Drama 16 Stage Lighting

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

2) This came from Spandy Andy’s facebook page

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=111212812318163&set=a.110482935724484.12707.100002883358324&type=3&theater

3) Vibrant, Colorful, Saturated

4) This picture fits the theme because it is about a guy named Andy who goes around the world wearing spandex. He picks bright and colorful spandex to stand out.

2) Flickr user:idg Vibrant Road http://www.flickr.com/photos/magdalengreen/2508282826/

3) vibrant, colorful, saturated

4) Some lighting can play up the setting or subject and some can tone it down. When I hear vibrant and colorful, everything is bright. The colors are jumping off the page as you see above. This kind of supernatural view does happen only on the clearest of days when you take a minute to appreciate what is in front of you. These crisp and contrasting colors are dues to the sunlight being so strong. With so many colors, both white and black are heightened stressing each variation of color in between. The saturation also comes from the variation through each patch of different color. The sheer bright quality makes anyone who is viewing smile.

1. 3/7/10, bits, 10:34 am

2. There was light shining through the trees and the fuzzy glass. The glass gave the light a gross color and spread it out.

3. We were sitting in the back of bits when I looked up to sort of see the sun through the glass ceiling and a tree branch above. The glass made the light really gross and futuristic. It made me think of what life will be like in the future. Will the sun only be looked at in this manner. Through dirty glass and never with just eyes. Will we remain undercover in domes because something has gone wrong with the planet and it is not safe to be outside. It would be really sad if we could never see the sun without some sort of screen separating us. Never to enjoy a beautiful sunny day.

1. 3/4/2012 – 7:30PM – Netherlands South Complex

2. Lights from a plane in the cloudy sky

3. On Sunday evening I was walking home after a USITT meeting. The night was cloudy – there were absolutely no stars visible (not that many stars are ever visible in Hempstead) and the moon was hidden. When I looked up, I saw a plane flying fairly low overhead, a beam of light stretching out across the sky in front of it. The light picked up all of the clouds, like dust in a beam of sunlight. It was surreal and beautiful. It reminded me so much of home, and long nights spent with family and friends in the city. Being so close to Logan Airport when I visit relatives, I’m used to the low-flying planes circling overhead, seemingly close enough to touch. The almost blend in with the background of city skyline, lit with thousands of lights from commercial buildings and homes.

The clouds picked up by the light reminded me of the lights during Alcina this past January, and how they picked up the fog when it was set off on stage. It creates a mystical effect, allowing you to get lost in an entirely different world, just through the use of smoke and light.

2. http://www.escrowassociates.com/software-escrow/?Tag=software%20escrow%20deposit

3. vibrant, colorful, saturated

4. This image reminds me of the park next to my house. In the fall there is a week where all the trees in the park are very vibrant and colorful as they change. There is yellow, red, orange, purple, and still some green. It is really beautiful how trees almost block the street going through the park from the sun but there is always little rays coming through in the holes. Toward the end of the week the whole ground is covered in color and it is beautiful. The side lighting in this image really captured that for me.

<http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomvu/2614894638/>

THEME: Vibrant, Colorful, Saturated

After a few bland ideas, I remembered Coney Island being a big deal in the lighting world, as well as my own fond memories of visiting it once upon a time. I searched ‘Coney Island’ tags on tumblr and when this one came up I knew it was perfect. Not just because it fits the theme, but because of how alive it is – and it’s all unnatural lighting. Nathan’s has been around since 1916 (1), so it’s essentially a Coney Island staple. The landmark mentality of all things Coney is perpetuated by the fact that everything is pretty much still there. What I love is that that combines with the fluorescent and neon of the contemporary world to show that it has adapted, for all that it will always retain it’s classic Coney feel. This picture combines the carnival-esque innocence of what Coney was with the bright and busy of the contemporary world, showing that Coney Island has withstood time and will continue adapting as long as there are people around to appreciate the history.

(1) http://nathansfamous.com/PageFetch/getpage.php?pgid=39