Drama 16 Stage Lighting

It was Sunday night at around 2 in the morning when some idiot in my dorm building burned popcorn and the alarms drove us all out of the building to await the permission of the fire department to go back inside. Standing outside  in the cold, I noticed the way the emergency lights from the fire truck were flashing and lighting up the area.

In frigid air under an almost starless sky, the kind only found near big cities, a bunch of listless college students were milling about. All around them the trees were being lit up in blues and reds flashing and pulsing like strobe lights in the dark. The light hit the bare branches of the trees drawing the outlines of the empty space, making it seem deeper, darker.  Even beneath the street lamp, the colors from the emergency vehicles danced on the pole and played in the branches. As the wind blew the branches seemed to jump from place to place rather than sway under the influence of this unnatural lighting.

http://www.bigpicture.in/colorful-reed-flute-caves-photography-of-china/

Theme: saturated, colorful

This is a picture from the Reed Flute Caves in China. I chose this photo because I found it interesting how they had used fake lighting to make the already incredible natural phenomenon more striking. The lights help to display the interesting formations and textures of the cave, and also reflect off of the water so the cave seems even more mystical.

DATE-TIME-LOCATION: March 8th, about 7pm, Vander Poel Hall

OBJECTIVE DESCRIPTION: The awful, never-changing fluorescent light in the hallway is reflecting off of a newly-installed large pane of glass in the lounge door. The white concrete and drywall walls are reflected and through the windows that make up the outside wall of the room, you can see lights from some other residence halls and the parking lots.

SUBJECTIVE DESCRIPTION: As I was leaving to grab some dinner at Dutch, I found myself literally stopped in my tracks, staring at the lounge door completely bewildered and feeling a bit like I had stepped into the Twilight Zone.  The only (and completely) logical situation was that they had put windows into the lounge door finally, so you didn’t constantly feel awkward opening the door, feeling like you might be about to get an eyeful. I’m not sure if it was because I had recently awakened or because I’ve grown so accustomed to the way the building looks, but I was seriously confused by what I was seeing.  It crossed my mind that maybe someone had stuck a mirror on the door, but that didn’t make sense because there was too much depth to what I was seeing. It kind of felt like I had x-ray vision, that I was looking into something I wasn’t supposed to see, or that some kind of mysterious and strange tunnel had appeared before me like something right out of a Harry Potter book. For a surprisingly large amount of moments, the three-dimensional world that I knew had something extra, almost another dimension, a strange kind of mystique. I had to take a few steps forward and shake my head before it really clicked what was going on.

http://gabrielwickbold.carbonmade.com/projects/2278650#39

Photographer: Gabriel Wickbold–Sexual Color Collection

THEME: Vibrant, Colorful, Saturated

DESCRIPTION: Despite the fact that the lights illuminating this subject is a “plain” white, it is this light that reveals a subject that is truly vibrant and colorful. First, obviously, there are many different colors present in the photo: purples, reds, yellows, blues, pinks, and oranges. The red and the dark purple at the top of the model’s head are extremely saturated in color, as well as some of the blues.  All of these colors and the motion of the paint splashing and flying through the air also lend a certain vibrancy.  Using an entirely dark background and this very bright light brings the focus to the model and the color, and allows the nuances in the paint to be seen.  What I find most interesting, however, is what this light, set, and concept reveal about the photographer taking this photo. His choices reveal him to be a vibrant and colorful personality that is saturated with creativity and the spice of life. He isn’t airbrushing anything; there’s no digital enhancement. He is stripping down his subjects, literally, and letting the color and their bodies do the talking. Clearly, the artist is very open; there’s really no way to control the paint once it’s flung from a bucket or with a brush, but he’s excited to see what comes about freely. This picture in particular (as compared to the rest of the collection) seems especially vibrant because the expression of the model is so apparent, and it injects even more life into the picture.

2) http://destroywithcare.blogspot.com/2011/11/holi-color-festival.html\

3) Theme: Vibrant, Colorful, Saturated

4) I picked this picture because it is very colorful, vibrant, and saturated, not only with the lighting, but with the people themselves. This is Holi, a Hindu “festival of colors”. The cloud of yellow and purple dust is nicely caught and illuminated by the sun, and they are cuite nice against each other. The contrast in the outer pink and purple against the bright yellow make a nice effect which is pleasing to the eyes. Also, there is deep contrast between the sun hitting the people from above, and the deep shadows created under them, and with their layered clothing.

Photo taken by a user named Racket on this website – http://www.dpchallenge.com/image.php?IMAGE_ID=9482/

Theme: Vibrant, Colorful, Saturated

When I look at this picture, I think of vibrant purification. The water looks so crisp, regardless of the variety of colors in the water. The colors are so bright and vivacious. The blotches fill the floor but this is not the focus of the picture. My eye is immediately brought to the drip midair. I notice the reflection of all the blotches within this drip. Somehow it takes all these colors in the picture and fits it all into this tiny drip. Maybe inside of that drip is another reflection, like an endless mirror. It keeps getting smaller and smaller. The ripples in the water affect the shape of the color and disrupt the proportion. These blotches are covered by the pool of water, using the water as lamination. Thought the colors cannot be manipulated themselves, the water on top of it can. As a result, the water can magnify, disorient, and affect the colors. The color is dripping off the picture.

1)March 8th, 2012 – 4:15 – Spiegel Theater

2)Alli Fair and I were chosen to help Meaghan Maloney during Royston’s directing class by acting out a scene. The onstage lights made it near impossible to see the
crowd.

3) There is a reason why I am not a performance major, and the lucky group of people in Royston’s directing class got to witness a performance by Alli Fairchild and myself. After climbing to the stage, I looked out to the audience and was blinded by the bright white lights. All I could see was the silhouette of every member of the crowd. The bright light filled the top of my vision with blinding light. It gave an ominous yet holy feel to the situation. The feeling and effect can be freezing. Stage lights are a huge cause of stage fright. I could not see who was in the audience, it adds a sense of mystery and causes one to wonder, the imagination goes wild. What is in the unknown?

1) 2012-03-09 – 1:00 AM Inside the Liberty/Republic courtyard

2) flickering television light coming out of three different windows spilling into the courtyard.

3) Seeing all of the interesting people at Dutch Treats at one in the morning is usually an adventure in itself, but tonight the best part was the moment when I came back into the LIBREP courtyard.  Coming out of the RSR booth, I could see light coming out of three of the rooms across the grass.  All three right next to each other with the blinds up.  All three of them had their televisions on, and flickering, shifting light spilled out simultaneously.  The first was bright and flashy.  Whites broken up by darkness.  The second was mostly muted blues light, probably a television show or movie at night.  The third was the most interesting—shifting colors all vividly bright, across the spectrum.  I never saw what any of them were watching, and didn’t think to listen in as I walked down the hall… but the flicker of a television is distinctive enough from pretty much any other source of light that it was abundantly clear what was going on.  What is it with these people with no friday classes that they can watch movies on a Thursday night?

2) <http://www.boston.com/community/photos/raw/2008/12/christmas_lighting_challenges.html>

3) THEME: Vibrant, Colorful, Saturated

4) Christmas is a time that gets to be all about colorful light.  One of my favorite childhood memories is driving around and looking at christmas lights in neighborhoods that got together and decked out for the holidays.  Here the light source (in this case, a christmas tree), is the focus of the image.  Well*, focus of the photo isn’t the right term though is it?  The twig is what is in focus, but the photo would be rather boring if we were simply looking at a twig in the foreground.  The individual bulbs, pulled out of focus, become circles, the circles piling and blending into a wash of colors behind this rather meaningless branch at center.  Photographing light without a subject for it to fall on can be difficult, sometimes near impossible.  If this photo were to put the individual lights in focus it certainly would not have the sam effect, and probably would not come out as an interesting photo to begin with.  “Glow” is something I would closely connotate with Christmas: The glow of a warm fire, the glow of family and friends close together, the good cheer that fills our lives for those few cold weeks—this photographer has captured the glow of the christmas decorations and the colorful life they deliver.

*Imagine that “Well” said sort of like David Tennant’s Doctor.

5) ASSIGN CATEGORY & TAGS: Category should be “Photo Observation”. Include your first name as at least one tag, other optional tags can be added to describe the post.

1) 3/8/12, 11:00 pm, courtyard outside of Roosevelt

2) The light post in the courtyard is shining on a friend

3) It’s late and night and my friend and I decided to go exploring at night for the light that is the lamp post outside of Roosevelt. we were both so intrigued by it, that we had to check it out. It was fantastic when it was just the two of us having fun around the post, talking and laughing and having a grand old time