterns on show.

 

I do agree with andy_s as its the beams when there is a haze and the first 2 shows in our rep were Frankenstein and Xmas Carol and the director was so insistant of using a haze all the way through both shows but I managed to find a compromise as I said I would use a haze but run it intermittently so there was nice hint of a haze.

 

Our 3rd show in our rep was Panto I carefully rigged my movers and programmed so they didn't blind anyone intentionally. Movers placed halfway down and above the auditorium would do the LX effects when required as everyone should be looking at the stage and not at the LX rig.

[the kid]

Youth these days....

 

I think yes image media has sent a "look" to what people want and expect to see, add some HDR and you have something for the social media.

 

We do conferance dinner stuff, lots of effect lights infact 90% effect, and FOH is a handfull of larger moving profiles to use as front light or other. Lights OVER the audiance I think looks a bit like someone lost what they were trying to do and thought "I will try this button and see how it looks" and 90% of the time unless you are 6m above the crowd one now is going to see the effect, or 4 people will see a really cool bathed in light but no light on them effect.