Drama 16 Stage Lighting

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THEME: Portrait or Strong Central Figure

Honestly, this was one of the first images that came up in my tumblr and I thought it was perfect. Maybe that was due to the lateness of the hour or the fact that I thought it was simply adorable, but either way, it fits the assignment so I’m not complaining. It’s pretty cute in it’s own right, but to an extent it can also say a lot about the story of Anakin/Darth Vader. He starts out as this unsuspecting boy who doesn’t realize the weight of his decisions and what he will become. Half of him is cast in shadow, giving the impression that he was, to an extent, predestined to eventually succumb to The Dark Side (they have cookies!). Though that could only be insofar as the potential everyone has to be either good or bad, light or dark – it all depends on the decisions one makes, and Anakin ended up making the choices that led him down the darker path.

13 February, 2012
South Campus
Around  5:00 pm

I’m walking west from work (the Plant Maintenance Facility south of the stadium) towards the NAB, just as the sun is setting over the top of the buildings on South Campus.

It had been one of those days, my busiest, with work and class and work and class and work (in that order). A day of accomplishment, of productivity at work as well as in my classes. The day had been warm and sunny and pretty much the beach weather I was used to. Overall it was a good day, full of things getting done and being happy and hopeful. I was on my way to the NAB to join Lee’s paint call for ‘Cat’, and the way the orangeish beams of sunlight spread away from the roof of the NAB was just so beautiful. It was a picturesque ending to a rather picturesque kind of day, and overall it made me feel really happy, despite the fact that I was on my way to do more work. I didn’t really mind, after having such a day with the easy breezes and warm sunlight. The hopefulness I felt (for whatever reason)  after that view seemed to make it okay that I wouldn’t get to bed for about eleven more hours.

1) 2012-03-16 1:00 AM

2) A flickering fluorescent light in liberty hall coming through a small window and reflecting off of multiple sources

3)I really hate fluorescent lights.  I hate how artificial they feel.  I hate the sickish tone they lend to a room when they’re too cheap.  Most of all, I hate what they do when they’re getting near the end of their lives.  This one is close to the end.  The bulb next to it is already out, and this one cycles on and off every few seconds, stuttering back on, the off again.  But what it’s doing is rather interesting.  I’m working in the study room with the lights off, just my laptop and the laptop of the girl next to me.  The flickering fluorescent is just outside the door.  The door has one of those standard 8″ * 24″ windows with safety glass that you see on every classroom.  Through this narrow window, the flickering light comes in at just the right angle to hit the ultra glossy iMac in the study lounge, and can again be seen (barely) on the white board directly across from me.  I’m reminded of images of lasers and mirrors in a sort of lab… certainly not as focused and refined, but the same physics, just distributed more.  I’ve always liked the tricks you can play with lighting and mirrors.  Mirrors are seemingly almost impossible to use in traditional theatre given the position of lighting instruments and danger of blinding the audience, but there is a large potential for use in environmental and more experimental theatre that I think should certainly be explored.

1) Thursday March 15th, 2012 – 6:00p.m – In front of Breslin.

2) Leaving class, the sun was going down and trees with newly sprouted flowers were swaying.

3) This was an odd find, Usually when I leave this class, the sun has gone down, but because of Daylight savings changes, the sun was still on it’s way down.  As I looked up and tried to get used to this, I noticed the trees that were in front of the sun were in silhouette and they just have the smallest sprouting flowers just giving them the slightest bit of texture. The wind was blowing and the silhouettes began to dance with one another; oddly they were not synchronized but each branch had it’s own rhythm which wasn’t abrupt, but peaceful.

Date: March 10th, 2012 – Noon – In front of the NAB

Objective: The NAB was casting a shadow on the ground in front of me.

Subjective:Athena decided to plan a scavenger hunt for all the production majors to bond with each other. We were told to meet in front of the NAB. It seemed like a good idea at the time, until I got to the NAB. There I was, staring at the NAB, with Meaghan the only one present. After a few phone calls and starting an hour later, we got a few more people to show up and play. Bryan Chess eventually joined us in front of the NAB, waiting for the game to start. We began to talk casually until we both caught ourselves staring at the ground. The NAB was casting a shadow in the shape of a staircase. It was very interesting. Bryan and I both knew that this was a quality lighting moment. I found myself looking at every step, climbing the stairs in my mind. I felt my eyes going around each corner, outlining the stairs as I climbed. I eventually could not climb anymore because the shadow of a nearby trashcan impeded my progress. I then started to work my way back down. I looked up at the NAB, trying to piece together the parts of the building that were creating this distinctive shadow. I want to be cliché and say I was climbing the stairway to heaven, but really let’s be honest, it’s the NAB; quite the opposite.

Masa Ushioda took this picture for seapics.com

Theme: Portrait or Strong Central Figure

I like turtles. It has been posted as my status countless times. My friends and I have a running joke that every time we hack someone’s Facebook we make their status “I like turtles”. I am not sure why, but it’s what we do. The thing is, I do like turtles. They are very majestic and protected creatures. I think it would be wonderful to just retreat into a shell whenever I felt threatened, a way to cut ties with the outside world and self-reflect for the time being. The only thing that I find wrong with that image is the fact that I face the world head on because I have no place to hide away, so I constantly fight to swim. The turtle in this picture is the focus and it shows all of his wonderful qualities such as his protective shell. The lighting gives him a positive effect. He is bathed in light from above and below, there is no darkness for him. He seems ready to fight anyone in his path and is not going to stop for anyone. The overcast light from the surface makes the focus that much richer. Even though this turtle has a shell, he is not using it to hide from the world, he charges on. He is not going to stop because he is fighting to swim. In many cases, I am this turtle and I can feel an attachment to this beautiful creature. This turtle is a survivor. He stops for no one. I like turtles.

2) Andrew Evans Photography (http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewevans/5050030522/in/photostream/)

3) Theme: Portrait or Strong Central Figure

4) Andrew is a fantastic Photographer who captures natural light and in this particular photograph, he perfectly captures rays of light coming through tree leaves, and silhouettes his self. I really love this picture because I am a huge fan of silhouettes and silhouetted expression. In that I mean, here stands this man, or at least the shape of the man. We do not know his race, age, he is almost completely blacked out because of his shadow; the great thing is there is so much expression given by his silhouette alone. This man seems at rest, the environment around him is completely tranquil and etherial, and he completely parallels that, even with no facial expression. The rays of light coming in are very powerful, yet they don’t overpower him, he is still the center because of the very high contrast. One subtle effect the lighting creates is this glow jumping right off of his body, giving the man more importance, even though all he is doing is standing alone in a field.

2) Photo taken by Nic Christopher at a concert in Maui of Jake Shimabukuro

3) THEME: Portrait or strong central figure

4) DESCRIPTION: This photo was taken in Maui, Hawaii and their Arts and Cultural Center. I was visiting with my patents one night in the center and we saw that my favorite ukulele player, Jake Shimabukuro was playing that night. We got tickets for his concert along with VIP tickets to be able to sit in on his sound check and take pictures before the audience arrived. It was a great opportunity to see what it was like before the show started. I snapped this picture of Jake just before he left the stage as he was playing one of his songs called Me and Shirley T. During the sound check they were also messing around with the lighting and playing with different ques on the light board.

The backdrop of the stage was a full sized projector screen that had a design of his name with different color washes across the back. Jake is by no means a performer that puts on crazy light shows and amazing spectacle for his audience. People generally go to his concerts to enjoy his stories and music. What I liked about this picture is that it shows how fully engrossed Jake is within his music and the lighting is modeling his face and instrument very nicely and it shows lots of dimension with all of the different colors and shadows that are added to his body. I felt that this lighting was simple enough to fit within his style but also “poppy” enough to make the audience get really into the show and the songs that he played for us.

1) DATE-TIME-LOCATION: 3/10/12 – 7:38 – In a booth at the Grand Lux Cafe

2) OBJECTIVE DESCRIPTION: I was sitting in the Grand Lux Cafe in Roosevelt Mall with my parents when they were here to visit last weekend. The wall has small cut outs into the wall next to every booth. Inside the cut outs are four small lights that shine straight up and illuminate each box. Each box is covered with circular wooden cut outs. The light inside the box was shining up and the light from our table was shining down and made for two very different looks reflecting on the same surface of the circular grating covering the box.

3) SUBJECTIVE DESCRIPTION:  My parents were in town last weekend to visit for my birthday and to see Much Ado. On saturday night  the three of us went to the Grand Lux Cafe for a nice dinner together. We were seated in a booth all the way in the back of the restaurant. The inside of the restaurant is absolutely gorgeous and has high ceilings with grand lighting all over the room. Next to each booth there is a six inch deep cut out into the wall that creates a box recessed into the wall that is about three feet by two feet. The opening is covered with a series of circle cut outs that are touch at the edges that is mostly open and acts like a grate to cover each recessed box. The inside of each box is painted with a reflective gold paint. At the bottom of the boxes there were small lights that were pointed straight up. These lights illuminated reflected off of all surfaces on the inside of the box and made the box appear to glow.

The wood that made up each circle was a dark mahogany type wood that did not absorb much light. The contrast between the dark circles on and the bright glow of the boxes was very intense and made the room look very fancy and very luxurious with all of the glowing gold contrasting with the dark wood. All of the light that was coming out of the box was a very rich amber color and gave a very warm and welcoming feel to the booth and to the room. The light that was hung over our table was shining down wards in a soft white, the color generated by a standard incandescent light bulb. The ambient light from this lamp  reflected straight off of the sheen of the wood stain on the tops of each circle covering the recessed boxes next to our booth. The illusion that was created was very interesting and gave an amazing contrasting appeal. I thought that the illusion was very cool to see this extremely dark wood grating appearing to contain an intense and very saturated ball of lighting that was accented on the top with the harsh white light coming from the lamp above our table.

1) DATE-TIME-LOCATION: 3/14/12 – 6:22PM – NAB Black Box Theater

2) OBJECTIVE DESCRIPTION: I was woking on the Cat set during 55 on wednesday evening. The garage in the scene shop was open and letting in the sunlight that was casting long shadows all the way into the blackbox.

3) SUBJECTIVE DESCRIPTION: I was working in the blackbox during 55 on wednesday evening when I should have been outside enjoying the absolutely beautiful weather. Just to taunt everyone that was working on the show, and also to help make everyone happy, Lynn raised the garage door in the scene shop to let in the fresh air. As the sun began to lower itself in the sky the shop began to fill with a deep and vibrant flush of sunlight. I left the shop and moved into the black box to work on erecting the pillars.

At around 6:30 I finally looked up from the work I was doing to see that the light had shifted very low in the western sky. I looked toward the shop and the sunlight was coming through the garage door at almost a horizontal line. The sun passed through the shop and the hall way into the blackbox and then onto the house seats that we had constructed on monday afternoon. The light passed through the legs of the risers and the individual legs of each chair and cast long black shadows all the way down the risers. On the surface of each riser I could see where the sun was directly reflecting off of the semi reflective surface and beginning to light up the area where we were working. I had to take a double take and really look at how cool the light was that was shining into the theater. I am not entirely sure if it was the pure beauty of the way the light was entering the theater with its strong contrast and long shadows or if it was the fact that I was actually seeing sunlight, sunlight in the theater of all places. For most of us the sun was somewhat of a novelty as we are stuck inside from sunrise to long after the sun sets.