How many Dimmer Channels ?
Sun, 22 June 2008, 07:35 pmDon Allen28 posts in thread
How many Dimmer Channels ?
Sun, 22 June 2008, 07:35 pmWith the offer of state funding in WA for amateur theatres, the decisions on what to apply for need researching and some professional advice is required to explain the theatre lighting requirements of amateur theatre groups.
One ideal "Square One" lighting design, (so called because if you put everything back to "square one" you will be able to provide good lighting for any basic production ) is to:
Divide the stage into the nine basic acting areas ie DSL, DSC, DSR, MSL, MSC, MSR, USL, USC, USR.
Allocate two key lights to each area (the McAndless method see lighting links, this takes you to 18 lights from the front. at 45 degrees to the centre of each acting area.
Allocate a back light to each acting area, directly behind the centre of each acting area, this takes another six channels
You now have an ideal lighting design that uses 24 dimmer channels for individual control of each light. In a usual amateur theatre situation, you will have to parallel lights if you have less dimmer channels.
You now need to allow three dimmer channels if you have a cyclorama and additional channels for specials, so the ideal number of channels takes you up to 36, which is three dimmer racks, of 12 channels each, with a channels capacity of 2400 watts.
Any questions ?
With backlight, only a
Mon, 23 June 2008, 01:43 pmWith backlight, only a small percentage of the light actually bounces of the actors head and shoulders so you need to run the light at 100%. It is not an efficient form of lighting, but it is a very effective and emotive form of lighting.
There are basically two choices for a lighting design, do it all in open white so the costume designer doesn't get upset that you have changed the colour of their costumes. This occurs because the lighting gel is subtractive and removes all colour except the narrow wavelength it is meant to pass.
The other method is to determine the motivating light source for a play, indoors or outdoors or nightime etc, then choose a gel to provide this motivating light source and choose the direction it is coming from. Then choose a complementary colour which comes from the other side.
Because light is additive once it lights the actor, you get the sepperate colours on each side and combinations of other colours in the middle which helps build character.
eg
Indoors daytime soft pink from left, straw from right.
Outdoors daytime yellow from left, amber from right.
Nightime outdoors gold flesh from left, blue fill from right.
Female bedroom strong pink from left, light straw from right.
Colour will add depth because it creates atmosphere and looks natural if it fits in with the script.
Go outside, any time of the day, look at where the light is coming from, what colour it is, where is the reflections coming from and what colour is it.
eg
Daytime, steel blue from sun, straw reflection bouncing off brick walls.
Nightime yellow light from moon or street lights, low level reflection so use a dark blue for contrast.
No open white, funny about that.
Now go off and read the book for more ideas, then play with all of these ideas in your theatre.
ps isn't it odd that we use blue for primary moonlight because that is what the audience expects us to use, even though it is yellow, more often than any other colour.
pps You need to have an understanding of the physics of light to be able to do good lighting designs, the moon is lit by the sun, but the suns rays are difracted by the steep angle it usually passes through the atmosphere hence the colour shift.