Cheap/No Lighting
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Topic: Cheap/No Lighting
Posted By: Guests
Subject: Cheap/No Lighting
Date Posted: 3/02/01 at 11:06pm
We will be producing our first play, The Odd Couple (Female Version) on the stage of our local tech school auditorium and their lighting is woefully inadequate. (One red spot , one blue, and each controlled by a push button). Not having any lighting experience I wanted to ask if it would be worthwhile to rent a decent lighting setup or since the play is so simplistic in every other way, if we should just go with what we have? We don't have a *lot* to spend, but want this to be a decent first effort that will bring the community back for the next one. The auditorium seats about 200.
Thanks
Bill
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Replies:
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 3/03/01 at 9:12am
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Can the audience see what is going on? Is the existing lighting going to be a distraction because of things like shadows or dark spots on the stage? Remember that if you bring in extra lighting there is a problem of control and coordination with the existing set up. Also, is there sufficient power supply? We had done a light plot for one of our dinner theaters and when we went to set up found that we were blowing circuit breakers left and right. Of course we had to downsize from 6 lights (small stage for our dinner theaters since we do a lot of interactive stuff throughout the venue) to 2 lights. If you need to bring in lighting, keep it simple - maybe a broad wash across the stage to make the lighting even.
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 3/03/01 at 12:09pm
I agree with Steve - you want to have a nice looking set without a lot of shadows and dark areas. Two lights are not going to do it - you can take the gels out to get white but there must be some other lighting for other uses of the stage.
We use par 38 lamps - 250 watt halogen in a flood configuration. Most circuits are 20 amps but we limit ourselves to 1000 watts (four X 250 watts). We use extension cords to split up the load. These fixtures seem to work well up to 20 foot throw. I have seen several people who have made their own fixtures using coffee cans and porcelan lamp bases. I have talked to some people who have tried residential light dimmers but none of tham have had any good luck.
Lighting electric load add up fast so take a good look at the wiring in your space. There are several theater lighting web sites - I can only think of one off hand but the address is in the office - I'll add it later - Bill Katrina - maybe someone else has the address handy.
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 3/03/01 at 1:57pm
Here are a few web sites to try:
http://www.stetson.edu/departments/csata/thr_guid.html#Intro
or
http://fp.enter.net/~mdobbins/techie_talk.htm
Good luck
Doug
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