Let’s continue on Lighting master class day 2, actually the other 2 section left on that day is Brian MacDevitt’s Visual Aids: Paintings and Photography For Inspiration and Communication In The Theatre and Kevin Adams’s The Fine Arts Influence on a Lighting Designer. Both section are focus heavily on looking for inspiration from different art period, photography as their title suggest. Kevin Adam’s design ideas are mostly from modern art that reflect in his lighting design. His innovation ideas in theatrical lighting design such as adding regular light bulb and neon light into the set.
At night we went to see 9 to 5 at the Marriot Marquis Theatre, after the show we stay for a way and had a conversation with the head technician.
Fist section of the last day of BLMC was Emoting and Motion: Communicating With Movement by Peggy Eisenhauer, continue on musical.
She point out a few question that as lighting designer would ask themselves about the affect of motion.
Question 1 is what determines moving light is the appropriate choice? How director see the stage changing, also does time travel? Do we want to change the perspective that audience looking at and what room to integrate for.
Question 2 is what is the attributes or characteristic for motion that suitable place to put in? Such as period in a sentence, language or following objection toward or away ( open / close iris) Counter motion, light on the objection but the object move on one direction and light on the other. Traveling motion
Question 3 are the character as motion, work with them. Does motion take on it own state? What color works with that? What thinking is require in managing?
Orientation: location of pan and tilt in relationship to the space.
Last, how you communicate the image to the program
The next section is A Case Study “9 to 5” by Ken Posner, Peter Nigrini and Jules Fisher and the following one is Howell Binkley, Finding Your Path As A Lighting Designer.
The very last section of the lighting master class is by Wendall K. Harrington: Sets, Lights, PROJECTIONS: keeping your focus in the new digital age, which I found very exciting and she address on the core of integrating technology. According to Wendall Harrington, adding projection design is to enlarge audience experience and let them find answer.
There are varieties of projection front and back.
Here are some qualities that she mention
1. Front project
a. usually from a distance, uses lenses, embracing
b. emits lost of light that will eats stage light
c. When the projection screen is a white surface, forget front light, use side light instead eg. Rag time, time & again, putting it together
d. Material: black sere, which is so black, thick that image look like hanging on fiber, sucks away
e. Be mindful of color surface, example like when using blue surface there will be no yellow
2. Rear
a. Brighter than front projection
b. Don’t get the distance as front projection may be as much as 7ft
c. Black nor RP looks grey in front, not really black-be careful of reflect, hot spot, (how to made it darker?
d. Material: Bobbinet- eats bounce, really black, scrim with holes that is bigger
Front projection would go through scrim, black scrim with darkening. A white or gray scrim will be so obvious when flying in and out.
Combining front and rear projection gives depth to the stage
Projection is not a physical object that is not tangible, “not there.” It is like a dream, Wendall Harrington said: “do they(audience) need to know where they(performer/audience) are or have the feeling”
At last she point out a upcoming website for projection designers: Projectionconnection.org.
Wendall Harrington is a very energetic person that brings all the attendees’ attention to her speech and let the BLMC end at high spirit.