Drama 16 Stage Lighting

1) Wednesday February 15, 2012 – 6:00 pm – NAB

2) My lighting moment occurred while I was walking up the stairs in the nab to the second floor to get to the Blackbox Theatre. Because the lighting in the second floor is many rows of cans that each send a beam of light out in every direction, each step was casting about three shadows on the step underneath it. This gave an effect of four greys, each ligher than the previous one.

3)This was a really awesome effect that I was able to notice because of my incapableness of looking up while walking up or down stairs. The top of the stairs looked like on of those strips from the Home Depot with four different color choices, in this case your choices are steel grey, dark steel grey, darker steel grey, and darkest steel grey. I really liked how the shadows looked like steps especially when they were casted in a step.

1. Wednesday Feb 16th 11:00pm Leaving campus from the Oak Street South side of campus, across from the lions with a white back ground

2. The two lions are back lit with 2 outdoor type lights pointed directly at the words and not the sculptures. The light is pointed up so is splashing off of the white background to hit the letters of “Hofstra University” from below. This fully illuminates the sign for those driving by.

3. Though this light is all about the sign into Hofstra it was the shadows on the sculptures in front of that which I found interesting. We all know there is only so much you can do to a sculpture in order to make it look real and as far as lions in Hempstead we are pretty good judges. The quality of this light was that it was coming up from the slightly wet ground to have a charged beam of light to bounce off the white backdrop to the lions. These lions are in no way believable in getting up and coming after you. This light gave them just enough light from behind to be distinguished but not so much as to see any of the carving details, but you can see the overall shape. So without any light our eyes start filling in the blanks for us when we need it and play tricks to show something moving when it is still. It gives them the ominous presence in which to be a mystery and to cox them into their ground. So despite sculpture  trying to welcome students at night because the words are more important, we may just be scaring children on their way by.

2) Saturns moon Rhea, taken by the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 8, 2010

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA12696

3)Photo Theme: Shadows

4) This is a photograph of Rhea, one of Saturns moons and it’s rings. This photo fits the theme of the week because it the shadows, not only give the items definition, but it’s the reason we see the items in the photo. Because of the shadows being created by the sun shining on saturn, we may notice each crater on Rhea, and we can tell that it’s not a circe, but a ball because of the definition that the shadows are creating. Since we are looking at the rings, almost straight on, the background is a well lit “backdrop” created by Saturns brightly lit atmosphere, nicely  decorated with strokes of shadow from the rings.

2. http://www.smashinglists.com/25-marvelously-captured-shadows/

3.Shadows

4. This is a photo with a lot of ambient light that creates the right conditions for this shadow to happen. Judging by the bright light and green surrounding the shadow I would assume its spring time as things are blossoming. Many may look at this eight-legged shadow coming down on them as menacing but I think the spider fits right into the world of spring. The fuzzy outline and clearly portioned spider indicates that the source is directly above to object and probably far away. This shadow has some movement to it. It suggests that the spider is either coming or going from that spot on the leaf and this shadow is simply the impression he is leaving.

A photo I took at the abandoned LA Zoo in Griffith Park, Los Angeles< CA

THEME: Shadows

Visiting this abandoned zoo was the creepiest, most surreal experiences I’ve had a chance to document and photograph.  The original zoo was opened in 1918, and most of the buildings we visited were build as WPA projects in the 30s.  Closed in the 1960s and rebuilt at another site, the original site was eventually converted into a picnic area with cages and buildings left to crawl around in.

While we were never sure quite what lived in the cages, the standard setup was a public “viewing” pen below, and a staircase leading up to cages and beds behind.  I came to the top of the stairs and turned the corner to be hit by this sight.  All traces of life there were gone, only steel bars and Guillotine doors, concrete and brick—all covered in graffiti.  Light poured through the cage door and the stairs at the other end of the hall.  The bars on the “kennel” broke the sunlight across the floor.  Most places the cage doors on the outer walls were bolted shut, but with this one open, natural light illuminated up the cold and forgotten home that was once a reality for the zoo’s residents day in and day out.  There is no warmth in this place, even the sunlight that makes it in is dull and greyed.

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.

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

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.