Drama 16 Stage Lighting

From: My camera roll, taken November 22nd 2022. Sunset from my bedroom window in Hempstead, NY.

Theme: Sunrise/Sunset

This was a photo from the end of last semester. I had just wrapped on a film project I had been working on, and this was my last night in New York before heading home for Thanksgiving break. I have a West facing window in my bedroom, and often have a chance to view the sunset over the trees and buildings. This particular sunset struck, it had already crossed the horizon (at least as far as I could tell from my perspective) and the deep twilight blue was taking over the sky — broken by a strip of glowing orange as the last streams of sunlight bent around the far curve of the Earth. The glow from the light silhouetted the neighborhood, which turned into a mass of shape and form. It looked pretty cool, so I took a few photos. I was in the sunset of the semester, and that Thanksgiving was the first real break I had from working on any big projects in months. It was a great moment of catharsis knowing I could relax for a while.

This photo was taken by me.

The theme is spooky and it fits this theme because it looks like it could be taken out of a spooky scene from a horror or Halloween film.

The lighting is white and bright like a space alien’s ship coming to abduct someone or that horridly spotless idea of the future that many films attempt to portray. The bright lighting depicted in the animated film Wall-E for inside the space ship where the lazy humans are is similar to this bright moonlight. The light is expansive causing a soft halo to surround it in the night sky. The brightness at night also is spooky because night is meant to be dark in the minds of many. This bright moonlight might peer into a window and wake people up like how the people were wakened up during the Light Riots. The light backlights the tree making it a shadowy silhouette. Moonlight has a history of spookiness with witches flying across it, cows jumping over it, and werewolf’s howling to it; this moonlit picture harkens back to this tradition with the light’s boldness and the silhouetted tree’s bareness. The white light and lingering halo of grey contrast with the night-time blackness like a mysterious power; this starkness and utter lack of an array of colors and stark would be enough to spook a child into hiding under the covers. For all a little child knows, this could be the eye of a huge monster coming to destroy it; and the power (high value) and abundance of this light makes it imposing. The dead, dark world that some might think exists in blackness comes back to life with the bright glow of the moon. However, it is not as alive as day; it is like a half-life or perhaps undead life. After all, in the total dark, one cannot see that the world does not look as alive as the day, but in partial light one can. Thus, the lighting in this picture is spooky as it is a sign that scary things might be out and since it makes things that look bright and alive during the day appear dead, creepy, and unnerving through the limited, bright, far-reaching, and contrasting with the dark surroundings white moonlight.

Time: Sunday, 8pm

Objective Description: A cloud of smoke coming out of a tall smokestack was lit up by the obstruction lights on the smokestack, creating a lightning-like effect.

Subjective Description: As I was returning to Hofstra from New York City, I saw a flash of lighting out of the corner of my eye – but that couldn’t possibly be, it was February and freezing, which aren’t exactly ideal conditions for lighting. I looked to see what could have caused this, and it turned out to be the obstruction lights on a smokestack. A thick, nearly opaque cloud of smoke was billowing out of the smokestack, silhouetted briefly by flashing white-blue lights. It looked extremely reminiscent of lightning flashing in the clouds during a storm. I watched the lights flash several more times before driving away, trying to pretend that it was summer and this was actually a thunderstorm and it wasn’t less than zero degrees outside. Seeing the imposter lightning made me marvel that something man-made could so easily recreate one of nature’s most amazing and awesome lighting phenomenons.

Link: http://photos.qiguang.net/index.php/London2004/tatemodern4

Description:

this picture depicts hot/warming light themes. The orange light that is peering through the gate gives a silhouette effect off of the people standing in front of it. When looking at this picture you can feel the warmth from the sun. The lighting effect really characterizes as hot.

Photo taken by Peter Charney

Theme: Sunrise/Sunset

Description: I choose this image because I feel like it accurately represents a sunset in a very straight forward way. I feel like the interesting part of this image is not the sun itself, but rather the industrial tower in the foreground. When reading books on photographing sunsets, I discovered that sometimes the best way to capture a sunset is to turn around and see how the light affects the rest of the world. Even though I do actually include the sun in this picture, I think silhouette of the tower is beautiful in itself. Like in theater, when something is lit from behind it creates this effect that is really powerful. Something like an industrial tower that people often reject and call “ugly” during the daytime, can transform into something beautiful thanks to light.

From: http://toptenland.com/the-ten-best-sunsets-around-the-world/

Theme: Sunset/Sunrise

I picked this photo because I just booked tickets to spend a week in Hawaii after the semester ends. Staring at this photo helps make the current weather drift away a little, dreaming of being away from the snow, ice and sub zero temperatures.  I have a calming feeling of sitting at a luau with a coconut filled with some exotic Hawaiian drink and a little umbrella. The silhouette of the palm trees against the orange purple sky has a very majestic feeling.

Taken by me at Stagedoor Manor “Forum” theater.

3) Shadow

4) This is one of my favorite photos I have ever taken. The light from the sun shines so brightly you cant help but feel inspired from it. Similarly, the silhouette of the person is defined in such a way that you can not tell whether it is a man or woman but the posture of the figure gives a confident and positive feeling to it. This picture gives me a feeling of confidence and drive to complete the tasks in my life.

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.

1) 2/8/12 – 8:54AM – Road between the NAB and Lowe, facing south.

2) OBJECTIVE DESCRIPTION: I was walking to class in the morning and it was chilly and slightly cloudy. The sun was up but was still reflecting some color on the horizon. The clouds had many colors displayed and silhouetted the trees.

3) SUBJECTIVE DESCRIPTION: It was just before 9:00 and I was sleepily walking through the cold on my way to class. I was walking south east toward Lowe right off the turnpike. As I walked along I was wondering if it was actually going to snow. There was snow in the forecast but there were only a few clouds in the sky and even though it was chilly I knew it was going to warm up. As I looked down the road, I noticed a line of trees, all of them stripped of their leaves, standing very close to each other. Their branches reached across and into the other trees branches and created a chaotic mess of twigs criss crossing and fighting their way into each other.

Beyond the trees, there were a few layers of white clouds on the horizon in front of me. Clearly the sun had been up for a while and it was not a moment where I was witnessing the most brilliant sunrise of all time. The sun was hidden behind the buildings that surrounded me however I was able to witness the relatively low sun reflect its rays onto these clouds hovering in the distance. The hues in the clouds seemed to have been touched with a shade of gray tone painted over every color. There were many purples and blues with touches of a more warming vision of pinks and oranges. The colors looked pastel and muted making the feeling much colder that a more vibrant sunrise. The twigs in the trees were perfectly silhouetted by this muted reflection of the suns rays. It gave me hope that there would soon be the snow that had been forecasted.

Friday, Jan 6, afternoon.

I was walking back to my dorm from class, and looked up at the bleak grey sky. It was the kind of cloudy sky where there are no individual clouds, merely a mass of flat grey light, dreary, to say the least. But as I looked at it, a flock of birds crossed overhead, appearing in silhouette only.

Yet somehow they transformed the sky into an old black and white film. The silhouettes of the birds swooping and diving at one another reminicent of WWII planes cutting accross the sky. There was no color overhead, but instead of making the scene gloomy, it drew a sort of focus the the shapes and the movement of the scene. While the monochromatic lighting may have made the day look bleak at first glance, it transformed the sky into an old movie screen, where silhouettes became the projected film.