Drama 16 Stage Lighting

Date: 4/25/23

Time: 7:05pm

Location: my house

Objective: I am heading towards my bathroom. The bathroom door moved locations as my house went through some recent renovations. Now the door is located in a small room between the kitchen and outside. This small room receives little to no natural light from the outside since the window is covered and it’s normally dark unless the light is turned on. The bathroom door is slightly open and the bright warm light is on.

Subjective: The yellow, warm light from the bathroom is illuminating much brighter than expected, especially in a dark room. The door is slightly open and so the light can only be seen in that small opening and it produces almost a sunlight ray effect from the door opening. It reminds me of movie/tv scenes where this image can create an element of surprise and it’s as if treasure awaits you on the other side. The lighting really creates a level of curiosity and mystery, and one can assume whatever behind that door is going to be a pleasant surprise.

Date: 4/26/23

Time: 6:46pm

Location: Hofstra Game Room

Objective: Grid array of overhead fluorescent lights interspliced into parts of the tiled drop ceiling. Each is covered by a semi translucent plastic square. Neutral-to-slightly-warm light. Top heavy, but the white floor helps to fill the space.

Subjective: Incredibly even soft lighting – but pretty soul-less. If not for the interior decorations it is would be incredibly banal. The minimalist lighting style calls no attention to itself. It feels quiet and muted.

Date: 4/23/23

Time: Around 11:30AM

Location: Bernon Hall

Objective: Clouds rolling past the sun causing various shades of orange and yellow throughout the room.

Subjective: The sun fades out, then back in, then back out again. Colors shifting, people looking confused. It reminds me of being in the eye of a storm, the world is yellow, the rain passes, everything is calm yet mysterious.

Date: 4/21/23

Time: 11:00pm

Objective: My friend opened their computer with an orange lock screen shining up at them.

Subjective: The light from the computer gave my friend a dramatic warm up light defining their features and creating shadows across their face. This lighting created a similar effect to camp fire or candle light. An intense moment with just the the subject and the light source. A passionate moment.

Date: 4/20/23

Time: 8:40pm

Location: Irving Plaza

Objective observation: I’m at a concert for a band called The Summer Set, but this observation is for the lighting used for one of the openers, a band called Grayscale. During their performance of a song called Beautiful Things, they had a single blue spotlight shining from a light in the back stage-right corner, pointed directly at the lead singer. It was the only light on for a good amount of the song, and it singled out the lead singer and made sure everyone’s attention was on him.

Subjective observation: The blue was sort of melancholy but intense, which fit well with the song’s vibe. The song talks about the ocean a lot (the chorus even mentions “the ocean blue”) and the blue lighting was reminiscent of that; it emphasized both the sadness in the song and also the power behind it. On top of that, the way the singular light was pointed directly at Colin Patrick Walsh (the lead singer) in a way that we could see the entire beam of light was theatrical in nature and overall pretty awesome to behold.

1. Fall Sunset in Vermont

Description: In most of the fall sunsets I have looked at, most contain deep hues of reds, pinks, purples, blues, and oranges. They tend to be more vibrant and rich in color, similar to how the fall is usually associated with colors of deep browns, oranges, reds, and yellows.

Fixtures: 3x S4 Ellipsoidal

Gels: E363 special medium blue, SG043 deep pink (x2), R021 golden amber

2. Spring Sunrise in Gothic Cathedral

Description: When it comes to spring sunrises and spring colors in general, theres a lot of light pinks and various light colors/pastels that come to mind. In my image, I tried to go simple with using warm light colors of yellows and a pink. I used a window gobo to replicate the inside of the gothic cathedral.

Lighting Instrument: 3x S4 Ellipsoidal

Gels: L151 gold tint, R052 light lavender

3. Noon on a hot Summer day in Hawaii

Description: From my experience, noon is around the hottest time of day and when the sun is harshest and brightest. I tried to imitate that by directing many warm-colored lights to the figure and make it as bright as possible, as well as have it create a large soft circle to give an appearance of a sun and the sand surrounding the person.

Lighting instruments: 4x S4 Ellipsoidal

Gels: SG054 special lavender (2x), L151 gold tint

4.  Winter afternoon in North Dakota

Description: I based this lighting off of the image of a blizzard happening in North Dakota. I think the main characteristics that remind me of a snowy day is the snow falling and the cool white color that we see in the emitted from the air and the snow. I used the dots gobo to try to imitate the snow falling.

Lighting instruments: 3x S4 LED Ellipsoidal

Gels: R364 blue bell, E174 dark steel blue, L201 full CT blue

Fall Sunset in Vermont

1,5:No Gel 100%     2,8,9: R15 75%    Bottom Cyc: R21 100%

Top Cyc:R80 100%   3: L201 100%   4: R51 100%

10:L151 100%

I wanted to try and showcase a bright sunset since that was in the title and knowing it was Vermont I was picturing it with a bunch of warm colors to help capture the Vermont trees.

Spring Sunrise in Gothic Cathedral

1,4,10: R15 75%   2: No Gel 100% Window Gobo

3,5,6,9: L201 75% (except 5 which is 85%)

7:L151 100% Window Gobo        8:L151 75%

Top Cyc:R68 90%   Bottom Cyc: No Gobo 75%

I wanted to use a window gobo in order to get the effect of a sunrise coming through a window and since it’s stained glass in a gothic cathedral I felt that the color wouldn’t just be a single color and the window would be slightly distorted with multiple refractions. I also added some low blues in the background to show it being early in the morning.

Noon on a Hot Summer Day in Hawaii

1,5,8: No Gobo 100%     2,3: L201 75%

4,10: R51 100%           6,9:L89 25%

Top Cyc: R68 100%       Bottom Cyc: No Gobo 100%

Since it is noon I wanted to work more with over head lights and wash out the floor with a sandy like color. The bottom Cyc is meant as a reflection of the sand color and the green on the sides is hinting at the possibility of tree further beyond the stage.

Winter afternoon in North Dakota

1,4,5,6,8,9,10: L201 100%

2: L151 75%       3: R15 75%

Top and Bottom Cyc: R80 100%

I used the top lights as mainly a way to wash out the stage in white to give the effect of snow. When I was looking at photos for North Dakota I also saw a lot of orange so I wanted to put some low level orange lights in the scene. Since it is a mid afternoon as well I was picturing it on a nice clear day which is what I used the Cyc for

The first one is noon in Hawaii and I chose very warm colors with the light being the strongest directly above the person’s head because thats where the sun would be located at mid day. The next one is sunset in fall Vermont and there are also a lot of warm colors with the background being cool colors representing the sky and the colorful clouds I found in my research. The third picture is sunrise on a gothic Cathedral and the research I found showed very pink light and it felt very soft. The last one is the winter and it was all cool colors with light reflecting off of the snow so it is coming from all angles. I chose to think about the suns position in a lot of these and that influenced a lot of my choices.

1) A Fall sunset in Vermont

Colors used- I used a deep lavender, to add light to the person, then a royal blue to the top of the cyc, and deep lavender at the bottom of the cyc.

Explanation: I decided to go for a sunset right on the edge of turning to night.

2) Spring sunrise in a Gothic Cathedral

Colors- I used a deep orange for the top cyc and gold tint for the bottom, with the same deep orange for the window.

3) Noon on a hot Summer day in Hawaii

Colors used- I used a teal blue to light the cyc, and gold tint to light the person, and a bright yellow to add a sun shine to the cyc.

4) Winter afternoon in North Dakota

Colors- I used a light blue on both top and bottom of the cyc and used a cool blue to light the person.

1. Fall sunset in Vermont

Lights used: Top of the cyc is R67 (light sky blue) and bottom of the cyc is R15 (deep straw). There are three L328 (follies pink) lights – one SR (55%), one SL (55%), one downstage C (75%). All the lights are in soft focus. There is also one R21 (golden amber) light from SR at 55%, soft focus, 70 degrees, with dots gobo.

Explanation: The fall sunsets in Vermont that I found all had a lot of the same colors – pinks and oranges mostly, with the blue of the sky in varying degrees of fading or faded. The gobo is an attempt to create clouds with the limited functions of the light lab.

2. Spring sunrise in a Gothic cathedral

Lights used: SR light is R57 (lavender) at 60%. SL light is R58 (deep lavender) at 60%. Upstage C light is R57 at full. Bottom cyc is L151 (gold tint).

Explanation: The colors I found in sunrises in general were very light pinks and purples, with some gold at the bottom (as represented by the cyc) for the rising sun. I also took care to make the sunrise aiming from the opposite direction as the sunset, so the man’s shadow is in front of him for the sunrise but behind him in the sunset (above).

3. Noon on a hot summer day in Hawaii

Lights used: Light at top down center is 4800 K (slightly yellowish white) at 26 degree lens size. Full cyc is R69 (brilliant blue) at 85%.

Explanation: The single white/yellow light is my best representation of the sun (in the blue sky that is the cyc). I couldn’t figure out a way to eliminate shadows completely but Lahaina noon is a phenomenon that basically only exists in Hawaii where twice a year there are no visible shadows because the sun is directly overhead, so I wanted to try and create that effect here.

4. Winter afternoon in North Dakota

Lights used: Top cyc is R67 (light sky blue). SL and SR lights at the top are also R67 at 50%, 90 degrees lens tube size, soft focus. All other lights (coming from the four corners, close to the ground) are pure white. All pure white lights have the dots gobo.

Explanation: Winter in North Dakota is basically just a snowy wonderland. Every picture I saw was snowy hills, snowy plains, and these white-blue skies that looked like they were about to create more snow. The dots gobo this time is supposed to look roughly like snow. By the way, did I mention the winter afternoons in North Dakota are mad snowy? They are snowy to the max.