THE2000:Notes:2-26-07

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Lighting and Sound

• For the 1st 2000 years of its recorded history, theatre took place outside
• +/- 1600 AD � theatre indoors (torches & candles indicated time of day)
• gaslights
• 1879 � Thomas Edison

Objectives of Lighting Design

1. Provide visibility
2. Establish time and place
3. Create mood
4. Reinforce style
5. Provide focus and composition
   • Focus: beams of light aimed at a specific area
   • Composition: the way lighted areas are arranged onstage in relationship to one another
6. Establish rhythm
   • Abrupt changes & blackouts vs. slow fades

Elements of Stage Lighting

1. Intensity: or brightness
   • Controlled by a dimmer: a device that makes a scene bright or dark
2. Color: changed by using gels: colored sheets of cellophane
3. Direction: the way lights are placed on stage
   • Footlights: lights across the front of the stage floor
   • Downlighting: directly overhead (spotlight)
   • Backlighting: light from behind the performers
4. Form: shape of light (size)
5. Movement: Controlled by dimmers

Lighting Designer�s Resources

• Soft Edge Spotlights
  • Fresnel: used in short distances; allows a blending of the light with other sources
• Sharp Concentrated Spotlights
  • Ellipsoidal reflector: provides great control & shape of light with shutters
• Floodlights, �scoops� or strip lights
  • Bathe sections of the stage

Lighting Controls

• Cues: lighting changes
• Blackout: all the lights shut off at once
• Fade: lights dim slowly
• Cross-fade: one set dims while another comes up
• New Technology�
  • Automated or moving lights
  • Iris: controls the size of the pool of light
  • Gobo: or template; determines the pattern of light

The Collaborators

• Light plot: a detailed outline showing where each instrument is placed
• Batten: a pipe onto which lights are hung
• �Run the Lights�: to operate whatever device executes light changes and cues

Sound Design

• Objectives:
  1. To provide all background effects
  2. Reinforce spoken and musical sounds
• Sound Reproduction and Reinforcement:
  • Reproduction: motivated or environmental
  • Reinforcement: amplification of sound
  • Motivated: called for in the script and comes from a recognizable source
  • Environmental: noises of everyday life

Sound Technology:

1. Microphones:
   • Shotgun: highly directional; aimed from a distance
   • General: picks up sound in the area toward which it�s aimed
   • Body microphone
2. Recordings: the process�
   • A list is made
   • Master recording
   • Volume is set in a technical rehearsal

New Technology

• DAT: digital audio tapes
• C.D.�s, Mini-disks, etc.
• Collaborators
  • Technicians for sound equipment, hanging & coordination of speakers ; sound operators
• Special Effects in Lighting and Sound
  • Sound.
    • Speakers placed around the audience
    • Computerized synthesizers
  • Lights�
    • Shining light from below ultraviolet light, & strobe lights.