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.