Over the past 18 years I have had the privilege of working with some great lighting designers and have survived working with others that call themselves "designers" but left everyone wondering where the design was at the end of the project.
One particular show I worked on had one of those "designer-in-name-only" types that incessantly fiddled, tweaked, and dinked with the lighting-only to create a pile of mush on stage, which she affectionately called a "lighting design". Everyone else called it ugly.
It was her first major project with a moving light rig augmenting her theatrical lighting rig, and instead of concentrating on lighting fundamentals she was, in her own words, trying to do "cool things" with the moving lights and couldn't be bothered with the basics.
Through the whole project she constantly ignored the most simple and basic of lighting concepts, and the poor results showed it.
The late author and motivational speaker Jim Rohn had this to say about basic fundamentals. He says,
"Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals."
Of course, you have to know what the basic fundamentals are to be able to apply them. When doing theatrical lighting, the fundamentals can be broken down into four basic purposes of using lighting. These are visibility, selective visibility, mood, and modeling.
Visibility
The first and most important purpose of lighting is visibility, which, in its most basic form, is nothing more than lighting the people and things on the stage so they can be seen.
Richard Pilbrow, one of this century's foremost authorities on theatrical lighting design, describes the importance of visibility in this manner: "Ninety-nine percent of the time it is the designer's duty to light the actors clearly so that everyone can see them. Only for very particular dramatic effects can the actor be under-lit. If the audience has to strain to see the actor that is speaking or singing, the lighting-no matter how beautiful it may look-is a total failure."
Selective Visibility
Selective visibility is the next purpose of lighting. In selective visibility we use light and the absence of light to focus the audience's attention on the action. We do this by lighting the areas of the stage we want the audience to look at, while leaving the areas that we don't want the audience to look at dark.
Mood
The next purpose of light is mood. Mood is using the color and intensity of the light to affect the mood of the audience. Here we want to augment the mood of the dramatic moment. For example, if it is a happy moment in the drama, we want to augment the moment with bright and cheerful lighting as well as bright and happy colors. In contrast, if the dramatic moment is sad and gloomy, we would want the lighting to reflect that and we might use a much lower light level and darker colors, such as blues and greens, to signify the sadness.
Modeling
The last purpose of lighting is modeling, which is using light to add dimension to the people and things on the stage. We do this by using light from different angles as well as different colors.
Now What?
So now that you know the basic purposes of lighting, how do you use this in your lighting designs? Well, there are two different aspects of theatrical lighting that-while very different-work hand in hand. There is the artistic aspect of lighting and the technical aspect of lighting. The artistic side is primarily concerned with intensity, color, dramatic lighting angles and the like, while the technical aspect of lighting is more concerned with fixture choice, fixture placement, power, dimming, and control. Generally, the artistic aspect of lighting will drive the technical aspect of lighting as the lighting placements, fixture types, color, etc., are decided by what artistic effect you are trying to achieve with the lighting. The artistic aspects of the lighting design are a direct derivative of the four basic purposes of lighting. Because the artistic aspect of lighting drives the technical aspect, it is important to decide on the artistic aspects of the lighting design before you develop the technical aspects of the lighting design.
You do this by reading the script and talking to the director and other creative people involved in the production. This should give you a good idea of the creative direction to take for the production, and will provide a framework to develop the lighting design around.
When I read a script I look for three key things. I look at what I need to make visible in each scene and, conversely, what doesn't need to be seen. I look at the setting of the scene. Is it daytime or nighttime? Is it set indoors or outdoors? And then I look at the mood of the scene. Every time the setting changes, the mood changes, or what needs to be visible in the scene changes, I note it. Generally, this happens with the changing of the play's scenes, but not always.
After I have finished reading the script and making my notes I talk to the scenic designer about what the sets are going to look like and where they are going to be placed on stage. I will also take note of any sets that will need to be lit and how I want them lit.
Once I have all of this information collected, I know how each scene needs to be lit. I know what needs to be visible in each scene, I know the mood of the scene and what colors I want to use to create the mood, and I know the setting of the scene. Now I am ready to begin making some technical decisions.
I like having a lighting plot to work from. To make a lighting plot, start with a drawing of the floor plan of your stage. To this drawing add your lighting hang positions and your set pieces.
Next break your stage up into a grid of six- to 10-foot areas. These are going to be the areas that you focus your lights to. Next, add where you are going to hang your lighting fixtures to the plot.
Believe it or not, there are no hard and fast rules on how to do this. Many people are familiar with the supposed "45-degree rule," which says you should hang two lights 45 degrees off the vertical plane, and then 45 degrees to each side of the center of the focus area-but there really is no such rule. Instead, this is part of the McCandless Method of Stage Lighting, which is a design process for lighting a stage first written by Stanley McCandless, and then adopted by the theater community. In addition to lights at a 45-degree angle, the McCandless method also adds backlight, top light, floor lights, sidelights, and more, to light a stage. However, one of the things that McCandless always pointed out was his method was nothing more then a process of design, and not hard and fast rules for how you had to light.
McCandless always started with the basic purpose of visibility by saying if you only had one fixture to work with to light an area, make sure you make the actors visible, then add fixtures as resources are available and the play dictates the additional fixtures.
Once you have your plot finished you are ready to actually hang the fixtures, circuit them up, and focus them into their appropriate areas.
When you actually turn the fixtures on you will probably find some things that work well for you and others that don't work at all. Make changes and experiment with different colors and hang positions until you make it look the way that you want.
Critically look at the scenes you have created and analyze what is working for you and what isn't-and why. Are you meeting the four basic purposes of lighting for each scene? Why not? Correct what you can until you are out of resources or out of time. Just remember to start with the basics and it will always be a solid performance and not a pile of mush.
What was so sad about my "mushy" designer is that she had great tools to create with. Moving lights, color changers, and LED fixtures can all be used to great effect when thought of as a tool within the context of lighting basics.
A moving light can be used as a focusable special to highlight an actor, or it can add texture with gobos to a set piece, or color to set the mood when used as side or backlight.
LEDs as side light and backlight are great tools to help set the mood. They are also great at coloring backdrops or cycs as you can mix most any color that you want.
Color changers on your front light fixtures can give you the flexibility of having multiple colors on the same fixture, allowing you the capability to have a different color for each scene or change it in the middle of the scene-all while keeping the number of fixtures you use low.
Technology can always be used to your advantage, you just have to keep in mind that it is a tool that helps you achieve the lighting basics and not just cool toys to play with. Always work the lighting basics and your designs will be successful.
See also the online sidebar: The Difference Between Theatrical Lighting and Lighting for Video at www.churchproduction.com/lighting_for_video.
