Drama 16 Stage Lighting

1) 2/10/12 – 11:34 – Staten Island Ferry

2) OBJECTIVE DESCRIPTION: The lights inside the Ferry were fluorescent and bright, while it was pitch dark outside, and I could see the lights from the city.

3) SUBJECTIVE DESCRIPTION: I winced as the bright fluorescent lights hit my eyes. I sat down in one of the plastic blue seats that reflected the harsh light. People around were talking, there were babies crying. There was a general air of hustle and bustle about. I looked out the window and much to my surprise found a calming peacefulness outside. In the pitch black of the night sky, I saw the many lights from the city. These lights were twinkling like little stars, and kept me calm and content for the whole ride.

 2. Lauronsky’s Flickr Photostream, Photo of the British Museum’s Great Court

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lauronsky/2539931859/

3. Shadows

4. The glass roof of the British Museum’s Great Court projects a geometric image of stacked triangles onto the interior walls of the space. This picture is particularly beautiful because the light has such an unusual, cool teal quality which makes the photograph seem almost underwater. The shadows themselves  are distorted and pulled by the curve of the wall and and twisted almost beyond recognition by the stairs. The absence of people in this photo, coupled with the strange greenish lighting and distorted patterns creates an otherworldly uncomfortable atmosphere suitable for a tomb. It is especially appropriate because what is a museum if not a tomb for beauty?

1) 2012-02-16 10:17 PM, inside the design studio, Lowe 216.

2) Lee’s laptop illuminated her face, the colors shifting changing as she browsed various websites.  She was slightly backlit by the glow from the lightbox.  The rest of the lights were off while Katie traced her figures on the light box in the corner.

3)  It’s weird to see how attached everybody is to their laptops.  We don’t even need the ambient light any more, we lock ourselves to an illuminated keyboard and screen, plug in the headphones—one doesn’t even need anything else.  I look around the room, everyone is either hunched over their drafting table trying to peer through the low light, or staring into a computer screen, their eyes tracking back and forth. In the dark, each screen-person becomes it’s own self-contained environment, a sort of isolated ecosphere in the darkness.  I look across and see Lee among them, browsing something online.  She remains almost completely still while images continue to shift before her, the light from the screen changing every few seconds.  Greens.  Blue.  Grey.  Red.  Bright.  Dark.  Hot.  Cold.  Her hair picks up the tones in various combinations.  One minute “Atomic Turquoise” pops bright, another second “After Midnight Blue” has ignited on her temples.  Katie is done and the lights are turned back on.  The studio returns to it’s dull fluorescent and students return to their work.  The life of the color in the room is washed away, lost in the banality of low-cost illumination.

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2) http://pinterest.com/pin/16958936066580151/

3) Shadow

4) This photo depicts the shadow from sunlight blaring through a beautiful wall of colored windows. The wall itself is a beautiful rainbow of color. Since the sun is at an angle, the shadows from the windows are cast so that it feels like cans of paint of all of the colors of the rainbow have spilt across the floor towards us.

As I was walking to class Thursday morning at an ungodly hour (any time before noon) it was raining, and the puddles on the ground created a mirror like smooth surface that held a reflection of the trees above them.

As I looked down at the puddles, I saw a reflection of twisted bare limbed trees, superimposed over the mottled browns and grays of the concrete sidewalks that crisscross all over campus. I watched as the raindrops hit the surface of these puddles and made the trees dance and turn on the surface of the water, as though they were part of another world. The reflection was not merely an imperfect and broken representation of the real trees above, but an image of another world locked just behind the surface of the water, separate entirely from the concrete below that did not twist with the ripples of the water: the cold concrete of reality.

This is a picture from National Geographic.

The theme is shadow.

This photo creates a truly amazing effect, because what you see in the image is not the camels themselves, but their shadows. While the camels appear small and unidentifiable since the picture is taken from directly above them, their shadows make perfect cut outs on the sand, the images larger than life and perfectly defined. This shows the ability of shadow not only to conceal, but to define a scene. Shadows are a reflection of life, often distorted by the angle of light, and lacking detail, they retain the essence of the things that create them.

1. 2/13/2012, design room, 9:42

2. Abby had a blanket on top of her head and the light box was on creating very deep shadows on her face accentuating her features.

3. I was sitting over by the middle window in the design room on my computer. Abby was behind me with a blanket over her head tracing costumes on the light box. I turned to ask her a question and she lifted her head and I freaked out a little. With the dark blanket over her head and the light box highlighting her features so sharply she looked like the grim reaper. The large shadows on her face made her seem dead. I laughed about it after but it was pretty creepy for that split second.

1) 2/17/12  12:30am on my bed

2) my colored Christmas lights hanging from my ceiling are reflecting off of the inflateable chili pepper that is also hanging from the ceiling.

3) This all happened quite by accident. i was thinking about lighting moments through my week and I looked up deep in thought an noticed how the light was reflected in the curves of the inflateable pepper. they move interestingly and create shadows in the folds. The chili pepper never is completely still, so the light is always slightly moving.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/07/10/arts/pilospan.jpg

shadow

I have always found the shadow performers very interesting. These people normally use like a giant sheet and back lighting to create different scenes and tell stories. I have always been fascinated by the ways they can use shadows to make different designs and scenes come alive.  In this picture just a difference of distance between the performers and the sheet and light can make one overpower another.

2. http://www.meterdown.com/2009/06/31-interesting-selection-of-shadow-arts-pictures.html

3. Shadows

4. I love the unnatural yet natural feel of this image. The length of the shadow makes the two figures seem inhuman and yet they are doing such a human action. Furthermore the contrast between the very green grass and the darkness of the shadow is beautiful and really makes the shadow stand out. It must have been very bright out when this picture was taken.