Lighting and Storytelling

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Lighting and Storytelling

• The influence of Lighting Design
• On Dramaturgy

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Andrew Coulton

• Trained at QMUC in Stage Management and Theatre
  Production
• Worked in a variety of Lighting and Production
  Management roles for theatre, music, dance and
  events
• Manager of PROScenia, Lighting and Production
  Management Company

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Aims

• To introduce students to the roles of members of
  the Lighting Department, and the ways in which
  their efforts contribute to the creative process.
  
• To introduce the basic principles of lighting and
  explore ways in which it can enhance and support
  storytelling.
• To introduce differing styles of Lighting Design
  and explore how this can inform the genre and
  style of the performance.

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Targets

• By the end of the session, the student
• Will be aware of the different roles within a
  Lighting department
• Will have a basic understanding of the main
  creative properties of light and how these can be
  manipulated
• Will have been introduced to different styles of
  lighting design and the ways in which the style
  of lighting can interact with the style of the
  piece.
• Will understand the outline of the Lighting
  Design process
• Will have demonstrated methods of communicating
  information through lighting

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The Power of Light

• Lighting is one of the most flexible, powerful
  tools of modern Stage Design
• Dates back to the earliest days of theatre, and
  continues to develop with technology
• Now offers incredible opportunities to
  communicate with an audience, and to create
  stunning, instantaneous, transformations
• Always important to remember the main function of
  light onstage is to allow us to see

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The Lighting Department
Director
Set / Costume Designer
Lighting Designer
Production Electrician
Relighter
Operator / Programmer
Technicians
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Lighting Designer

• Part of the core creative team
• Responsible for overall look of lighting design
• Partially creative, partially technical
• Involved from start of design process to Press
  Night

Director
Lighting Designer
Production Electrician
Relighter
Operator / Programmer
Technicians
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Production Electrician

• Responsible for practical realisation of design
• Assists and advises on practicalities and
  alternative solutions
• Technical design / construction of practicals and
  effects
• Co-ordinates kit, schedules etc

Director
Lighting Designer
Production Electrician
Relighter
Operator / Programmer
Technicians
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Relighter

• Adapts lighting design to touring venues
• Tries to create same effects under differing
  conditions
• Often a role held by another member of team eg SM
  or LX Operator

Director
Lighting Designer
Production Electrician
Relighter
Operator / Programmer
Technicians
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Lighting Operator / Programmer

• Programs Lighting Desk and operates cues for show
• May take manual and visual / feelie cues
• Often works out programming steps to produce a
  specific visual effect

Director
Lighting Designer
Production Electrician
Relighter
Operator / Programmer
Technicians
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Technicians

• Operate and maintain all equipment
• May have floor cues during show eg changing
  colours, plugging up equipment etc
• May operate Follow-spots

Director
Lighting Designer
Production Electrician
Relighter
Operator / Programmer
Technicians
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Properties of Light

• There are several basic properties of light
• By manipulating and combining these, the Lighting
  Designer creates the desired look
• Most powerful tool of all is contrast
  everything is relative
• To what has gone before
• To what else we can see

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Intensity / Shadow

• Focus is generally drawn to brighter areas
• Shadow is as effective as Intensity in creating
  mood and atmosphere
• Humans cant hear what they cant see
• Often important to create the impression of
  shadow without being dark.

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Colour

• Can be thought of as mood temperatures
• Warm ColoursAnger, Passion, Content
• Cold ColoursFear, Isolation, Sadness
• Absence of colour can also be powerful
• Contrasting colours can create bright shadows
• Established colour conventions can help or hinder
  designs

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Angle

• Light from the front flattens contours and
  reduces depth
• Light from sides, above or below gives shape and
  form and creates interesting shadows
• Light from behind highlights outline and has a
  halo quality

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Source Where Light Comes From

• Light travels in depressingly straight lines
• Controlling where the light comes from is the
  only way to control where it goes
• Sidelighting and Footlighting can lift things out
  of the background

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Source What Light Comes From

• Practical lightsources are a good shorthand
• Also consider effect of seeing, or not seeing,
  theatrical lightsources.
• Allow rapid placement of time, place, period and
  more
• The logic of the lighting design can reinforce or
  contrast with visible lightsources

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Focus Tight / Wide

• Tightly focused lighting can create a Zooming
  in effect
• It can also create different locations, or a
  sense of isolation and distance
• Wide focused lighting feels more natural

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Quality Soft/Hard, Diffuse/Directional

• Controlling the quality of light controls the
  subtlety of the effect
• Hard edges, or strongly directional light, are
  very obvious
• Soft edges, or diffuse light, are more natural
  and subtle
• Hard edges can also be used for effect

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Texture

• Texture is a variation of colour or intensity
  across a field of light
• Much natural light is textured in some way by
  shadows of objects
• Textured light is more sculptural
• Texture can give a lot of information
• eg jail bars, light through windows

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Properties of Light
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Lighting Equipment

• Several different types of light for different
  purposes
• Lighting Designer will select equipment based on
  desired look, practical considerations, stock and
  budget
• 4 Main types of light
• Flood
• PAR
• Fresnel
• Profile

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Flood Light

• Simplest Lightsource
• Even coverage of large area eg cloths
• Hard to control

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PAR Can

• Varying fixed sizes of lens, built into bulb
• Oval shaped beam
• Fast response time
• Very bright and punchy
• Lightweight and cheap

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Fresnel

• Soft edged beam
• Variable focus from narrow to wide
• Barn doors allow more precise focusing
• Good light output

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Profile

• Variable sharpness
• Variable or Fixed size
• Shutters for precise shaping
• Gobos for texture and image projection
• Heavy, less light output than simpler units

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New TechnologyMoving Lights, Projection and more

• Modern technology allows much more flexibility in
  toolbox
• Can be used for effects or to increase options
  from lighting rig
• More variables mean much more planning and
  programming required for best effects

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Communicating with Light

• By combining and manipulating the properties of
  light, a lot of information can be communicated
• Lighting design can enhance storytelling by
  creating or reinforcing visual imagery
• Lighting can tell an audience about
• Location
• Time
• Mood/Atmosphere
• It can direct focus
• and be used as a narrative device in its own right

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Location

• Lighting can directly communicate physical
  location
• Once associated with a location it can quickly
  return us there
• The feel of the lighting can define our world
• Real / Virtual
• Historical / Contemporary / Futuristic
• Homely / Industrial etc

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Time

• Communicating a sense of time is one of the
  earliest uses of lighting
• The human body clock takes a lot from visual cues
• This allows rapid and easy communication of time
  to an audience

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Mood / Atmosphere

• Lighting is very effective at manipulating mood
  and atmosphere
• Subtle changes particularly in colour, angles,
  intensity and focus can create different moods

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Focus

• Lighting can draw focus to a particular person or
  place
• This can be used to direct the audiences
  attention
• Or as a storytelling device to communicate the
  status of characters
• Or to lift characters out of scenes for inner
  monologue / direct address scenes

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As a Narrative Device

• Recurring Lighting states can be used like a
  musical Leitmotif
• For example, Red light instead of blood in Romeo
  and Juliet
• Where a convention like this is established it
  can be very powerful, but if the rules are broken
  it becomes confusing

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Transition

• The ability to change lighting states is one of
  the things that makes lighting such a powerful
  storytelling device
• Remember that lighting is all about contrast
• Changes in lighting state, and the subtlety (or
  not) with which they happen, can communicate a
  great deal of information
• Even very subtle changes may not register but
  will have an effect on the audiences perceptions

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Lighting Styles

• Different theatrical genres have different
  lighting conventions
• Lighting may follow the conventions of the piece
  or may break those boundaries

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Brechtian

• Provoke mental rather than emotional response
• Stage must be brightly lit at all times
• Lightsources in view of audience
• Lighting changes for passage of time or change of
  scene but no effects to create mood / atmosphere

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Naturalistic

• Intention is to avoid theatricality
• Lighting must fit with the logic of the world
• Theatrical lightsources hidden from view
• Does not prevent lighting for mood etc so long as
  the logic works
• Naturalistic lighting effects can inform
  non-naturalistic storytelling

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Realistic

• Often misused in lighting terms to mean
  surrealistic, romantic, expressionist or
  exaggerated reality
• Still a sense of reality, but more use of
  emotional and narrative lighting
• In lighting terms often a halfway house between
  Brechtian and Naturalistic

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Other Styles

• Abstract / Absurd may have lighting directly at
  odds with the rationale of the world
• Musical Theatre often very Romantic, with
  songstates primarily led by emotion rather than
  any kind of logic

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Dont Forget Contrast!

• Many productions mix styles of lighting and
  theatrical form
• Contrast between styles or specific breaches of
  convention can be very powerful
• Narrative devices and mood especially powerful
  when used sparingly eg in Brechtian pieces

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The Lighting Process

• Lighting Design process runs from early
  conception through to Press Night
• Often Director and Set Designer will have a few
  sessions alone to agree overall design concepts
  before Lighting Designer joins

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Text Analysis

• All good design begins with the text
• Lighting Designer will read several times to
  identify
• Specific references
• Locations
• Times
• Emotions, Styles etc
• Plot!

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Design Meetings, Sketching and Discussion

• Lighting Designer will discuss concepts of style
  and form with creative team
• May sketch out or describe ideas for particular
  lighting moments
• May light modelbox to experiment and communicate

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Rehearsals

• Lighting Designer begins to visualise detailed
  lighting design, paying attention to
• Blocking
• Style and Form
• Rhythm and Pace
• Points for lighting changes
• And continues discussions with Set Designer and
  Director about design concepts
• LX Department begin building practicals and
  sourcing equipment

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Lighting Plan

• Usually drawn by Lighting Designer
• Shows the Designers requirements for equipment
• Types
• Position
• Colour
• Channel Numbers
• The main tool for communicating lighting
  information
• Often has to be prepared before final runs

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Focusing and Plotting

• Lighting Designer and LX Department focus each
  light in the rig
• Lighting Designer, Director and Operator program
  all lighting cues, and set timings
• Lighting Designer gives cue points for all cues
  to Deputy Stage Manager

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Technical Rehearsals

• Timings and sequences of cues are confirmed
• Lighting states, focusing and blocking tweaked
  and adjusted
• Plotting finished if not completed already
• Actors familiarised with Lighting states and
  effects
• Operators begin to learn and practicse cues

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Dress Rehearsals Previews

• Lighting Designer, Director and others watch and
  take notes to perfect lighting states
• Operators and DSM learn and become confident with
  cue sequences
• Timings are tweaked as the rhythm of the show
  beds down

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Press Night

• Lighting Designer hands over production to
  relighter, operator and technical team
• Creative team enjoy the feeling of having
  relinquishing control and discovering whether it
  is, in fact, all right on the night.

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Now its your turn!

• In groups, light one person to communicate an
  emotion
• Anger, Fear, Sadness, Joy, Disgust, Surprise,
  Curiosity, Love (or another if you wish)
• Try to communicate solely through lighting
• Explore ways of manipulating all the properties
  of light that we have looked at
• Try to avoid letting other groups know what
  emotion you have selected
• At the end of the preparation time each group
  will present and discuss their scene

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Conclusion

• There are many properties of light and many ways
  of using these to support a production
• Used correctly, lighting has an exceptional power
  to create and support powerful moments of theatre

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Targets

• By the end of the session, the student
• Will be aware of the different roles within a
  Lighting department
• Will have a basic understanding of the main
  creative properties of light and how these can be
  manipulated
• Will have been introduced to different styles of
  lighting design and the ways in which the style
  of lighting can interact with the style of the
  piece.
• Will understand the outline of the Lighting
  Design process
• Will have demonstrated methods of communicating
  information through lighting

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Conclusion

• Any Questions?

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Lighting and Storytelling

• The influence of Lighting Design
• On Dramaturgy