Ice Skating High

I went ice-skating at the Irvine Spectrum a few days ago. I've never skated to lights and thumping music, and now it's a new pastime. The cyc lights were changing the floor's color. While skating I would always be watching the floor, and so my mood changed depending on the color. Cool blue colors were mostly used; I felt incredibly relaxed, too relaxed for ice-skating really. Getting dizzy, and forgetting all my worries at the time. Round and round I went, going hockey-player fast, and everything becoming blurry around me. It was a trip. This is what lighting can do.

Because of it's subtle and subliminal effects, I find lighting much more important than the set on stage or even costumes. I will always keep my eyes open light.

Moving Away from The Fire

We spoke at the beginning of the course, briefly, on how switching from incandescent light bulbs to LED lights or other more energy efficient lighting will be the first time in history where the human population is moving away from fire as our main source of light and energy. Traditionally speaking, this does not seem like a very good thing to some people but I wanted to provide some possible benefits of switching to more efficient lights!

Although the hue of the incandescent light is more familiar, homey and comforting to many people because that is what we are used to, there are ways to make LED lights less "harsh" on our eyes or basically make them more familiar or similar to incandescent lamps. (as I have shown with my previous post where I used tape and a sharpie to make a "gel" =])

According to the Energy Star website, if every American home replaced one incandescent bulb with an energy star approved bulb we would be saving enough energy to house 3 million homes for one whole year! We would also prevent 9 million pounds of greenhouse gas emissions!

Switching bulbs also saves money! Every bulb saves about $4o in its lifetime!

This is all information that is probably already obvious and available for everyone but I wanted to relate all of this back to saving energy and money in theatre. I also wanted to introduce the notion that it might also potentially get rid of the amber shift and could make cues that would otherwise look "muddy" because of this amber shift more clear while at the same time being dim. Just a thought! =]

Lights at Work

I work in the parking kiosks on campus (yes, I'm one of those guys) and was working late last night in one when I saw some interesting lights. As you may know, the kiosks all have glass on every side, and there is a rearview-esque mirror so I can see cars behind me. When it gets dark out the only way I can see anything outside the kiosk is from the car lights. What's interesting is the lights from the car make an optical illusion from my perspective. As I look straight ahead I see lights seemingly headed toward me, but in fact they are from cars behind me. What is happening is the lights from behind shine through the glass behind me and reflect on the front glass, so it looks like the lights are headed straight at me. While I appreciate how cool this is from a lighting perspective, it is inconvenient as I stand up everytime I think a car is coming through and I end up standing way more times than I need to...and I get tired...

I'm at work again right now so I will be able to see this illusion again tonight!

Jane Eyre

Last spring, Annie Louie produced her take on the story of Jane Eyre through a mixture of movement and acting with actual text. The production in the spring contained sound, minimal sets and very minimal costumes and it did not contain any lighting design as it was produced in the Grotowski Barn.
Having never read nor seen the story of Jane Eyre, I went in to the production with a vague understanding that it was some sort of a love story (with conflicts) and not much else. When I stayed for the talk back that time, we discussed parts of the story that were missed and unclear to those who didn't know the story and even to some of those who were familiar with it. One of the scenes that was very unclear then was the fire scene. Many people found that they did not understand what was going on during that scene and because of that, they missed a vital point in the plot.
Annie Louie did a continuation of that story this quarter in the XMPL??? Theater in the new Contemporary Arts Center on campus. In this production, lighting design was available! (Not just lighting design, but phenomenal lighting design!) This time around, all the scenes that included fire were not only clear but extremely obvious and captivating! The lighting really enhanced the movement and other elements and the movement really correlated with the lighting. During this talk back, the clarity of this scene was no longer an issue. This is a great example as to how lighting in any show is not only beneficial but necessary for the audience to understand the story you are trying to tell or to at least make their own assumptions.

Dyana

Airports

Flouting Jaymie's suggestion we not do all of our posts at once, I have another post.

I live in NorCal, and I love to hate flying out of San Jose Mineta. It's covered with overpasses and concrete and construction. However, flying out at night, the airport had used lights to colour the undersides of all the overpasses. It made all the concrete much less depressing, and especially the cool blues highlighting the bridges with amber street lights above them, there was a really clean contrast. I thought it was a really neat example of commercial/industrial lighting, being used to make the airport look cosmopolitan and functional. This especially when it's under construction, and a hassle to get around in, was interesting.

In any case, it was really neat to look at all the lines the light created, and how the lights worked with each other and with the lights of the airport beyond them. Especially how it worked to, at least for me, transform a place I've always understood to be grey and complicated and grungy into something that looked appealing and happening.

Alabama

This is a view of the Mississippi River from the St James Hotel in Selma, Alabama. It's been my computer background alternately for several years, since I took the picture. It was a little after 7 am, it was February, but looking outside you'd never know it. The way the sun just hit the brick building across the alley was beautiful, and ever since my childhood princess pink room, I've always been calmed by a warm sunlight hitting a pink wall.

Anyway, I think this picture really shows how light hitting a surface can just act as an automatic comfort.

Celebration after the quarter!

I love dancing, and I love going out to clubs to dance when my favorite DJs are playing. Yesterday I went out for the first time since August, and I asked myself, what would a club be without the awesome LED lights, and the strobe lights? My favorite LED light colors are the purple/magenta colors because I'm convinced that they make you feel relaxed and make you let go so you can dance and enjoy your night. Also, the strobes are very appropriate for a certain type of music you can dance to, which is electro/house music. Without those strobes, the atmosphere would not be as exciting and full of energy. This picture was taken in August at Sutra of the twin DJs The EC Twins.

Over the course of this class, I have learned and discovered that I am into back lights that push the subjects forward. I always got excited whenever somebody presented something with channel 23 at full. I have always been fascinated by beautiful yet otherworldly things, so I love it when the subjects look ethereal and mysterious.

This picture is not quite channel 23 at full, but I just love how the light envelops her and pushes her forward. The source is coming from the sun, which has always been my favorite source of light. I especially love the sun when it is on the cusp of dusk--around 4:00 in the afternoon during the winter. Everything looks more mystical and entrancing. It is as if the sun is having a half-off sale, before calling it a day (Okay, I do realize I used a bad metaphor, but you know what I mean. lol.)

I learned a lot from 50C from various instruments to colors, but what I loved learning most is how light can give off so many emotions and feelings. I am eternally grateful for having the opportunity to take this class.

The Integrity of Design

I've been thinking about the tech process a lot recently. And aside from production meetings, tech is really the only time that all the aspects of design for a show really come together to create a shared final product.

But what happens when things don't work? You change 'em right?

And then I thought, but when things don't mesh, who's the one that has to change the most? They're not gonna make costumes dye their costumes if the colors aren't right. They're not gonna make scenic repaint. If anything, they'll go to lighting and ask them to change. It's not a vendetta or anything, it's just the easiest and cheapest out of all three. (And then there's sound, but they're literally in their own world, pretty much unaffected by the others.)

I feel like, as a lighting designer, it must be really difficult, especially in situations like these to really put forth the show that you envisioned. It seems that lighting design is most often compromised for the sake of the show.

Or maybe i'm just overthinking that. I mean, if anything, it's just an issue of color. It's not like you're changing angles or anything.

maybe it's not as bad as I thought. i just know i'm the kind of person who'd get really upset if i couldn't use the exact Broadway Pink or Sangria that I wanted.

A carousel of color...

So maybe i've just been on a Disney kick since i work there now, or maybe it's because i'
m really five years old, but the new(-ish) World of Color show in Disney California Adventure is one of the COOLEST things i've ever seen.

Everyone tells me they start crying after the stampede scene, when Alan Menken's "So Close" starts playing and they do a montage of the Disney couples in love. I tell them i start crying when all the lights in the water come on for the first time.

I mean LOOK AT THAT.

The thought and imagineering that went into this show much have been insane. Every single one of those water jets has a ring of LEDs around the base which just fills the stream with a pure bold color. which is the coolest thing i've ever seen. I don't even really understand quite how that works, especially how the color doesn't bleed out of the jet. It looks like thick acrylic paint is jumping in and out of Paradise Bay.

And then on top of that they have fans of water spraying outward to make a faux projection screen which actually works extremely well. And then on top of that, they use lasers to project outward on the water, as well as using the lights on Mickey's Fun Wheel and California Screamin', which just adds a whole other layer of awesome to the show.

And then top top that all off, the pyro inside me went crazy when they turned off all the water and just used jets of fire to create another scape, which i thought was really cool and was an awesome throwback to the beginnings of lighting design, at least thats what was going through my head.

In all, i just think that Disney really goes above and beyond and they really find new ways of presenting things. and THAT's why they're allowed to charge exorbitant prices to their theme parks. I really think it's worth paying 80 bucks because just to go and see the thought that goes into everything, it's really overwhelming.

Remember the time when we stole the whole day?

What is it about camera phone photos that's just so great? Typically, nothing. The lighting is usually so bad that you can barely distinguish humans from large potted plants. But this one's lighting is decent enough that is captured the actual lighting from the room. It was date night and I'd spent the day cleaning my fiancé's (his name is Jon) room, and since we're young and poor we eat dinner on a lap desk of sorts that we put on his bed. There are a few things easily-notiseable about this photo: first, the time of day. It's darker and casting a shadow on the door behind Jon, so it's probably somewhere around sunset. The light next to me is in the corner and seems to light the room fairly decently, so the room is probably small. There's a blue light on the floor and reflecting on the bottom of the door, but it doesn't match the bluish tint at the top of the door (and typically, the moon doesn't make the floor's kind of distinct blue unless it's on a stage), so it's coming from some sort of electronic device (it was the TV). It's probably against "code" to have a room with no windows (though I could be wrong), so we can safely assume that in this Irvine apartment there is a window opposite Jon that is casting his shadow on the door behind him.

It's amazing what lighting can tell us, and it's amazing what we can tell about lighting. They say a photo is worth a thousand words, and though I'm not typically one for clichés, I could probably write another 800 words about this photo after this post.

In addition, I was looking at this photo while I was listening to this song. I highly recommend checking it out because auditory enhancement brings a whole new level to this photo. Also, it's a cute song.

It's been real, Drama 50C. Thanks for an awesome quarter, Jaymi, Stacey and Karen!

There's no such thing as black.

Or at least there hasn't been until recently.

I was watching a dance show at my friends CC, and after the first piece, the lights went to a blue out for a scenic transition and the crew came out. But in the blue out it looked like everyone was wearing shades of brown.

I remember reading somewhere awhile ago that true black doesn't exist in fabric. That might have been wrong. I feel like there is fabric that can stay black, but some clothing companies would rather try to dye it to save on cost. Maybe it was true black fabric dye that doesn't exist. I think it's really funny how light works on fabric (well, pretty much anything with color) especially under colored light. Light bounces off the "color" of the object, but in situations where the light provided doesn't have those colors to bounce off, it reflects what it can.

And that sort of made me think if it's really the leftover color waves in the light that we see, or if it's the eye compensating for the lack of that color. hmm...

Dewy nostalgia

I swear these posts have been written for a while, I was just too lazy to post them until now. D: *"Yesterday" was actually somewhere around Week 6.

It rained yesterday* and this photo was just too gorgeous to pass up. I know I have a fetish for outdoor lighting, but as a dancer and writer and computer geek I tend to spend all my time indoors, so those times when I actually get some fresh air in my brain make me happy. You can't really get the dewy look that was on everything from the photo, but you can at least get a good idea of the effect of the lighting. The photo has a mini-lens flare in the center on the sign, and though that wasn't my intention in taking the photo, it gives an accurate representation of the feeling I got from the whole scene. The lens flare gives the whole thing a nostalgic attitude, and the extra-bright white light from the cloud in the background creates a red glow on the trees in front of it. All together, the whole scene definitely feels fresh and glowy, which I strongly associate with nostalgia. It's like having a stage IN REAL LIFE. :O

Yellow Lighting Fail

I went to dinner with a few friends at El Cholo by my apartment a couple of weeks ago and took this photo because the lighting in the restaurant, while atmospherically calming because of its dimness, was downright awful. The menu had a certain sheen on it that didn't allow me to read it in the lighting provided, so I was constantly angling the menu right and left just to read one line. It made ordering difficult (and on top of that, when we finally got the food, it wasn't nearly as good as I expected for an 'authentic Mexican restaurant,' but then again what should have I expected for Irvine?). I figured it was probably because the lighting in the restaurant was yellow and the menu was yellow, and the menu cover didn't do the whole situation any favours.

Sadly, this has coloured half my opinion about El Cholo (sadly because it means I'm a critical nerd and just judgmental in general, hahaha) and I will probably not be returning. Though it's only half because of the lighting. The other half is because my grandma's cooking puts the whole restaurant to shame. REAL MEXICAN FOOD, PLS.

Red and Brown Water

Even though I wrote my paper on "Godot", I wish I could have written another on "R&BW." The lighting was beautiful to look at, and both told a story and aided the story being told by the actors. At first I was confused when I looked at the program and saw Stacy's name as both the lighting designer and scenic designer, but once the show began it became apparent the lighting was the scenery. From the sillhouted actors at the beginning, to the gobo's showing the actors behind bars, to the cyc lights changing for time of day, and to the dance party lights, there were lots of themed lights that fit the needs perfectly. It's hard to say what my favorite lights were because they all were so visually appealing. In short, the design was succesful in that in met the needs of the production (creating a set through lights) while maintaining striking visuals that were awesome to look at.

This is a picture of Beyoncé kicking off her "I Am..." Tour.

Her lighting designer (Justin Collie of Artfag LLC) did not put any front lights, so you couldn't see anything but her figure. The light source and the hazers in the back give it a mysterious yet alluring quality to it. It just exudes grace, elegance, and confidence. It is also very flattering on her figure.

Whenever I'm feeling down, or nervous because I have to present something in class, I like to take a deep breath and then imagine that there is a light source and hazers behind me as I walk into the room.

Red Robin

Yesterday I went to dinner to Red Robin at the Irvine Spectrum with Kristine and Jessica, and right above our table there was this straight light shining on our table. It had a red tinted glass right underneath it, that had a circle in the middle that was not tinted, where the light went through. When you directly look at it, it looks like a pretty bright and whit light shining through, but because of the red color around it, it made it more pleasant on the our table. If the glass wasn't there, it would be way to bright to eat!

O, Christmas Tree

While I was home, we bought new lights for our Christmas tree this year at Costco. I was a little skeptical because the lights my dad chose were LED lights and I knew they tend to look more blue. And lights on a Christmas tree should be more light or amber to reflect the magic of Christmas (of course). But I was surprised to find out that when we decorated our tree, the lights were actually quite white and not blue! I guess they figured out a way to color correct the lights. Unfortunately, my dad bought some more LED light to light up this Christmas tree portrait that my Grandma had made with old costume jewelry from the 40s, and that strand is definitely more blue than white. Which made me and my sister sad. But hey, it's nice to know that LED lights are looking more like normal lights and not some weird alien technology.

Magical Glow

This is also a picture of a concert that my friend had been to. Instead of Arctic Monkeys though, this band was Taking Back Sunday. These lights make it appear as if an upbeat song was playing; I have often found this effect to be a great way to get the adrenaline of the audience flowing. I can also imagine some of these lights being on rotators–if not all of them, than at least a few. This is actually a really cool set up to me. The strong beams give it that quick laser like feel. Like my previous blog though, it looks as if there are very few front lights. Maybe the reasoning for this is to help conform to the already mythical status musicians’ walk around with. As we addressed in class, the use of back light can often push the objects out into the audience, or give it that halo glow. The effect these dim lights produce is the magical glow that make us buy clothes in a dressing room, only to find out we look terrible in them when we walk in the sunlight–a reference to a great Seinfeld episode. Overall, I love the limited amount of illumination, and I feel that although this is a relatively simple lighting design, it is quite entertaining.

Lighting A Concert

I was scrolling through my friend’s photo album, and I dug up this old picture featuring Arctic Monkeys. As you can see, it looks as if there are a few Par cans casting light down on the musicians–particularly the drummer. The four lights create a really cool glow on the drummer’s drum set, and I like to imagine that this may have been at a drum solo. I can’t quite tell if it is a blue curtain in back, or a cyc light. Either way, the blue gives the musicians kind of a water or rather serene vibe. Overall, it looks like there may have not been too much front light because the musicians are not lit too much from the front perspective. Rather, the blue cyc, and the pools of bright light from above are primarily lighting the set. I didn’t even know who this band was, but I guessed their music was more alternative by the calming colors. After I listened to their songs, it is obvious that they are in fact alternative. Thus, this is a perfect example of lighting used for mood. Had the lights been a harsh red instead of blue, then we may have thought a death metal band was playing.

Next to Normal Lights

Recently, I started becoming interesting in the broadway musical Next to Normal. One of the coolest aspects of the show is the set. The show is based on a family whose mother is suffering from mental issues and the set is like a house cut in the front. They're three levels to the house, but each level has compact fluorescent bulbs in the ceiling. The back area of the lighting is filled with these bulbs and it creates a really cool affect in the house. I watched a video on the backstage of the Booth Theatre, where it was on Broadway, and it said that they used different types of colors, primarily green, blue, and red. It blends together with the back wall. One of the actors was talking about how they use the LED strip lights to blend together yellow and green to make the back wall blue.

Oh Beautiful Night

When I still lived in my previous town of Turlock, Ca, there was a house that always caught my eye at night. I wish I had taken a picture of it, but alas, I haven’t been home for quite a while. However, it is strongly imprinted in my brain. The house has a modern architectural look. It is a white house with sharp angles; the type of design fit for a Stanley Kubrick film. The lighting on this house is superb. What the homeowner decided to do was put a bunch of little lights around the base of the house. These lights shoot upward and produce a cool color that wash up on the white of the house. This creates an almost solitary point of view because it feels like it replicates the moonlight. Rather than an amber glow of warmth, it is a cool light of solitude. The shadows produced by the trees give it an even more supernatural/romantic feel. The fact that I have never seen who lives in this house, and that I often stroll by it on my nightly walks when everyone is asleep, make me feel as if a very suavely dressed man smoking a pipe is sitting in the house with the set design of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Nonetheless, I find the lighting highly supportive of both the house’s sophistication and eroticism.

Beyond the Horizon

This is an interesting picture because of the Our Town projects, and my recent trip to South and North Dakota. Both Our Town and the Dakotas give me that sense of simple farm life, and I feel this picture can easily be set in those locations. The amber glow of the sky is presenting the idea that the sun is either setting or rising. For the sake of this blog, I would like to say it is rising. I feel that the par can is able to produce a look similar to this sky. A few back diagonals could help the effect too by touching the back of the objects shoulders. Of course, there would have to be a few warm fills in the front. I think that lighting in this warm amber gives a mood of nostalgia or life to me. Also that cool light on the mountains–probably produced principally by the absence of light–give it a very naturalistic touch. Many Eugene O’Neil plays comes to my mind especially Beyond the Horizon. I would like to have lighting that emulates this picture in that play. It is of course a play about going to the unseen. The main character Robert wants to go “Beyond the Horizon” and see locations on the ocean. This lighting gives that same adventurist mood to me. What is beyond those hills? And where else is this beautiful sunlight also rising around the world? It speaks hope, and adventure to me.

P.S.-For some reason, I could not post the photo on the blog. Here is the url. Just copy and paste.

http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view;_ylt=A2KJkK6lJNxOt1UAX_aJzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTBlMTQ4cGxyBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDaW1n?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fp%3Dalfalfa%2Bfield%26ei%3DUTF-8%26fr%3Dyfp-t-701%26tab%3Dorganic%26ri%3D48&w=467&h=720&imgurl=www.visualphotos.com%2Fphoto%2F2x2659977%2Firrigation_sprinklers_spray_alfalfa_fields_in_cb011042.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.visualphotos.com%2Fimage%2F2x2659977%2Firrigation_sprinklers_spray_alfalfa_fields_in&size=45.1+KB&name=&p=alfalfa+field&oid=1d02457dbadb5ccc0fb89c75b1c48a36&fr2=&fr=yfp-t-701&tt=&b=31&ni=60&no=48&tab=organic&ts=&sigr=12p0ls4gk&sigb=134rs7fvk&sigi=12v3ol42b&.crumb=U88hyp6p.32

Model Stages

I was going through some old things/works and throwing them out when I came across two models that I made for Scenic Design. I threw them out but not before taking pictures so I can save them in my portfolio. I realized I needed good lighting in order for these pictures to come out well and not too dark or yellow so I chose natural lighting: the sun.

The light was actually coming through the window and through some blinds so it had some interesting effects on the models. However, if these were real sets, the lighting wouldn't be "realistic" since the shapes the lighting makes on the floors do not match the doorways and windows of the models. In other words, it does not emulate how lighting would or should work if the models were life-size. Also, the natural light does not convey any sort of mood except maybe "happy, outdoors, bright, natural, etc." The appropriate lighting for the first model should be "creepy and desolate" and the second model should be "surreal and abstract." This is where colors would probably come in handy to work with and enhance the moods that the scenes and sets are trying to convey.   

In the Red and Brown Water, an E-Run's perspective

I'm doing e-run for Red & Brown Water here at UCI, which opens this weekend in the Claire (shameless plug). This is my first time working more hands on with the lighting process from load-in to the actual show, and eventually to strike. It has been very interesting and even intimidating. I cannot quite wrap my head around the thought process that goes into a show with a larger scale of lighting than I am used to. The Claire Trevor is the biggest theatre I have ever worked in, and the amount of lights up in the air and on booms is a headache inducer. I have no idea how Stacy does it, but I hope that further instruction (perhaps Fall 2012? -hint hint-) will help it all make sense in my head. I think I just need a chance to be more hands on, and so far I have gotten that from e-run. I've seen the frustration that can come from an idea that fell short or having to align hand-made gobos made of mesh that refuses to line up on the floor read. This is also my first time seeing so many changes being done daily to the lighting. It has been interesting to see how it has changed and develops. Gels have changed and focus has been adjusted several times. All together, this experience with Red & Brown and 50C has been helping me understand lighting so much more and I'm very glad I've involved myself in them both.

Jess - the aBad one

Lighting Snobs, with Jessica A. and Kristine R.

It seems that I have picked up a new "character" to parody when I have ridiculous conversations with Kristine R. We often joke about the deep meaning behind every sort of light we can find. I'll slap on a snobbish accent and act like I know what I am talking about when I go into the details of the mood of the lighting and meaning behind it. The ridiculous part comes in when we're critiquing the lighting of a bathroom, a statue sitting out in the sun, complete darkness, or a street light. We'll come up with some obnoxious analysis like saying a plastic bag being hit by light from a nearby street light is "a metaphor for global warming". It's a sort of "you have to be there" situation. I'm half tempted to go to our last class acting like a ridiculous snob. Kristine and I have fun with it. Maybe I'll throw it into an improv show. Kristine and I are also tempted to make it into a webseries on youtube.