How to Set Up Stage Lights
Whether you're considering lighting design as a career or just want to help out with your child's elementary school play, the principles of lighting for the stage are the same.
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Instructions
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Make sure you have wired your lights in such a way that you will not risk blowing a circuit. A simple formula (called the West Virginia formula for reasons that will soon become apparent) can help you. To calculate how many lights you can run off of one circuit, use the formula W=V x A--that is watts=volts x amps. The wattage should be marked on your lamps. You will need to check your circuit breaker to see how many amps it is rated for. The voltage should be 120 in most buildings.
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Create your lighting plan and begin hanging lights. Your lighting plan should have a list of each light, its location and what part of the stage it will light. You can hang your lighting instruments from pipes mounted in the ceiling or from vertical poles with weighted bottoms located offstage. Consider what type of lighting instruments you have at your disposal. Most likely they will be par cans or Source 4s, although strip lights and spotlights are common in venues that were not designed as performance spaces.
Know what you are lighting. Whether it's a play or a concert, go to rehearsals and take notes of changes in mood and location of people onstage so that you can adjust your lights accordingly. -
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Consider gels and gobos. Gels are colored, plastic-like inserts used to change the color of a light. Frosts are a particular kind of gel that are usually clear but have a bumpy texture that diffuses the light. Gobos are metal stencils used to create a pattern with the light. Popular gobos include patterns, clouds and "breakup gobos," which are dotted patterns used to create the look of fallen leaves or spots.
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Focus your lights. One popular method is the McCandless Method, where you focus one light directly at your targeted space along with two other lights at 45-degree angles to your target area. Make sure you have the ability to light the whole space as well as isolate certain areas.
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Write your light cues. If you're lucky, you can program all your cues into the dimmer board. If you're working with an older XY preset board, you will need to write up your cues on a cue sheet and set them manually during the performance. Once you have written your cues, rehearse with the band/actors to make sure your cues work well with what they are doing. Always do a preshow dimmer check to ensure that all your lights are plugged in and that no gels have slipped or lamps have burned out.
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Tips & Warnings
For additional reading, check out "Designing with Light" by J. Michael Gillette.
