Week 4: South Coast Plaza, Culture, and Focus

Last Thursday, we took a trip to South Coast Plaza; sadly, not to shop. BUT we looked at this place in a totally new way; instead of window shopping, we gazed at all the lights that filled this space. The first section we started looking at light in was the richie area. Lights here were very clean and modern, and some were satanic too. What was the most interesting to me was the difference between this "rich side" of the mall and the one pictured above- which was where more affordable stores were located. The biggest difference was the contrast between modern and the dated--the rich side clearly had updates made to it as time passed, where as this side had older forms of light. For example, in the ceiling in part of this section above, we could see some scalloping because they were using older lights. What was interesting to me is that I felt way more at home in this part of the mall- the lights were warmer and more inviting, even in the stores. In the section of the mall where the high end stores were located, some of the stores were not very inviting. Probably the one that stuck with me the most was that rolex store. The lights in that store were extremely intimidating, and weirdly enough, mostly down light. The lighting in Tiffany's, however, was not intimidating. They definitely were more high end, but they kept it classy and still inviting. Except for the ugly chandeliers in the first room we went into. 

The trip to the mall made me realize that a lot more thought goes into planning a space than one really ever thinks about. AND that lighting a mall can be very hard because none of the stores really go together- the light in the mall has to be simple enough that the lights in the stores don't look out of place. In many instances, this was successful, but at times, there were definitely stores that didn't seem to fit in. 

That night we also went to Culture Clash! First off, what an amazing show filled with so much talent!! I am very happy I got to see it. Despite some small hiccups on cuing (still GREAT for first real run through!), I thought the show was very well put together. I was really excited to see so many colors up, and to see how they would be used. For such a different production with interesting staging, it was nice to see that the lights also complimented that individuality. Some of the light cues that stood out to me were the beginning ones for the first monologue and then also the lighting in the reverend section. The colors were very spot on for me- especially the reverend's lighting. I also loved the lighting in the section where the woman was crossing the border and the huge fresnel (?) came across the audience. Overall, I thought the sections fit the theme very well- there were moments that were a little hard for me to see the actors faces, but I imagine it was either due to staging or some other factor. 

Lastly- Focus. Actually, by the time I got to focus on sunday, they were pretty much done unfortunately. So Karen gave me some pointers and showed me hotspots and how to find them. She also went over how to see if the stage is evenly lit. So a lot of it was recap and going over what they hung and focused already, but it was still very informative. :)

GOOD NIGHT.

Shameless plug to come see my show this weekend :)

-Erika