Week 5: Under the Lights

I spent the majority of this past week under lights. As a cast member of Ferris Wheel in the week 5 one acts, I got a chance to experience stage lighting from the other side of design. From what I hear from so many people, the lighting in our show was awesome--So GREAT job Keli!! On my end, I couldn't necessarily see the whole picture, but I felt it, which was cool. 

One thing I found interesting was noticing how light affected me in my scene. In the tech process, there were times when I noticed that perhaps my face and Robert's face was missing some light. Of course Keli adjusted that. Another thing was that I definitely felt the hot spot, and when new lights would come up. So that was cool! As my scene ended and the next began, I was able to look on to see the lights in the following scenes. In Great To See You, I was glad to see how the emotional shifts of the scene were accompanied by shifts in light-especially since it all took place in one location. I didn't have much ability to see all the lighting in A Second of Pleasure, but I did see that last key stroke that Keli used--the isolated window gobo when Jacob was left alone on stage. This was extremely successful in highlighting both the emotional aspect of the moment, as well as putting a good button on the whole show all together. 

Now the picture to the left is a different designer-Stacie Marie O'Hara. She designed Angels in America, and did an amazing job. There are a few things that definitely resonated with me that I can still see very clearly. The first statement she made that really stuck with me was her Antarctica scene. The lighting in this scene was so cool (as in temp) and dreamlike-very fitting for the scene taking place. Her use of down blue was extremely captivating, especially when the scene ended and the two characters were behind the pillars in a pool of down blue. Another lighting stroke I liked was when the mormon character (sorry forgot his name) was making a drunken phone call to his mom. He was cast in down light as well, and it created so many interesting shadows on his figure. I understood the emotion and darkness behind this choice. I was also really impressed that even though all the lights were exposed, they didn't draw attention.  I mean I noticed them, but they flowed so well that they did not take attention away from the scenes. One last thing- the way this was staged was incredibly strange, and Stacie handled the split scenes very well despite that. Oh and also, her "fluorescent" lighting that wasn't really fluorescent worked really well too!! I was convinced I didn't even realize that it wasn't fluorescent light. 

That's it for my late post! Until this SUNDAY.

-Erika 

Week five: My One Act Experience

This weekend was my show, and wow it flew by way too fast. I went to each show, even though I was terrified of seeing my work on display. I think that it went pretty well, I learned a lot through out the process as a whole, and being able to strike/ help Jonathan set up his set was helpful to learn as well. I learned that as a person I really hate wasting time. I would rather stay late after the actors left each day just to get stuff done instead of waiting to program in the space. I wanted to have something for the directors to base off of instead of making it up there. It helped to get stuff done at a much faster rate during the time when the entire cast and crew where there. It kept me there late, but I preferred to work on my baby project without people watching and judging. As I grow confidence as I designer I’ll probably be more comfortable with letting people see me create. The more paperwork and work I put in before, the more prepared I felt.

I felt successful in my design because I created three distinct worlds for the actors to play in. I chose staple lights that were only used for the different shows to really differentiate them clearly. What I need to work on is tracking actors and making sure it isn’t too dim on the front light. In the Nixon the lamps aren’t even, so even if I have them all at full it looks as though one is at half intensity. It was a weird thing to work with, but definitely kept me on my toes!

Color was a real challenge too, I ended up changing three different tones from the ones I originally picked. That will probably just come with practice of seeing how the colors actually look on lights instead of in the swatch book or online.

 As my different mentors and colleagues came in to see tech and performances, I got another added layer of help with my work. I feel like I really benefit from another pair of eyes so I can bounce my ideas off of someone! It’s all a learning process and I think that I got a lot out of this experience, both technically and personally. I hope that I take all the knowledge I gained and I use it effectively for the next piece I work on.

Week Five: Observation

This week I had the privilege of observing many different types of designs and performances. I had my first rehearsal for my show, and presented my ideas to the cast. It was a very interesting experience, I didn't realize how nervous I would be when introducing my concepts. Even so, I remembered being on the other side as an actor, not really understanding the light design when presented to me. Overall, it is still coming along, and I have to change a lot of my colors (so I am looking forward to lecture this week) and angles. After seeing Kelli's design, I had a better visualization of how the lights hung over the performance space.
Speaking of Kelli's design, it was beautiful! I was very proud of my fellow colleague :) she kicked ass! I was super excited to see that she let her creative juices flow with her entire design, especially the ferris wheel colors! I asked her some questions afterwards regarding the spots on the stage that were lit outside of the acting space, and she clarified that she chose this option for spacial reasons. Great work for Kelli, and Erika was of course spectacular!
On Saturday I had my tech observation with Dance Visions- holy shit. I cannot comprehend lighting a  dance show in the CTT, I don't know how they do it! It would be incredibly overwhelming, but I guess with more knowledge under my belt (like the grads) I could take on that big of a task. Kristen had to constantly change the design to get the right feel for the piece, it seemed incredibly daunting especially when the choreographer kept insisting new ideas onto her. She kept her absolute cool- I was very proud to have her as my mentor. The work is going to turn out beautifully. The headset situation is chaotic, you have cues being called while trying to change the layout of the design and also have notes recorded for you...amazing. I was astonished. Cool week.

Alyssa

Week Four: South Cost Plaza

It’s interesting how lighting and architecture can create such a different kind of feel from one location to the next.

The picture to the left is one of the entrances for South Coast Plaza. It’s trendy, modern, and a break from the luxurious. It’s interesting that this is at an entrance. Perhaps they don’t want people with a sub-million dollar income to feel like they don’t belong. At first.

The outdoor-like newsstands, and the Starbucks play into this idea of “trendy” as well as the “average” person.








Interestingly, the part of he South Coast Plaza on the other side of the bridge has a more homey, everyday feel. The lighting isn’t overwhelmingly luxurious, and there are the cheesy winter projections on the wall.

The stores in here are stores that are more realistically with in the price range of the who aren’t not super rich.

I think same idea of welcoming a particular type of person through lighting is also apparent on the outside of South Coast Plaza. The blues in the picture above are trendy, yes, but they’re not particularly overwhelmingly neon.

The blue and white mix together, creating a sore of lushness that people approach. It is soft, and not very edgy.

The same can be said of the picture to the right. It is a romantic sort of setting, with a bit of edge in the back. The edginess, however, is again muted by the purple. It’s a very pretty site to see this blanket of stars with a lush purple behind them.

The picture to the left, however, is what people see who are coming from the less expensive part of South Coast. The neon isn’t muted at all. It’s very blue, and has more of a clubbing feeling than luxurious feeling.

It’s interesting that so much was done on the other side to mute the neon feeling, and to create a romantic feel, yet on this side the only things people see are neon and metal.













The bridge connecting the two sections of South Coast is kind of weird. It’s extremely trendy, and futuristic. Yet, it doesn’t totally feel like something that is far out of our future.

While the blue does give it a spaceship sort of feel, the bridge is sort of an interesting representation of “real life”.

This bridge, though it is suspended through air above a major road, looks like a pathway one would take in quiet suburbs, or in a less busy part of a major city. It looks like a pathway that would lead to a park, or the pathway that is next to ocean on the other side of the street from Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade.

 It is a weird look into the future, and creates, again, a comforting feeling that isn’t luxurious, but is trendy. It is an odd merging of worlds.

The lights on the bridge were very interesting,subtle, and powerful. I didn’t even notice them at first, yet they’re doing so much. I thought that was really cool. The light the pathway, give light to the pedestrians, and add an accent for the structure. 

I think it would have benefited the structure if there were more purples than blues, or perhaps another color. The statement-ness of the blue creates a disconnection from where we were, where we are going, and how we are getting there. Though there is a different luxuriousness between the two places, and sometimes a sense of the trendy, there is never a moment in the buildings that makes me feel like I’m in Star Trek. The purple is less statement oriented, so perhaps more of the purple would make it more of a neutral space. Then again, it could make it even more confusing, and less further disconnect from the blue we were over exposed to at the escalators. 

Again, I feel like this is another moment of disconnect caused by trying to appeal to too many different kinds of people. I do really like the old vintage light bulbs. I think they’re awesome. And I do really like beachwear. I can be a California beach bum one day, and a hipster the next. However, those are two very different ideas. I would go to different stores to get those different kinds of feels. As someone who likes both styles, I’m a little put off by the mixture of it. Perhaps if they had vintage beach posters, and made the walls a little less clean, it could work. Unfortunately, they failed to make the bridging of target audiences. 

I don’t know if they’re waiting for a certain day to light the lanterns (which I believe have no lights in them), but I think it would added a really nice romantic, cultural, and soothing touch if the lanterns were lit. It was kind of awkward that they were just there. 

I really like it when people light trees. 

And Satan! The lighting fixture is actually pretty nice. The art deco-eqsue feel adds to the luxuriousness of the area. 

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

Week four: South Coast and Tech

This week we went to South Coast to take a look at architectural lighting and store fronts. It's amazing how time you can tell if any timing went into the planning of the store's design. For example, Rolex's high angle lighting made it intimidating to go into, very powerful and statement worthy. Whereas Sony was bright and flashy, advertising its sleek tech and colorful innovation with lots of bright screens flashing their product. For some stores, dim lighting made them look more mainline, where others were bright to look more professional. Both sides of the intensity scale looked good, if it was for the right sort of store. As a commercial lighting designer, it's essential to know what products are being sold in the store you're going to light, and the stores reputation. You aren't going to want to light Tiffany's in hot or colorful lighting. Tiffany's had a really nice touch of dividing into two rooms, a "Diamond Collection" room, and a regular jewelry selection room. The diamond room had cooler tones and had top lights on the display cases to accentuate the crisp beauty of the jewels. The other room was warmer, and comfortable.

I'm in tech right now, and it's been crazy. I stayed really light last night to hang, focus, and rough cue. I got a lot done and it was truly a learning experience. Not realizing, I soft patched into a previous show, causing my cuing to look really interesting. I was so confused as to why it didn't look how I wanted it to. Thank goodness I noticed pretty quickly. I'm glad I have lots of sheets written to help me stay organized between the different instruments I need, where they're located on my plot, and what channel they're on. I'm not sure what they're called here, but in high school we called them "schedules". I wasn't required to do them by this class, but I whipped up some quick ones because I remembered how helpful they were in the past. Being new at this I needed all the help I could get. I used a lot of what I learned from watching Stacie, using my hands to check for height and an even wash, and learning how to effectively direct people (Jamie the SM is familiar with the light board so I was really happy that she was the one helping me). It was a long night but we got a whole bunch done, and Martha seemed to approve when she came in today! I thought that the cycs needed 6 of the 24 dimmers, but today learning that wasn't the case was one of the best gifts I could recieve because I separated by down light systems by hot and cold so now I have more versatility when directors ask for things, and also I can see more of my vision come true. It's all coming together, so we'll see how it goes from here!

Week Four: Noticing the Effects of Lighting

This week, I tried to take a step back and notice lighting in places and situations that I would normally take for granted. We took a trip to South Coast Plaza and discussed what worked/didn't  in each store, for it's targeted audience and consumers. I found that it is important to feel the atmosphere and take note of how you feel, have the lights effected you in any way? Does it make you want to take an action?

We also had the chance to experience Culture Clash, and it was AMAZING. I was in awe the whole entire time, the lights had me glued to my seat and ready for the next scenario. This show evoked so many emotions and passionate ideas into my head, I truly was inspired by the design. It made me excited to grow and keep learning to think beyond the box and manifest concepts taken from my brain: they are doable! Thank you for allowing us to experience this show!! I made Erika take a cool shot right when the show opened, feel free to save it!

Friday night, I saw The Glass Menagerie at my old community college. It was VERY interesting to see someone's interpretation of the show, since we spent so much time on it during 157. She went with the "memory piece" concept and it was very dimly lit throughout the entire show. Her colors were very saturate, she kept about 3 groups of source fours (blue, amber, violet) as the main interior light, and added greens/reds during moments of higher intensity. I was very excited about the overall design, but definitely had my critiquing moments, which let me revel in the fact that I do have a valid opinion when it comes to other designs. Some scenes were beautifully lit, and others just didn't work. However, the overall product was successful to their chosen concept.

Now, the SUPER BOWL half time show was the mother of all themed lighting. Holy cow, I really would like to meet the mastermind behind that! I was enamored, and felt proud to be apart of the secret world, I was marveling over the lights while my friends were excited about the performer. I didn't even pay attention Bruno Mars...hello, I am obsessed with lights. :)

My design for Oleanna is coming along, I have been so blessed to be working with so many creative people! Our thoughts are emerging and becoming amazing. This is going to be so much fun.

I will end my post with a beautiful picture I took during half time, adios sol!