Author Topic: ELECTRICS: advice on lighting dilema  (Read 5701 times)

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Matt.L

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ELECTRICS: advice on lighting dilema
« on: Feb 27, 2007, 09:43 pm »
I have just started SMing a new show at college (epsom downs by howard brenton) and the director wants the show in a round, this means that we only have 16 lighting ports available any suggestions?  ???Oh yeah i almost forgit in also the supervising the LD as she wants to learn how to do lighting.
« Last Edit: Jun 09, 2009, 12:10 am by PSMKay »

smalltimeSM

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Re: advice on lighting dilema
« Reply #1 on: Feb 27, 2007, 09:56 pm »
Ok, let me see if I am understanding this correctly.  You have only 16 dimmers to use, and an LD who knows nothing about lighting.  What is the dimension of your "Stage" and what type of show is this?  (i.e. Drama, Comedy, Musical, ect.  We can work through this.  (I am an LD among other things.)  Take care and good luck.

Matt.L

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Re: advice on lighting dilema
« Reply #2 on: Mar 01, 2007, 06:08 pm »
its a drama and the dimensions are very rough but at the moment they are set at 8x10

TheaterTek

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Re: advice on lighting dilema
« Reply #3 on: Mar 01, 2007, 07:01 pm »
Using 36-50 degree source four ellipsoidals will give you lots of coverage and a decent amount of control

SMJorge

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Re: advice on lighting dilema
« Reply #4 on: Mar 02, 2007, 01:33 am »
depending on how far your throw is S4 Parnels are also nice for area lighting.

Mac Calder

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Re: advice on lighting dilema
« Reply #5 on: Mar 02, 2007, 02:24 am »
What fixtures do you have available. It is no good us recommending fixtures, as chances are you will not have the budget to hire S4s or anything of the sort.

As a general rule, when working in the round I would divide the stage into 4 sections. Special in the middle of all four sections, and a special in the middle of the stage (specials being spotlights for monologues or highlighting charactors).

Then I would have 3 washes - Open white, hot colour and cool colour. Light each quarter on their own dimmer channel - since you have limited dimmer channels, pair the open whites, so that each half is on it's own channel. That gives you one channel spare for something fun.

That said, 16 channels seems to be a very weird number. Dimmer numbers are almost always a multiple of 3 (as they are usually powered from a three phase supply)... I would check that one out, as you may have 18, or even 24 channels. They could have told you 16 because they want two for houselights or something - if so, ask if they can possibly reduce it to 1 channel.

smalltimeSM

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Re: advice on lighting dilema
« Reply #6 on: Mar 03, 2007, 02:23 am »
Ok, that is a small space.  But here are my suggestions for your situation.  A.) the earlier reply about the number of dimmers is a valid question, except I have found that they are in multiples of 6.  But that is just what I personally have seen.  Anyway, I would use mainly down light for this show with a couple fixtures for a little front light.  Depending on the height of the grid/cats. I would use pars or Fresnels, with blue and amber for your colors.  Oh and yes I would have an area with a Ellipsoidal special, (Straight down) Also being a drama, play around with maybe a red top light.  Hope this helps.  Take care and Break-A-Leg.

hbelden

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Re: advice on lighting dilema
« Reply #7 on: Mar 03, 2007, 02:51 pm »
If you run out of dimmers - for example if you need different specials in Act II than you did in Act I - you can build a repatch bay inexpensively with standard equipment from a hardware store. 

A repatch is an A/B switch (standard light switches work) that goes in between the dimmer rack and the lights so that, for example, the UR special is connected to A and the DL special is connected to B but the switch is connected to Dimmer 1 only.  So you run the cue that powers Dimmer 1 and uses the UR special, run a cue that takes Dimmer 1 out, flip the switch to B, and run the cue that powers Dimmer 1 again and brings up the DL special.  You've used two completely different lights off of the same dimmer, freeing up other dimmers for other things.

But with a stage only 8' x 10', (one-man show?  two characters? what?)  you may be better off just throwing up three PAR cans and doing a lights up/lights down lighting design.
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Matt.L

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Re: advice on lighting dilema
« Reply #8 on: Mar 03, 2007, 03:30 pm »
sorry i meant meters not feet, we have a lot of par cans, about 4 fresnels and 5 floods at our disposal, along with a couple of profiles and spots. i will use the idea of sectioning with 1 special in each. the lighting bars are about 8 meters up and we have 2 above the performance area and 1 lx bar about 4 meters form the front of the stage.

 

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