Week 8: Threepenny Opera @ A Noise Within

This past weekend, I hit up A Noise Within to see The Threepenny Opera. A friend of mine is currently interning there and he let me know about a "pay what you can" night they had going on. Being broke as a joke, I promptly dropped all my other plans and got over there at 2PM to snag a ticket. Anyway, this was my first time at ANW and wow, I could really tell why tickets are so expensive! I was blown away! The first thing I noticed was the presence of hazers (posted on a sign up front), which really made every beam of light look cool. I particularly liked how the beams split apart when they passed through gobos. Also, being a Brechtian piece, one of the pipes was constantly out and visible to the audience. There was a good variety of different fixtures in use, most noticeably a series of par-cans on the aforementioned pipe, as well as some lekos stage right and left, a couple of moving lights, and some LED strip lights on the thrust. These had what I can only describe as miniature par-cans on top of them, visible in this picture. For obvious reasons, I couldn't take a picture during the play itself, but the use of color during it was very effective.

Week 8

This photo is of my front door... It's made from a frosty glass that only creates shillouettes and shadows. It often time distorts objects like tree branches and people to look way more creepy than they are. In addition to this frosty glass effect you can see the blueish light it is creating. The color of the glass in combination with the lighting conditions outside works sort of like a natural gel, to manipulate the light.

I can imagine some material similar to this being used in theatre to create some intresting shadow work, or just being used in windows on a set.

-Kirbie

Spring Dance Concert Tech

Hello Everyone,

This weekend, I attended the tech process of the Spring Dance Concert. I was their on Saturday, and witnessed the teching of Rosanna Tavarez's piece. Fist off, the piece was wonderful. The movement was interesting and clean. With that, the technology was doing the piece a great justice. The song choice was appropriate, and the lighting that was chosen helped paint the picture of the story on stage. As far as the work process that I witnessed. It was a cool relaxed atmosphere that seemed to be flowing wonderfully. The Choreographer, Lighting designer, Stage Manager, and Programmer all seemed to be in sync with one another. I feel it appropriate to mention the fact that the shows director, Hae Kung Lee, was not present at the time of my attendance. To be clear, I am not saying that this fact has any correlation to the relaxed, free flowing atmosphere. One thing that I noticed while our CSULA General Production Manager/House Manager was on deck. is that as a lighting designer coming into a space that is not your own, you may at times receive direction from people outside of the director who has hired you. With that said, this is education theatre, and is structured differently than commercial, and non-profit theatre organizations. One could say that the process is a bit looser. All things considered, I found my time spent in this tech rehearsal to be rewarding. 

Week #8

Hello Everyone,

This weekend, I was playing with not using electricity in my apartment and instead lighting my small studio with a single candle. As you can see in the picture, I took a birds-eye view photograph of the candle. I found it extremely interesting to see what the natural light did when reflected into the glass container. The glass itself has been molded to have a unique rim around the top. As seen, this rim creates multiple layers of different intensities. The layers is what attracted me the most to this particular example of lighting. The blue wax also experiences different layers of tone. The royal blue hue begins to fade on the outskirts of the circle. The blue hue becomes an ice like color. I also found it interesting to see how the camera lens captured the small flame. We see an almost perfect circle of whitish light, with an almost purple, pinkish, haze around it. The vision felt spectacularly interesting me, and made me feel like this could be something completely different from the top of a candle.

Thank you for reading,
Luke

Week #8 Opera

Opera

I attended a dress rehearsal for the Eurydice opera on campus. The use of color in the lighting was the most interesting part about watching the rehearsal. I liked the designers use of blended, darker tones in the places that there was no singing, high intensities on the singers, and the subtle and distant Fresnel angle washes.

Light or movements

Look at those purple and middle round lights. Both colors are not combining each other. It must be nice touch of light location or dancers sweet movements.

Tech Observation

Today was the tech rehearsal for the dance rehearsal. I took a picture of this part of the rehearsal because with these piece there was alot of comotion because Hae didn't want the curtains to be lit but since they were using side lights their was no way the curtains could be cut. Meaning no light on the curtains. Karyn tried her best to lit the dancers and for no light to hit the curtains. In a section of that dance piece we would lose some of the dancers and by fixing that Karyn tried some follow spots as down lights because if we used our lovely front light it would look ugly. But those lights did the trick. Whats funny was that Hae wanted all the lights at an intensity of 50 or below so I'm assuming its going to be a dark piece since there's not that much intensity on the lighting.

-Alexa

WEEK #8

After I did my shopping at Walmart I noticed that the parking lot was well lit by the parking lot lamp post not only that but I liked how it gave a different effect to the trees. It illuminated the trees and served as a down light. As a whole the parking looked lit with a green light even though the lamp posts were a bright warm color.

-Alexa

Time 1 Second

I can't see yellow color many times on the street, because it is time 1 second everytime.

A Dark Obsession

There are things in life that we can not explain and perhaps there is a reason for that. Everyone wants to be the best person possible but with every glimmer of hope that shines like a ray from the sun a shadow is casted. Shadows and silhouettes are unique because we see them and are drawn to them no matter how dark and unknown they may be. In every scary movie people choose to continue down the creepy dark path as we yell at the screen saying "stop you idiot" but I believe it's human nature to want to explore the unknown and to explore those mysteries. I find myself to be obsessed with silhouettes because they remind of people. That is, we know what we see but we can't see what is truly underneath. The sun casting its light through the clouds is a perfect representation of this, and backlight, as the palm tree is casted in a silhouette. You see a palm tree but you are left with wanting to know more. But with the right amount of light anything can be revealed.

-Daniel M. Ferreira

Opera Tech Observation

     When I arrived the lighting designer and board operator were running cues. Making slight adjustments to color and intensity as needed. There was some moving lights used that were controlled and adjusted using a computer program. The program had a color wheel where you can easily scroll through colors, this made it so quick and easy to see how different colors looked on stage. After they found a light they liked they used a stand-in to see how the light looked on a body, just as we do in class.
     The set was very simple, almost like a blank canvas, with a large white cyc. The color of light was easily seen on the set pieces. There were gobo's used to add texture and interest to the light colored set pieces. The lighting designer was also asked to create a special light for the conductors entrance, so the designer was needed for other misc light cues that did not directly affect the show.
     Durring the overture there were two dancers on stage, this dance was lit mostly with Shins and one Leko (spot light) at the end. The lighting for this was beautiful and lit the dancers in a way that made them glow amongst a dark stage.

-Kirbie

 This week I chose to capture a photo at a place I spend my entire summer at and find therapeutic, the beach.  The lights illuminating throughout the sky from the sun is breathtaking, and the colors are vibrant.  The amber/orange color blends in perfect with the dark blue sky, giving the image a nostalgic feeling.  The horizontal orange strip of sunlight splitting the the photo from the dark sky and the light sand gives the photo a balanced contrast.  Overall, the image is stunning (at least in my eyes), the colors and lights are amazing, even though the image is a tad gritty.

Week #6

Hello Everyone,

Due to downtown parking restrictions, I have to move my car every morning before 8:00am.
I was inspired to take this picture last week, before I moved my car to a free area. The sun was starting to light downtown, but at this point, many of the streets were still shaded. As you can see from the picture, daylight is evident, but it hasn't saturated this street yet. Once the daylight has saturated the street, it is more difficult to appreciate this scene. One thing that struck me, before I took the picture, was the wide variety of hues that the lighting was enhancing.There are brilliant splashes of different colors on and by the wall to the left of my car. To the right of the evergreen tree, you can see a portion of sunlight that has peaked through and saturated the wall. The difference in the sections of wall is interesting. Different specific hues can be seen on the wall, and on the same wall, we see that the direct sunlight has washed the colors in a yellowish hue. Last, the reflections on my car were a point of interest. As I came to my car, I could see the entire street dancing on my car as people rushed to get their days started. It was quite the moment to take in, and all made possible by lighting.

Thanks for reading,
Love,
Luke

Cutting Edge

So, the contrast in this photo came out so amazing that I really did have to blog about it. Having just purchased the new Platinum Gold 64GB Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge (Product Placement) this week I've been wanting to test the camera's abilities. Wow! That is all I have to say. I chose this picture, not only because of its amazing quality but because of the quality in which the coffee was prepared. The siphon filter was too artful to pass off. I tasted the most randomly excellent coffee by spontaneously visiting Demitasse café in Little Tokyo hours before tech rehearsal of Orphée et Eurydice. The orange coming from the bottom really looks spectacular inside the cafe. The shiny stainless steel/chrome/silver all around the bar gave a feeling of elegance. The lighting inside the establishment depended on the daylight coming from all the windows. The little lighting that was on was more for ambiance than function. I was so taken aback by this café that as I had already made my exit a faint breeze of relaxation came to me in my mind urging me to stay, and so I ordered something else, something new, something I had never heard of before, something cutting edge.

The Sun.

The sun is remarkable. What I love most about the sun is how it always ceases to amaze me with its potential to create. It creates mood. It creates color. It creates atmosphere. The sun simply makes life. The sun here is a great example of back light. As it lights the trees from the back, the setting changes for me from what was once a trees lined up in a row at school, has now turned into a forest like setting. The sun creates new scenes in everyday life within minutes, all you have to do is be willing to notice. 

-Daniel M. Ferreira

Friday Time

This is friday outside. I can see a sunlight up there, but dark color gel makes me only less than ten percent of the sunlight.

Eric Lee

Week #6

I've been riding the train since I started high school. Everyday when I travel I've never stopped and payed attention to the architecture of the station. The other day I was getting off the train one early evening and realized that the top of the station would light up and that it looked like a bird nest. The day I took this picture, the tower on top of the station was lit up a shade of indigo. The following morning, I realized that the surrounding walls of the underground station was filled with  phrases along with bird figures. I wrote them down, thinking if it related to how the architecture of the station looked like. The words themselves don't make sense, but the way I interpret it is, I'm the bird walking into the sky inside of the station and staying in the nest waiting for the train to come and when I reach my destination area the only thing between me and the phrases are the people surrounding me. Also, I thought of relating the word Destination with the color Indigo. Here are the phrases, from top to bottom:

Waking Walking
Sky Inside
Eyes Fly High to Nest
Mind Awake Area
Words Birds Between Us

-Alexa

Week 6: Overcast Sky

I really enjoyed the weather on Thursday. It made me ask another weird question: why don't shadows appear as often when the sky is overcast than when it's a sunny day? My guess is the intensity (temperature?) of the light gets lower as the sunlight is diffused by the clouds. So, going by this theory, there is some sort of correspondence between the temperature of the air on a given day and the temperature of the light. That is, on a cool, cloudy day, one gets this frosty, gray sort of light, and on a hot, Summery day, one gets that warm, Summery light instead.

Week #6 The Greatest Par

I couldn't sleep most of the night most of the night, however, that restlessness woke me up just enough times for me to catch this picture. Introducing: The Solar Par; backlight on my neighbors house at around 6 a.m, creating the Mothers Day sunrise.

Wee

Tech Observation

Tech observation was cool, I honestly wouldn't have left if I didn't have homework to do! I got to see what I guess is the real-life version of our projects in class, which in this case was Stacy (the designer) dictating commands to Alicia (the programmer), which were mostly updates to cues. I really like the use of moving lights in this production. Also, I learned that actors are ultimately at the mercy of the lighting designer in terms of blocking, not the other way around. I also got to see some of Martin's projection work, and I thought that was well-done too.

Through the weeds

I chose this this picture because the backlight reminded me of the lion king and the dark side of the Pride lands. I also thought this would make for an interesting moving gobo, can't remember there official names of them. I would light this picture with low intensity and low focus so that the bristles didn't come out too sharp and distinct. Depending on whether you used the par can or the backlight you would get very different looks on the amount of light bleeding through. The par can would give a very menacing type of dark side of of the pride lands feel while the back light would be a subtle version of the par can which would give off a little less wash. This would be cool to do with an amber or a red to get the hint of a color. 

Tech observation

My tech observation was pretty interesting. I got to see Stacy and Alicia the board op work in tandem to get cues down and re adjust them. It was interesting to see her train of thought as she tried certain lights and colors out and then decided against them due to costume changes or murkiness. There were over 200 lights for her to play with and adjust for whatever type of look she was trying to go with. The opera dealt with a lot of cool colors since the warm colors didn't seem to go with the overall concept of the play. It was interesting to see on there board how they controlled fog/haze and phasers. Alicia did a good job of listening to Stacy and Wendy the stage manager at the same time. I probably would have got confused with both of them speaking on top of each other. I was fortunate to be there for there diner break so I got to see them do tech notes. I got to see them readjust the conductor light and some others. They also spoke about the side lights and how they need to go from 26 to 36". The skims the opera uses are pretty cool as well they used those in a variety of ways. Some times they were used like gobos portraying a design over the front of the stage. Other times they portrayed pictures of dogs which was interesting though I didn't get why they were there persay. Overall it was an interesting hour and a half learned a lesson in patience cause it took a lot of time to put in each special and adjust light levels for cues. 

week #6 shadows and angles

I took this photo because of the interesting shadows and angles. This was taken early morning, so the sun was still pretty low in the sky creating a sort of side light. The architecture created interesting angles of light and lit one side of the building, leaving the rest in shadow.
This can be an example of how light can interact with set pieces. Depending on where its coming from (the source) it can make or break the image. Both creating depth and interest, creating an edgy or moody setting, or hiding (not illuminating) parts of the set.

-Kirbie

Week # 4

This week I chose an image on campus, which is of the Eagle statue. The image almost seems as if it is in motion, and the lighting compliments it. The shadows displayed on the statue gives the Eagle a feeling of darkness, and it looks as if the bird is on the hunt for its prey.  Overall, the lighting in this picture varies in contrast, some are light (shown on parts of the bottom of the statue) and some dark (shown on the Eagle, the tree on the side and the shaded parts of the building).

Life texurized!

The tree outside my dorm always captivates me. It's filled with flowers that bloom wonderfully during this time of the year. Its branches extend outward reaching almost every corner of every building. On my way to class I noticed the shadow that was cast due to the suns light. It's slightly fuzzed out but it's branches create patterns that can translate to more than just a tree. It's amazing how the flowers make intricate different blotches, just like snowflakes each pattern is unique. The texture created by the sun shows a world we don't often look at but it still exists so why should it get any less attention. 

Daniel M. Ferreira

In Theatre Show

Those two orange looking lights on the top of the front made other orange light in front of them below. However, where would be the other lights those white looking lights on the top of the middle of the stage.

     Quite often does a refreshing breeze give a feeling of a lax nature to those in it’s path. Kevin here, enjoying a sunny day under a shaded tree, is lit by patches of light making its way through branches and leaves from above. The grass itself is a bit patchy adding to the untamed texture made by the shadows along the ground.  The compliment of the natural blue sky by a partially green plot of grass looks great however, portraying that in the black box may make the intercepting light appear cyan. I find this image to be striking in that it brings Kevin to the focal point of the frame. His stance alone brings attention to the picture but, it is his laugh that gives the viewer room for interpretation. Him being away from the group adds to the curiosity of his mood; it is this image with its endless possibilities of making a man here laugh heartily that strikes me. What is it that he is looking at? Did he overhear something coming from the group? Did he see or even possibly remember something funny?