I didn’t realise just how much work there is to go into the lighting and sounds of a production. I was also shocked to find just how much you are able to do with lighting. How the colour of the light can change the whole mood or how the length of a fade in or out can change the whole scene. I also didn’t realise the importance of transitions within a piece. When Donald put on the lighting workshop I felt it something which I could not miss, especially if it meant I was able to try out new ideas.
Intensity, duration, colour, relation and atmosphere were all words which kept making an appearance throughout the day. These words helped to create the vision wanted, at each stage as a performer we need to know what we are trying to create, what atmospherically? What emotionally? What is it that we want the audience to know, or to feel or be able to capture? We looked at two bins on the stage. When the lights simply shone white of course it looked ‘lovely’ but it did not make me feel much. When it was changed to a slight purple/blue tone, it became cold, almost silent on the stage. As if waiting for someone to come along wrapped in their coat and scarf with tears falling down their face. This image became sad, it felt almost lonely. We then looked at it with the colour red shone onto it. This completely changed how I was feeling. I felt the red echo off the bins, I felt anger, love, I saw blood and pain. Such a simple change took me from one emotion to a complete polar opposite without any actors or knowledge of the scene or performance which was about to occur.
There is a hidden trick to lighting I feel as it automatically tells your audience how they should be feeling before given them any other source to go on. It alarms them of the upset, pain or happiness that is to come so they are able to engage themselves in the action but also prepare for what is going to happen.
Who knew the importance of transitions? I didn’t realise just how much light transitions did within a performance, but they completely change the emotions an audience feels, they show a different setting, different feelings and different characters sometimes. We used two spot lights one central and the other to the right wing of the stage. Looking myself I didn’t like the transition, the cross fade just didn’t seem to work in my eyes. One went off too sharply and the other didn’t come on in time. As I mentioned this I was allowed to try out my own idea. I found this difficult as I had no knowledge of lighting so trying to put across what I wanted was difficult. What I wanted to see is the central spotlight come up on the actor with him already stood there, then for that spot to slowly fade, for instance an 8 second fade. When this fade gets to 3 seconds the other spot would begin to fade up taking 5 seconds to get to full beam. As soon as the 2nd spot comes on the actors head would be facing that way and they would begin to move so that they walk into the new spot coming up, that way as the spot becomes full power the actor has just reached the central spot of the new spotlight. You can see why I found it quite difficult to alliterate what I was imagining in my mind. the technician’s managed to understand and did it, to me this looked so much better, you saw the thought process changing from the actor as one scene or memory faded and another appeared. This subtle change of down and up time made all the difference as it was as if as an audience member we were able to see the thought as the actor was moving from each place. We tested to see if a simultaneous snap would work however it was too much, it wasn’t nice on the eye for an audience member and if I am honest it kind of looked messy. As if their was no process or change from one place to another. The story almost stopped then suddenly started again.
There is also the edge of the light to think about, a hard edge can make all the difference when thinking about how the character is feeling and what you are trying to show. Sometimes a softer edge works better. For instance if you were acting on stage but having a memory in the background, a hard edge would be really effective for the actor, then where the memory is the spot could be a different colour helping to balance the emito9nal reaction but a soft edge would also make it seem more mythical, more mesmerizing and show that it is not what is happening in the here and now. This use of coloured memories also makes them seem not quite as accurate as a white light, more that individuals memory of an incident rather that maybe what truly happened. this could also be a really nice transition if the actor is going into the past as they are walking in to this soft faded edge as if walking back into that memory.
there are spotlights, house lights, birdies, LED, blackout, disco balls, fantastical or honest lighting, coloured, floods. Each one shows something different. The angle of the lighting also changes, whether you are lit from the floor, the side, above, or even back lit. Where do the shadows go? Are their any shadows to be seen or re two spots counter acting each others?
I feel there is now a lot to think about with lighting specifically the places/destinations I have, what colours or lighting would be recognised in such places and what mood I am trying to create. Although I have left this workshop happy and intrigued by all I have learnt. I feel slightly confused and yes a tad scared as to what I want and need my lighting to be.