Lighting ComparisonBy Jordan Alexander Simpson

Musical Theatre

Lights Used

LED Parcan & Strip

Profiles Fresnels Intelligent Lighting Floods Prop Lighting

Why LED’s are used to add bright colours to a piece. They are

also used because they don’t generate much heat and in doing this don’t use much power.

Profiles are used for multiple things in musical theatre one being static spot lights the other being for effects. They are used for effects because of their shutters and or an iris, which allows you to shape the beam around anything.

Fresnels are used for general cover and sometimes floor/up lighting this is because they can be focused to create an even spread of light across the stage.

Intelligent lighting is used in musical theatre for follow spots, effects and for their aesthetic feel.

Floods are used to light wide spaces where the direction of the light does not need to be controlled. Such as a cyclorama and the audience.

Prop lighting is where a prop is meant to light up and instead of using another light to light it and create the effect of it being on the lighting technician wired it to make it work on stage.

Musical Theatre

Beams Beams are created by all lights in any environment the

effect used in musical theatre is used to WOW the audience. This effect is created by using haze.

Side Light Side light is used to highlight the shape of the performers

body, when dancing. This is also done to add depth to a piece giving the performance the third dimension.

Back Light Backlight again is used to add the third dimension to the

piece. Back light brings the character off the backdrop/set ensuring the audience will see them and they wont blend in.

Top Light Is used again to highlight the actor or prop on stage to make

it more prominent and important then the other things on stage. This focuses the audiences attention to that area.

False Colour False colour is where by the use of audience lighting or

backlight with a bright colour makes the audience believe the entire stage is the one colour.

Effects

Musical Theatre

Beams Side Light Back Light Top Light False Colour Set Lighting

All of these are used to stylise the performances to set the date, time, location and other key factors of the performance that would not be told through movement or dialogue.

Mood

Musical Theatre – SemioticsColour = Mood = Audience Understanding

Musical theatre has a very semiotic approach to lighting design as designers have to design in such away to spoon feed the audience important information like emotions. An example of this is a fight scene where there would be a snap contrast to the scene before, changing the backlight from say blue or purple to red which underlines and anger and pain to the audience. This is one of the most effective changes as it allows the audience to understand the text without having to think about it. This is a subliminal change which as a result drives the narrative forward.

Retail

The lighting used in Ted Baker was made up using a mix of generic lighting, Pin Spots and custom made blown glass lampshades. This would have been done to make the shop bright however highlighting clothing within the shop. With the Pin Spots creating a narrow, however bright beam that ensured that they covered a single item, made that item stand out next to another. The generic lighting, which the custom lampshades were part of allowed ‘the audience’ or the customers to find there way around the shop easily. In my opinion this lighting design really worked for the shop, as it was bright, however still had highlighted displays.

The atmosphere in Ted Baker was portrayed to be sophisticated. This was done in many ways one of them being the lighting design. This was because of the blown glass generic lighting. However this was not due to the effects the light, however it was due to the aesthetic feel that the lights gave off.

The colours in Ted Baker also changed the atmosphere that was created. This was down to the colour and their connotations. Red, black and browns are used in Ted Baker. These colours all signify wealth and passion. The blacks and brows also give connotations of a vintage feel, which flows with the theme of the shop and their style of clothing.

The generic lighting in Ted Baker was made up of custom made lampshades, which were connected by lengths of wire that ran throughout the shop.

In the windows of the shop Pin spots were used with barn doors on to highlight items that were on a raised platform. This made the shop window look professional and unique. Which is key and a large shopping center, which have to stand out from lots of other shops.

Retail

All Saints used little to no generic lighting and used lots of fresnels the highlight different parts of the shop. This was key in generating the overall atmosphere, following the design and feel of the store. The fresnels in the store were on a generic lighting rig to generate the rustic atmosphere the store was going for, in its ‘set’ design. The overall atmosphere created was a rustic, vintage and simply classic design, which ran through the entire store. This is key as it portrayed the style of clothing the store sold.

The colours in the store were monotone (black and white) this generated a theme. The colours signify purity and cleanliness, which are positive connotations on the store.

Fresnels with barn doors are used not only to light specific items but also for the aesthetic feel within the shop.

Retail

In this shop pin spots, film set lighting (floods with barn doors), fluorescent lighting tubes and LED backlight was used to generate the overall atmosphere. This shop had multiple shops in one however they all tied together by the lighting and design.

In this shop pin spots, film set lighting (floods with barn doors), fluorescent lighting tubes and LED backlight was used to generate the overall atmosphere. This shop had multiple shops in one however they all tied together by the lighting and design.

Fluorescent lighting tubes were used in a different way to what I had already seen around the Trafford Centre. They had put T-shirts over the tubes to highlight what was on the stand below.

Music Gig

• LED• LED lights are used to add colour and make the gig more visually dynamic

this creates a mood and emotion to match the dynamics of the song. • Profiles

• Profiles are used to pin point and highlight different performers on the stage instead of using fresnels because profiles can be isolated more so then a fresnel.

• Intelligent Lighting• Intelligent lights are used to create beams and other visual effects these

lights are used to create the WOW factor again to make the performance more visually dynamic.

• Blinders• Blinders are a non direct way to interact with audience this is a way of

exciting the audience at the climax of each song. • Floods

• Floods are used as backlight to add to the blinders along with 1k Fresnels to add depth to the performance.

Music Gig

Effects All lighting that is used for music except for

profiles are used to create a more visually dynamic performance. Semiotics is heavily used to portray the meaning of the song to the audience. The changes between these songs are a strong in contrast to ensure the audience are following the emotions and are staying engendered with performances.

Comparison

All three of these genres have similar and contrasting elements for example stylised lighting is used throughout all three genres however things like blinders are specific to music gigs.

All three of the genres all use semiotics to sublimely give emotions and feelings to the audience. An example of this in retail is the colour pink which represents the girls section of the store. This ideology also flows into musical theatre and music gigs. Unlike both musical

theatre and music gigs where the audiences attention is directed by the light. In retail lighting is less stylized and more naturalistic with highlighted elements to ensure that

people can still see the products within the store, however their attention is drawn to the highlighted elements. Music gigs and musical theatre are very similar however lighting for musical theatre is their to support the narrative and some times tell the story, however not to be heavily noticed if at all by the audience. Unlike music gigs where lighting is basically a separate performance, which interacts directly with both the performer and the audience.