Alexa_Charlie


 * Alexa's research page **

= Lighting Research =

Uses of Lighting:
// There are 8 different ways which to use lighting for theatres and stages! //

First of all there is Illumination: Where you can see perfectly what is happening on stage. If the lighting design is useless, it means that the audience has to squint, therefore wrecking their eyesight, and this is just to see the actors who are performing on stage. Sometimes, this is done deliberately just to make the audience, focus more!

Secondly, there is revalation form: To change the look of onstage shapes, this is particularly useful for 3D shapes which are changed onstage throughout the performance.

Thirdly, there is focus. This is important, in order for pin-pointing the direction of the audience's attention to a specific area of the stage or moving swiftly to a different place.

Fourthly, there is mood, this is dreadfully important for setting the specific emotion for a particular scene. An example of this would be a strong red lighting effect has a distinctive different effect, to that of a strong lavender lighting effect.

Another is the location and the time of day. This is where the lighting directors establish a position at a certain time of day or in a certain space on the stage. An example of this would be the colour, blue, show night-time and oranges and reds show sun-rise and sunset. Certain pattern plates are used to show sky scenes such as moon, stars, etc.

The sixth point that is also just as important is projection or stage elements. This kind of lighting is used to project certain sceneries using gobos at certain points of the day or as acting scenery on-stage.

Plot, is another point. It is an event in lighting which may cause the event on-stage. This is a rather large part of the story, and is one of the first parts of the preparation for any group's devised piece.

Composition. This is used to show the specific areas on-stage that the designer/director wants the audience to see the actors performing on-stage. The designer/director also wants the audience to make them see a "painted picture".

Technically, lighting design is an art form. There are many different ways and types of things that it can be used for. One modern movement claims that lighting design is there to make the atmosphere imaginative, in where these movements are based, and still keeping to the main point of the story. These movement are trying to tell us, and I quote " 'Mood' or emotion is debatable but the atmosphere is essential."

**Now we go on to usefulness of lighting...**

//There are 4 useful things that we should know about lighting. Intensity, Colour, Pattern and Focus.//
 * __Intensity:__**

Intensity is measured in Lux/Lumens/Foot Candles. The Luminaire depends upon: - the power of the lamp - the design of the instrument and its corresponding efficiency - the presence or abscence of colour gels or gobos - distance from area to be lit - the beam or field angle of the fixture - colour and substance to be lit - nero-optics of the whole scene


 * __Colour:__**

- Colour temperature is measured in Kelvin - Gel colours are organised by several different systems maintained by colour manufacturing companies - Colour of a light is determind by its gel and the power of the lamp is at. - As the percentage of full power of the lamp used drops, the tungsten filament ina bulb glows orange instead of white. - This known as //amber drift// or //amber shift//. - An example of this like a 1000-watt instrument at 50% will appear far more orange than a 500-watt instrument at full.

__**Pattern:**__