Stage lighting design
Everything you need to know about professional moving head lights design: what is its work process and what materials do we need.
Imagine a theatrical, musical or dance show. Imagine it in a theater, big or small, it doesn’t matter. You feel the atmosphere, almost a vibration that runs through your body … And now, to the scene that you are imagining, remove the lighting and put a white, cold, impersonal light.
There you have the key to why stage lighting design is so important in any type of show. It is, without a doubt, one of the points without which we could not create magic.
Keep reading!
What material do we need to create a good stage lighting design?
The spotlight system we have will be decisive when creating our professional moving head lights design. What are some of the items that we are likely to need if we set out to plan a lighting design?
Tracking cannon
We can direct it to emphasize an element or character that is on stage. They can even be robotic systems that do automatic tracking.
Basic lighting
A series of hanging spotlights that surround the stage and that is easy to filter to change the color and tone to our liking. Although until a few years ago they were white light projectors to which a color filter was installed, today most of this type of equipment works with LED technology and any color can be chosen for its operation.
Spotlight with professional moving head lights
It’s a must-have for concerts and venues, including movement, color changes, gobos (templates with custom shapes like a logo or frame), and effects like strobes.
Ground spotlights
To illuminate from the side of the stage or from the proscenium in an asymmetrical way to illuminate large areas.
Strobe lights
Ideal for concerts, but also to create atmospheres in theater or dance shows.
Specific projectors for theater
Without being moving professional moving head lights, a zoom position can be set manually and, thanks to the built-in blades, the light beam can be cut so as not to “smear” any part of the scene.
Lighting control
It is normally a console with several knobs and buttons to program memories that can be activated during the show. These systems are in many cases, a computer together with a USB device that serves as communication between control software and the lighting projectors themselves.
What we must take into account for professional moving head lights?
Theater
In this case, of course, the importance is in seeing the actors, but our lighting can become almost one more character. We will work hand in hand with the creative team to create atmospheres or even spaces using only light.
After all, as professional moving head lights designer you must also study the conflict of the work so that your work is in tune with it. We must bear in mind that a commercial comedy cannot have the same lighting as a Shakespearean drama.
Dance
To illuminate dance performances we have to bear in mind that, above all, our light must focus on the bodies on stage, their movements and how it affects them.
Likewise, it must create an atmosphere in coherence with the proposal of the dancers, making our design almost seem to dance with them.
Concerts
Here the striking, strong, agile lighting effects will predominate and with great variation of colors to catch the spectators. Especially if we have a large space, it will also be good to create professional moving head lights design for the area where the public will be, achieving a greater sense of immersion.
What are the work processes to achieve a stage lighting design?
Like almost all positions in a scenic project, this is not an individual job, but must be in accordance with the one being carried out by the rest of the teams.
It will generally follow the following stages:
1. Reading of the project and pooling of ideas from the different teams that are available: direction, costumes, lighting design, production …
2. Director’s vision. It is, of course, who has the last word in any artistic project and is in charge of giving the guidelines to follow.
3. We will analyze, before we begin, what means we have and what the route will be: a show that is going to do season in a theater, a play that will be on tour or a concert is not the same. We must also know if it will have its own equipment or will it be adapted to the technical endowments of each room.
4. Based on that, we will create the first approach to our stage lighting design.
5. Once approved, we will create our technical sheet by filling in the light direction sheets, effect sheets and the table marking.
How do professional moving head lights work?
Surely you have noticed that on those days when there is more sunlight, the shadows that are projected are clearer. On the other hand, on a cloudy day, the shadows are diffuse and almost disappear. In this way, nature itself provides us with the first distinction, depending on how professional moving head lights work.
Thus we speak of specific direction or of indirect general shape. We can take this performance to the stage, thus turning light control into an art.
Controllable light properties
As we have already mentioned, with the control of light we can obtain multiple effects on a stage. It will allow us to create different atmospheres. Moreover, it happens according to the needs of the theatrical work or show to be represented. These controllable properties of light are:
Summary
This is the amount of light present. It is also called luminosity. This varies depending on the number of bulbs or devices common, their power, the use of devices to regulate them, the distance between objects and professional moving head lights devices, the brightness and saturation of the color filters that interpose in the beam and whether accessories are common to modify the beam shape.
