Week 7: Erika's One Act

I went to Mexico this weekend, so I saw Erika's show on the final dress Thursday. That being said I'm sure things changed because I changed things up to the very last moment. But from what I saw I was impressed! I thought there were a lot of bold choices that I wouldn't have been comfortable with using, such as highly saturate tones and different brush strokes.

In the first play, red saturate down light was the major player. I thought that it was a perfect choice for the tango scene, but due to the fact that she couldn't fit an additional down system this didn't serve her very well. If she had made the cyc extremely red and had them in a deep blue I think this would have conveyed the same feeling and worked better with the space. This way the down system could have worked harder for her. Due to the fact that the back curtain was closed for this one she would have had to talk to the director about altering a bit, but I think it would have been something to consider. In the park scene she really played with the cyc, using it to convey sky and to convey emotion, which I thought was a bold choice. Each time a character guessed what was in the box the cyc would change from a sky color to a nasty color- different depending on each choice. I thought this was interesting, but I would have played with the starting point of the cue and the fade time to completion because I felt like as soon as I realized it was happening it was already over, and it took me out of the scene because I was trying to figure out what happened.

What I really commend Erika for is her different use of brush strokes. She had shin lighting, and front fresnels. I hadn't even considered front fresnels at all in my design, and i thought that was really neat! She also used fresnels pointed into the audience for the moments when one of the characters was talking to the audience and breaking the fourth wall. I thought that this was brilliant, I would have just thought to turn on the house lights which would have been a real logistic problem for the stage manager.

Overall I thought that Erika's one acts were successful, and I really learned a lot from watching them. I can't wait to see the next ones!

P.S. My boyfriend loved it too, he loves going to see shows now!

Week 7: The One Acts and Tech Prep

Hello! Sorry I am late, I have had no source of internet besides my phone....I hate doing homework on my phone. Anyways, this week was extremely stressful in the lighting world but I am bouncing back! I had a meeting with my production team for Oleanna, and they presented me with the ground plan: and it is off-centered with the stage. I was initially terrified, but took a look and realized that it will work, and I will make it work. I chose all new colors and sources with the help of my mentor. \

Erika's show was beautiful! I knew that she had a panicked moment, and it turned out just fine. Her first composition was fluid and crisp and full of passion, I especially loved the tango scene (though it could have used a little more visibility but that only added to the passion of the scene). The second composition was awesome, the play was very wacky and her lights were realistic with added touches of wackiness (like the tree gobo). I am very proud of her, and can only imagine how great it feels to accomplish such a triumph!! Go Erika!

This week for my design is moving into load-in on Saturday. I still have to fix my cues, and will be doing this on Wednesday after I see the rehearsal on Tuesday. I am so excited and a tiny bit nervous, but I feel that nerves are a necessity at this point. Who wouldn't feel nervous about laying their ideas so vulnerably out on stage? It's different than acting on stage because these are my own concepts. Here we go, wish me luck!!

Week 7: A Week of Passion and Paranoia (literally)

After all the preparation and stress that built up to this weekend, I must say, I am happy, yet sad it's all over. My One Acts went up this weekend, titled as "A Night of Passion and Paranoia." I couldn't think of a better name to call this blog than that. 

First off, let me say that this whole process was very eye opening. I have a new found understanding for what it means to be a designer. The amount of prep work and organization is incredibly daunting, yet amazing. And the process we are given to develop our concepts really helped me through this whole process. As I began my script treatments and slowly moved up to system magic sheets, it was really surreal to see my ideas go from just that to something completely tangible. When I finally finished my final plot and had only one night between me and load in, I was freaking out a bit. But I have to say load in went quite smoothly ( I DO NOT KNOW WHAT I WOULD'VE DONE WITHOUT BRADY). It went so well I actually got to have a cue to cue for each show. And this, my friends, is where the stress started to bubble a little. 

As the week progressed, I found myself struggling with color choices I made, this lavender too warm or this amber too amber. I switched out my AW R fresnels at least 2 times and Pipe end R's at least 3 times. The whole process seemed like I could go on forever changing colors here and there. Probably the thing I noticed I was missing most was back light. I knew my actors were not punching out as much as they could be. Sure, their faces were lit and I could see them, but at times they were falling flat. I blame the amount of dimmers in the Nixon... :P But no, I really do understand that I could've switched my down light. But as Lonnie, Brady, Travis, and the Prospective student (hope I didn't scare him away!) all know, I was really stuck on this down red system. I needed to have those gestures. They made me happy when I saw them on stage. 

After my MAJOR meltdown and our invited dress, I made my last few adjustments and went into the next day ready to see my show without a laptop staring at me with a million notes. I must say, I was happy with my finished product. There were many things I still wanted to fix here and there, but I know thats just my highly critical nature. I can't ever be too happy about my work. Not sure why. But that's how I am. In the image to the left, you can see the warmer cue for when people entered the space. I really liked my room cues. My window was especially awesome. I also love and stand by my tango cue. And love cues- that back PAR was amazing. It just made me super happy. I can't really explain why. I like big gestures, I guess, and since I was given the opportunity to in these shows, I was VERY excited.

Speaking of big gestures, the whole second play in my night of one acts was filled with huge gestures. The play was absurd, and therefore MY kind of show. I got to use intense, weird, and non realistic colors throughout, and still got to practice my outdoor lighting. I was very happy with many of the choices I made. I stand by my moments where each character developed their own theory as to what was in the box. They were crazy and silly theories, and therefore needed to be highlighted. The hard part was bringing the audience in with me. I knew the first cue was a little hard to pull off, and, unfortunately, after the show was up and running, I had an idea that I think would have brought the audience in to my concept sooner. But thats okay. That just means my brain kept working on a finished product, which I like. Some of my favorite cues were the anthrax cue and the attention everyone cue. This were fun. From the moment I read the script, I knew I wanted to bring up lights in the house at that part. I didn't know how I was going to do it, but when I finally decided on Source 4 PAR's, I was SO happy with the outcome. And I was happy to see that the director was totally up for the whole idea of it.

Ah. Okay. Working with new directors being a new designer myself... what a challenge. I do think that part of my meltdown on thursday was also related to some of the people I had to work with. I WIL NOT name people, but I did get some attitude from various members of the project, and that was hard to deal with. Especially when I am such a "YES" person and all I want is for people to be happy with what I am doing. After my meltdown, though, everyone was much nicer to me. It just sucks that my stress eruption is what it took for people to realize that I wasn't pressing for more tech time because I was a B****, but only because I cared and wanted them all to look good.  

Now as I sit here and reflect on all this, I can honestly say that I am very proud of my work. Yes there are many things I would have liked to fix or make better, some within my control, others out of my control, but regardless, I was still happy with the outcome. This experience was very necessary for me. And the gallons of tears and the really bad headache I got on Thursday was all worth it to see my brainchild on stage working with the actors.  

Week 8: The One Acts, Color Correction for Realism in Real Life, & Kelvin Temp and Color

This afternoon I had the pleasure of seeing the one acts that Erika designed. It was a really interesting mix of shows because The Boor (which I’m assuming is by Chekov) and A Little Box of Oblivion, were two different, yet similar plays. They were in different time periods, and very different places (a park versus inside an old house), and had very different approaches to comedy.

The Boor

I absolutely loved the (lavender? Color corrected?) house right fresnel (parnels?) angle wash. I think it added a softness, that was delicate and refined for the more somber moments, while creating a real feeling of light in the space. It really looked like light in a room, and the color was a great choice. The softness of the fernels also played well into the comedy.

The color of the other fernsels was a little confusing. At first I thought I knew where the source was coming from (the blue across the curtain and the window special), but the fersnel angle wash house left had a less tinty color than their house right counter parts.

I like the build from realism to abstract, though I think it was too fast of a transition. Allowing us to enter into the space of the play and the character’s world without over powering us with abstraction was very smart. I feel like the abstraction didn’t have enough of a build. I know the tango is obviously a huge disruption to the play (though I really liked it and thought it worked well), but the lighting rubber band broke for me.

I know Erika was worried about the down reds. I thought it worked really well. I think it added a lot of that passion they were experiencing without doing anything crazy with the composition. It also connected well into the tango.

I absolutely loved the window special. It was a really subtle gesture, but the halo around her was a really nice touch in addition to adding a sense of place. The color was also depressing, in an almost melodramatic way. Of course she’s mourning in the light of a grey dreary day through a huge window. It’s fantastic.

A Little Black Box of Oblivion

The top of the show was really nice. I really got the sense it was a nice day out in the park. It was simple, and created time, place, and season.

I liked the idea of giving each one of the characters a motif for when they went into their theories about what was in the box, but I think it was just a little too much for me. I think it was mainly because the cyc was initially there to set up time, place, and season, and then became an emotional tool as well.

Their facial clarity was really, really good. I feel like Erika was able to get what she wanted out of each composition without sacrificing face visibility. I’ve seen a lot of designers loose that in The Nixon (myself included), but for both shows people were really crisp and clear. Really well done.

We have this glass and wooden cabinet that has lights on the inside. For parties I like to color to these lights to a little ambiance. For my birthday party, I changed the green Christmas gels with lavender and blues ones. Unfortunately, my camera didn’t do a good job picking up the actual color. The first picture without the color correction is actually more similar to what it looks like. Without the gel, it was more yellow-y. I wasn’t sure exactly how the gel would look, but when I put it on I immediately thought of how it was more so just a color correction that could totally work for pizza man.

It’s interesting how color changes for the camera. I remember being told that the camera doesn’t have as many color receptors as our eyes (or something along those lines), which makes lighting for film a little different. My producing partner and I want to invest in lighting equipment for film. It’ll be interesting to start shopping around for a kit, and to see what gels it comes with.

Again for my part, I replaced the green gel with a lavender gel. While this mixture is actually really pretty, I didn’t expect it to be so girly. I expected it to be a little more lush. But then I realized two things: 1. I didn’t use a blue gel like I was going to for some reason and 2. the bulbs are LED lights, which have a more bluey/white light compared to the the more yellow-y lights around my house. I think the color of the light played a bigger part in the color than I thought it would have.

What’s also interesting is that now our foyer and stairs are a lot “dimmer” (for lack of a better word). The color mixing of the blue and red making yellow, added a lot more light to the area. It’s basically like our color theory class in action, which I thought was really cool.

Week 7: The Colorful World of Cats, Color Mixing Discovery, & Ice Clubbing

In one of my earlier blogs I took a picture of this lighting fixture in my house. I was confused that it wasn’t color mixing, and thought maybe it had to do with the angle of the glass that the light being refracted through. On my post, Lonnie said to take another look with all of the lights off. I did that and I realized that there is color mixing going on. The yellow light in between the green and red are mixing to make a very natural looking yellow light (natural as in it comes from a house lamp). My mind was blown. It didn’t accrue to me at all that this subtle color was mixing. It shows that color mixing doesn’t have to be dramatic. It’ll be cool to see what happens when I finally trade out the green gel for the blue one.

Inspired by the Olympics, my brother and I decided to go ice skating. Apparently there is a time when the lights go crazy and it becomes like a club. I thought the lighting was terrible. It was awkward, and splotchy and the color choices really didn’t work well together. Of course it was for spectacle, trying to make ice skating more hip like cosmic bowling, but it was just badly done. The light positions didn’t make sense at all, and it was just bad. 

During Christmas break I put some lavender gels on the little LED light bulbs in our chandelier. Someone who is close to me has some mental instability. They were drawn to the room because of it’s calming, icy lavender feel. 

For awhile we kept trying to find a lavender source of light for this person. Gels melted to lights, and we couldn’t find blue or purple bulbs. I finally decided to just wrap some gel around this LED desk lamp. It created the clam, soothing feeling that this person. It also attracted cats. 

Almost all of our cats had to come check out this blue/lavender light. The person I made this for even said that cats were sleeping under it at night. Cats can see some colors, so it was really interesting to see how they were also interested in this differently colored light. 

Week 6: Cyan is a Real Color

Friends. Cyan is a color. But before I get to that, lets talk about this last class we had. Color theory has always been one of my favorite subjects in lighting. I mean, who doesn't love color. Whoever that is can go sit in the dark.

Honestly, this class was very informative. And it came at a time when nerves were already high for me, so while it was beautiful and informative, it also freaked me out a bit. There are certain things that I constantly worry about while designing-like how this color will look like with the costumes they are wearing, or will my actors look green? This class helped ease those worries a little. The whole color correction section was really interesting--seeing how lights can be adjusted to look like other lights was cool. 

Also, I tend to forget about additive color mixing (what's happening to the left!). I tend to pick colors just because I like them and feel that they convey what I want, but after this class, I got really worried that they would not mix well once on stage. I already had some issues with a color in my design, but its just really an ugly color. It does not work for what I want. So I am swapping that out. Also, looking at how transmission affects my design is another thing that I tend to look at last. I usually pick the color, but then have to adjust based on what kind of statement I want. After this class, I changed a couple of colors because of their transmission- both were actually to make a larger statement with a lower transmission color. I never really think about subtractive color mixing because up to this point in my design career, I've never really added two gels together unless one of them was a frost. Oh and along those lines, I would love to one day work with dichroic colors-even if they are fragile. I am dying to see how those colors look versus a normal gel. 

Other things I enjoy when discussing color theory are things like how black light works, and how remotes work. 

I really enjoyed the recap and the new subjects we touched on. :)

-ERIKA 

oh yeah, and I still argue that Cyan is a real color- it is in my eyes!!

Week Six: Color My Theory

THANK GOD we had our color theory lecture this week. I have been struggling with color in my design, and the lecture definitely cleared things up for me. I received many pointers on face lighting, the ashy blues vs. lavenders, and how dimming them will look on a person. I have been so stressed about my design that I completely forgot about the effects of lower intensity. I also had not thought about costumes and blending issues. I relearned many things that will now hopefully stick into my memory (third time should be a charm, right?). I had forgotten how our eyes receive green at first, and it makes us uncomfortable.
I was also thankful for our lecture because it engrained terms into my brain: hue, (a)chromatic, chromaticity, saturation, brightness/value, subtractive, additive, Kv temp, transmission, exposure...
Now I feel smart.
I took all of this information and met with my mentor. I had to change most of my colors, I had the idea of how I wanted it to look, it was just difficult for me to execute colors and angles. Thankfully my mentor was on the same page as my brain and she helped clear things up! Now I am super excited to do this!
Here we have Lonnie looking like a rock star: