Drama 16 Stage Lighting

I got this photo from a blog about Epcot called Epcot Explorer: https://epcotexplorer.wordpress.com/2015/09/22/illuminations-reflecting-on-15-years/ .

The theme is surreal.

The lighting is unreal in its color, its angle, its vibrancy. The sky is lit up by lasers like the end of the world or like a mystical portal is opening. The colorful lights are reflected in the water making it resemble a magical river that one might dream up as a child. All of the lighting is fantastical even the bright projected white on the Earth. The water shows the hidden mysteries of lights that are far off and also the pink and green of the globe. The various angles are unusual as the light from the water fountains illustrates since it goes straight up with the water. There are neons, bright magentas, oranges, blues, greens, and white in the color palette of the lights. There are hints of red, yellow, and purple as well. It is like a rainbow but brighter; the lights have a similar feeling of joy in their colors as fireworks and glow sticks. They are spectacular and delightful like a magician show. Clearly, the lights are magical not realistic. Even the sky with the green and blue fading into one another repeatedly in a pattern is mostly intense and vibrant in color and brightness. This brightness is like the pages of children’s picture books and children’s toys in general. Consequently, the lighting is surreal and creates an atmosphere that is playful, reflexive, and dream-like.

2/12/16 – 6:27pm – Hammer Lab

The fluorescent lights are reflected through the glass to appear to be a double set on the other side of the glass despite there not being any fluorescents there in those exact locations over there. There are some fluorescents on that side of the glass. The reflected lights seem to be faded slightly and float in a way.

Stale, ghostly, and ominous, the mirrored fluorescent lights feel oppressive like an army of evil jellyfish that has started flying across the land on a campaign of terror. Jellyfish would be more pleasant than these glowing boxes of off-white though. Two eyes can be seen to creep forth from the bulbs of the light and to beat down upon you. It is a scrutinizing gaze and an unforgiving one. Harsh and inhuman, the ghost lights are so many in number that they seem to be following or haunting people. They bleach the world; they engulf it in an intense brightness that is unvarying and plain. The nightmare of a futuristic society where people have lost their own individuality and creativity is felt in the glow of these lights. The lighting is bland, unnatural, and dead.

2 Feb. 2016 – 9:18am – Classroom 0028 in the Basement of Breslin Hall

The room was dark besides the florescent light I let in from the hallway as I cracked the door open and a soft bluish green glow from the computer screen way over on the other side of the room. This light from the screen illuminated a circle on the white wall to the left of it, and one of the technical difficulty emergency phones was located just off middle in the circle. It is the lighting on the wall that caught my eye, not the pools of florescent lights that wafted onto the floor a few feet in front of me.

The lighting was mysterious and eerie since it was surrounded by shadows and darkness and since it was such a peculiar color. This lighting would not have been out of place in a murder mystery play in which a character is scared of the phone because the ringing of the phone always signals something bad. Thanks to the hue, the lighting seemed sickly. In the murder mystery play example, this could represent the mindset and paranoia of the afraid character. It mirrors the feeling of quintessential fear that a person home alone at night who starts hearing spooky sounds must possess. Soft, circular, and contrasting with the surroundings like something out of another universe, it could have been the light that emitted from an alien spaceship’s beams of abduction. This lighting moment touched a chord and got under the viewer’s skin by being a reminder of mortality and that there is so much uncertainty out there. It presented the fear of the unseen and the fear of the unknown mysteries of life like when a person will die. Thus, the lighting resembled in color, distribution, and intensity whatever the torch or lamp of the Grim Reaper looks like and inspired fear and thoughts of the supernatural in its beholder.

1) 4/26/12 – 12:34 – Walking from Lowe to Netherlands. Just outside of Bits under the trees.

2) OBJECTIVE DESCRIPTION: I was walking to my room from Lowe one night recently. It was pouring rain and the trees were dripping wet. I looked up at the tree above me and there weren’t that many leaves on the tree. The light was shining through each droplet and being magnified off of each branch.

3) SUBJECTIVE DESCRIPTION: I was wondering back to my room after rehearsal one night. Unfortunately it began to rain heavily just before I started walking home and had to simply accept that I was going to be getting soaked. I strolled down the sidewalk outside of bits and looked up at one of the trees outside of memorial. The leaves were just beginning to pop out of their buds on the branches of the tree and the branches were still somewhat naked. The water began to collect on the bottom of al of the little branches and the wood on the tree was soaked to an extremely dark brown. The sky was somewhat of a glowing gray due to all of the reflection from the city lights down below. As I studied the tree branches I began to notice the droplets almost seemed to be capturing all of the ambient light that was surrounding me.

The safety lights that were shining from the top of Hauser Hall were casting down and each water droplet was acting as a tiny magnifying glass for the light. The tree actually reminded me of seeing a tree near christmas being illuminated with decorative lights. Each droplet acted as its own naturally occurring christmas light. Because the water was continuing to fall as I studied the tree, the lights seemed to twinkle as they fell. Studying each branch up close, I could see a repeated bugs eye view of the surrounding area in each droplet. When I took a step out of the moment and looked at the tree as a whole it was a beautiful glowing gold color that was absolutely gorgeous. What truly struck me about this moment walking home is that I could actually see that there was a moment where natural and organic elements such as rain, and a bear naked tree combined together in such a way that made the natural and organic look man made and flashy.

1)   2/23/11- 10:00 pm- My Dorm Room

2)   Long streaks of light on walls being produced by the gaps in between the blinds.

3)   Right before I was about to go to sleep I noticed a lighting moment.  There was a yellowish light that shined in through our window, and the blinds are usually closed during the night so as a result it created uniform lines on our walls.  The light shined in through the gaps in between the blinds and it created a very distinct blind image on our wall.  The reason I liked this moment was because it make me think of a gobo and how it does the same thing.  What is interesting is that if the image on the wall was a little more distinct and had a different color, I could easily mistake it as the actual window and not just the light/ shadow being made by one.  Adding the yellow light did not contribute to it looking authentic because the yellow does not look natural but rather very artificial.  The color made it very hard to attach an emotion, time of day, etc. because it was so fake looking and didn’t really go with a particular feeling or notion.  Either way the pattern and light was interesting from a practical stand point and I will remember it for when I use gobos.