With 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 ?

As a beginner in the lighting design game....I am unfamiliar with this McAndless method of which you speak. I've been getting some tips from those who I am setting lights with, but a lot of it is..."Well, I'll see if it looks OK". I think the problem we have at our theatre it that the bars are too far away from the stage, so the lights come in at too low an angle, causing shadows on the rear wall of the set. The position of the lighting bars are unfortunately mandated by where the steel beams of the building are to hang them from..... I have the stage broken into 6 areas instead of 9, as it is a fairly small stage, with 2 lights for each area paired on channels, so the wash uses only 6 of our available 24 channels. We have a mixed bag of lights, and to pair them on a single channel, they must be the same light. A question for Don.....(or anyone) The back-lights.....would you use them in a standard wash configuration, or only to obtain a certain effect? I have used back/side lighting, but only for a dramatic effect. i.e. for silhouette. Also, 24 channels is pretty much our limit due to the available power supply. Until recently, we couldn't run the lights AND heaters at the same time...

From Lighting FAQ On Line Resources: Stage Lighting 101 - Bill Williams - http://www.mts.net/~william5/sld/sld-toc.htm - this is an excellent book and covers the McAndless method of key lights which is the basis for most drama lighting. The ideal relocation of lighting bars are determined by standing in the centre of each acting area, looking up at 45 degrees then out at 45 degrees to see where you would like the bars to be, then apply for a grant from this new state funding and get your bars put in the correct location. The main four points of lighting is DISC. Direction, Intensity, Shape and Colour. If you cannot get the light to come from the ideal angle, you will not get the ideal artistic result. If you want to have two different intensity lights on the same channel,(ie one 500watt and one 650 watt), put neutral density filter in the bright light to balaqnce them.

It's probably worth considering the other half of the equation as well, that a fair amount of amps required to power that number of dimmer channels (not to mention then getting that amount of heat out of the venue) if they were all to run at a full 2400 watts. Mark -- Tech & Server Wrangler

The key to good lighting design is good dimension. I can't imagine not using back lighting, along with front and side: people aren't 2D, they're 3D! Obviously, it depends on what your set up is, but I always have a minimum back lighting in a standard wash. Fun puppet patterns to make at home! Puppets to buy at Puppets in Melbourne

To cover the other half of the equation the current consumption for the square one rig I described would be 24 x 650 watts = 15,600 watts which is 65 amps. Watts = volts x amps so amps is 15,600 watts / 240 volts =65 amps This current is spread over three phases so it is 21.6 amps per phase from what is usually a 32 amp three phase outlet. If you were using 500 watt lamps the current consumption would be less, 24 x 500 watts = 12000 watts = 50 amps. Then allow for four 500 watt cyc lights per colour, which is 2000 watts per colour which is 8.3 amps extra per phase for a total of 29.9 amps per phase. The use of a square one rig allows you maximum control. For a lot of plays would not have every light on maximum as you would be creating a lighting sculpture of bright on one side and slightly less from the other side to give the time of day atmosphere and maybe only one cyc colour, say blue. So all three dimmer racks can be fed from the one 32 amp three phase circuit breaker, providing they each have their own isolating switch as per the Health Public buildings Act (see links). Then if someone does overload one of the three phases by not balancing their phases, an integral part on a lighting design, they will trip the circuit breaker but there is no fire risk or damage to the building wiring.

Thanks for the link Don. I have had a brief look at that before, and must make time to have a thorough read. Is it standard practice to use gels for a wash, such as straw and pink? Or should the standard wash be gel-less? Does the use of colour in a wash add depth?? Further to back ligkting in a wash..Would you run that at about 20% of the intensity of the front wash? I won't be offended if you tell me to bugger off and read the book. :)

With 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.

The 9 positions defined on the stage, as Don described, can be visualised here;-Defining the stage:- http://www.blue-room.org.uk/wiki/Defining_the_Stage Besides the work of Prof Stanley Macandless, who is of course an American pioneer in theatre lighting. So some of the terms used will be different. My sort of Guru is Francis Reid, who I met when I was a young bloke, many many eons ago. His books are also a good resource to have on hand, along with a myriad of others. Which is now in it's 6th edition;-Francis Reid;- http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/reader/0713653965/ref=sib_rdr_fc?ie=UTF8&p=S001&j=0#reader-page However while it is relatively up to date, it can be heavy going. Just to add to Don's post on the lighting angle positions, which are covered by Francis Reid. that being 'X' - Overhead 'Y' FOH & 'Z' from the stage floor [deck] {'Floats' [footlights]}. Personally I would opt for more 38A feeds, mains direct distribution, however as Don suggested, in all cases get a qualified Sparkie to check out the venue. Because in a lot of cases the Mains Board supply distribution may have to be reconciled &/or upgraded. I prefer always to have more Amperage capacity than less to play with. if you can't find a friendly electrician @ mates rates, for a few cartons or free. Pay for the service Call, it will be cheapest in the long run. I'd like to say the Technical Advisory Pool [TAP} is up & running, to help & assist. [Tere are a few Licensed Electricains, Audio, Set & Costume ARTiciphers. Who have shown interest in coming on board. But we have yet to have our very First Moot & christen it properly, with an organised Launch.

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[May you always play to a full house] Hear the lights & see the sounds. 

The ideal situation is a seperate 40 amp 3 phase circuit for each dimmer, Jands changed their dimmers over to 40 amp plugs because 12 x 10 amp dimmers draw 120 amps which is 40 amps per phase maximum draw. Existing amateur clubs such as Playlovers have 30 amps per phase as the total input to their venue which has to be shared between foh and backstage, so you need to be more flexible with your setup.

I was taught that you use a frosted gel for when you want a white light wash - since the natural colour of the beam of light is actually a warm colour. But if you want the natural warm, you leave out the gels. Having said that, when I was being taught this stuff, we rarely used frosted gel unless it was absolutely necessary to have a white light and not a warm one. Fun puppet patterns to make at home! Puppets to buy at Puppets in Melbourne

Good tip Na! I hate open white for general wash, to me it is far too harsh. Great for the odd special & as an effect, but not for the whole show. Makes one think it would be far cheaper, to just leave the fluro's on. Using frost or Silk as defuse for open white, is ideal. But I think you can count on one hand, the number of venues. Be they Com or Proeatre, that actually have various silk, frost or devision gels in stock. The exception for me is of course when using Domes [Follow Spots (Limes, Drummond's)} However even then a wee bit of of gel works & the use of a colour magazine works, along with the Iris & tipping in the Douser occasionally. Maybe playlovers could do with a bit reallocation & reorganising their Mains switch Board distribution or lobbying the City Council to upgrade the incoming Power?

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[May you always play to a full house] Hear the lights & see the sounds. 

Thanks guys. I, as a qualified electrician, understand that particular side of it, but the colours and placement.........well, I think I shall have a read and play around with the lights. Thank you for your input. Nice to see the Tech Talk forum being used for tech talk.

Yes, it's a good one to remember. I think most of us forget that artificial light is by nature, warm coloured. Don't know about leaving fluoros on: for one thing, you might have issues with epileptics and flickering. I personally would rather an open white than a fluoro. Fun puppet patterns to make at home! Puppets to buy at Puppets in Melbourne

I was being facetious about the fluro's Na. May be i should have posted 'work lights'? i believe that the infra sound caused by fluorescents can be a cause, although not as significantly or dramatical as a Strobe can. It's great to know your a sparkie Jeff. Are you based in WA? If so how would you like to join in the swim with {TAP}? To that end any techies or theatre ARTificers interested, contact me hylas@iinet.net.au I attempted to contact Ian Black of Melville Theatre, thru the boards mail system, but I probably messed it up somehow & it wasn't delivered?

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[May you always play to a full house] Hear the lights & see the sounds. 

Sorry, missed the joke! Damn these toneless texts... :) Fun puppet patterns to make at home! Puppets to buy at Puppets in Melbourne

Yeah i agree Na! I found not only with annoying fluro starter flicker, but I had a problem with Sodium Vapour & Halogen lighting. For a while after my last stroke. Especially in shopping centres! Here is an off the wall tip, which I used to use, when checking the colour of the lighting state. Turn your back to the stage & put your head between your legs. This will give your the true colour for a short period, until your optics readjust. Then stand up & view the scene, the same will happen again. Or you will fall over from being dizzy & having a blood rush. Note I said "used to use' - But those days are gone! Yeah!

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[May you always play to a full house] Hear the lights & see the sounds. 

That's a weird one - never heard of anybody doing that to check colour! Fun puppet patterns to make at home! Puppets to buy at Puppets in Melbourne

I like to use sodium when going for a late afternoon general yellow look. I find the long 'warm up' time to accurately reflects the gradual yellowing of the light as the sun goes down. I have a problem though. How can you get them to dim??? As they are gaseous discharge lamps, they don't work on a standard variable voltage triac dimmer, such as the Jands. I have been considering developing a variable frequency dimmer, using commercially available variable frequency motor drives. By using the Jands dimmer to lower the voltage, and at the same time increasing the frequency of the supply delivered to the lamp, the lamp is able to be dimmed to approx 30% of brightness before it shuts down. I'm wondering if anyone has tried this before? And to answer your previous question, yes I am in WA, and do most of my work at Melville Theatre. Ian Black and I both work for the same electrical contractor.

Your sodium lamp uses phase shift in the ballast to reduce the voltage and the dimmer uses wave chopping to reduce the power and chokes don't like chopped waveform so it will not work very reliably, 3 options, old resistor dimmer, variac, new sine wave dimmer[expensive], these will give you the fullest range possible but I'm not sure how good it would be.The delay after switch off before you can re-light makes it an unreliable option, I would suggest.

Hmmm.....If Gaafa can joke about fluoros, can't I joke about dimming sodium lamps???? On a serious note, though not really theatre related, you CAN dim fluoros - seriously. I once installed a fluoro dimming system into an optometrists "theatre". All of the fittings had to be rewired with a device that constantly operated the heaters in the ends of the fluoro tubes to keep the gas ionized at the lower voltages supplied by the dimmer. I will try a sodium on a variac though and see how far the voltage can fall before the lamp goes out. Not very far I'm thinking. And then of course the ignitor will try to relight the lamp, but will fail due to the low supply voltage, eventually resulting in component failure.

I have only used discharge lamps on a few occasions, to great effect. The first time I saw them used, was back in the 50's at the Golders Green Hippodrome. they simulated the same Samoiloff effect, used in the Ascot Scene of My Fair Lady. Which is the use of saturated concentrated colour, to change the black, of the black & white costumes green. we also used them to supplement the lighting, for the World Scout Jamboree, arena performances, in Perth a while ago. However in those days I had the knack of counting heart beats & turning them on, prior to the Cue GO!. Allowing for the strike ark up time. There again you could do a mechanical Dowser effect, either using a metallic mask lowered in front of the beam/ Much the same as they did in old Garrick's time, of turning & moving the lamps physically off stage. Which still gives a great fade effect! I remember a while ago, some one was developing an electronic dimmerable discharge unit. On similar principle to the fluro starter, But it may have been pie in the sky or they gave up? By the way did they ever work out at Melkville why the dimmer racks, every know & then, kept switching to safe mode? It's great to know both you & Ian are just around the corner. You will have to drop in to our newly refurbished venue, at Phoenix theatre. That is after we have turned it into a workable theatre again. With the help of David Ashton of All Things theatre. I won't press on the Technical Advisory Pool, but if I can help in anyway, I'm only a local call! Na the head between the legs is an old trick. It effects the 3 colour cones in the eye & perception transmitted via the rods to the old computer in the brain. They effect is quick & resets back to normal mode again. actually I liken the head, as being a PAL colour TV monitor & the cones in the eyes, as the same 3 basic colour guns inside.

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[May you always play to a full house] Hear the lights & see the sounds. 

I am unfamiliar with the TAP, but happy to give of my (in)experience to any who may ask. If you want to send me more info, send me a PM and I'll send you my contact details.

Dimming discharge lamps is being looked at as they are highly efficient and are used in follow spots for example and Selecons HMI spots have high and low settings as do video projectors.Fluoros have been dimmed for decades and I have never seen a system which works reliably and any fluoro will drop out at the bottom end so they are practically useless for theatre, similar problems with LEDs.

As I say I have been out side the sandbox, for quite a while now! But low tech solutions can be just as effective. I never thought about about the HMI limes, I think the last follow spot I operated was a Patt23N with a conical lens. I realise fluro's have been electronically dimmed for a while. they were of course dimmed previously with a dirty great heat sink unit for years, but it devalued it by about 50%, so was not that viable & effective. depending on the application, Baine Marie's come to mind, but with the type of operation of the equipment, they were as useless as tits on a bull!

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[May you always play to a full house] Hear the lights & see the sounds. 

It seem that the initial question of lighting a basic "square rig" has gone off on some sort of tangent about dimming lamps. Returning to basics: the traditional three-by-three areas can be well illuminated as described early in the post. To re-cap: FRONT (from profiles) from 45 out and 45 up (stage) right, use Lee 103 "Straw" from 45 out and 45 up (stage) left, use Lee 117 "Steel Blue" TOP (from Fresnels) from behind and 75 up, use Lee 136 "Pale Lavender" I'd augment that with SIDES (from Fresnels) from 30 up (stage) right, use Lee 159 "No Color Straw" from 30 up (stage) left, use Lee 202 "1/2 CT Blue" Which gives five lights per area. On a small stage (say, 8m wide X 6m deep) and using 300W PAR56's, and allocating all five lights (1500W max) to a single area, only nine dimmer channels are required. If you then used three dimmer channels for the cyc (a collection of 300W floods) with Lee 106 "Primary Red"; Lee 124 "Dark Green" ; and Lee 363 "Special Medium Blue" for the usual R-G-B color mix, you've only used 12 channels. So if you had a 24 channel board and one channel was assigned to the follow-spot, that leaves 11 channels for 'specials'. Last thing, most dimmer racks require a three-phase, 40A per phase supply which gives 12, 240V 10A outlets; so, you'd need two dimmer racks as well as the 24-channel board. I reckon this might get would out of trouble in a lot of situations. Cheers, Russell

Sorry to disagree but using primary colours on 300 watt floods is going to give you precious little light on a cyc, you'd be struggling to light in primary colours even with good quality cyc lights.