Writing Assignment 6.1
Sheial 234
Lighting_Design_Objectives.pptxThe Objectives of Lighting Design
Illuminating the Possibilities
Lighting Design: Painting with Light
Light in the theatre is one of the most mutable and expressive qualities of theatrical design. While scenic and costume designs must have an artistic as well as a real-world practicality (costumes must be wearable, most scenic elements must support an actor’s weight), lighting design has a great capacity and freedom for expressing the inner essence of a piece of theatre, as well as addressing practical needs. Just as costume design is not about just putting any outfit on a character, lighting design is much more thought out than just flipping on a light switch. Let’s examine the objectives of the lighting designer.
Objective 1: Visibility
This first objective may seem like a no-brainer. The lighting designer must provide visibility. He must make sure that the audience can SEE the set, costumes, and actors. After all, we could have the coolest set, most amazing costumes, and most passionate acting ever, but if we can’t see those things, the audience will soon tune out.
This play is set in a bar. Bars are often much less well lit than this space is, but if we want the audience to be able to see what is happening in the play, then we must use a little creative license to illuminate the space a bit better.
Objective 2: Reveal Shapes/Forms
If all we need is visibility (objective 1), then a lighting designer could just turn on some fluorescent lights above the stage and call it a day. This would provide visibility, but it would also make everyone on the stage appear flat and two dimensional. A big part of the lighting designer’s job is to make sure that people and objects on the stage appear three dimensional. This is achieved by using lights pointing from at least two different directions. We want to see the realness of the performance in front of us; otherwise, why bother seeing it as theatre? We could just watch a movie instead, which is already 2D!
Revealing shapes and forms is a major part of the lighting designer’s job. It is especially important when lighting dance performance, as dance requires us to be able to see the 3-D quality of the performers’ bodies as they move through space.
Objective 3: Provide Focus
The lighting designer’s creations provide focus for the production. This helps the audience look where the director wants them to look, and not to look where the director doesn’t want them to look. The simplest example of this is when the house lights go down in the theatre at the beginning of a show and the lights simultaneously come up on the stage. At that moment, our attention moves from the other members of the audience to the stage itself. Imagine how much more impact a revelation moment has if the audience has been looking elsewhere on stage and a light comes up to reveal a character we didn’t know was there!
The image at the top shows the entire set for this production of Amadeus—a large and open space. However, in the scene where Wolfgang dies, the play requires a much smaller and more intimate space. This is accomplished by using light to focus the audience on a small part of the stage—where Wolfgang and his wife sit. The lighting designer has created a design where the audience is focused on those two characters and NOT on the rest of the big beautiful set.
Objective 4: Reinforce Mood and Style
As noted earlier, light is a magnificent tool for helping to set a mood or reinforce a style. All you have to do to see this in real life is to think about the way a romantic restaurant is lit compared to a university dining hall. Lighting in the theatre also works to establish a mood through a number of lighting tools. Lighting can also help to establish the style (realistic or nonrealistic) for a play based on how the light looks: as if it comes from real-world illumination sources (sun, moon, an electric lamp) or not (light with strong colors—green, blue, purple.)
Here is a wonderful example of lighting reinforcing the realistic style of the play. The costumes and sets are all realistic, and the lighting reinforces that by reproducing the look of sunlight coming through the greenhouse roof, and creating an illusion of blue sky outside. (The sky’s color is created by light, not scenic painting.)
Objective 5: Establish Time and Place
Just as with scenic and costume design, the lighting designer helps us to establish time and place. Lighting can give us clear information about the time of day and year. Light is different colors at different times of day, from the pale light of early morning to the rich reds and purples of sunset, to the cool glow of the full moon. We can also look at the type of lighting used in a play—is it an electric lamp, an oil lamp, a candle? Are we inside or outside? Lighting can demonstrate all of these things and help us be placed in space and time.
In this image above, the lighting designer has clearly created a beautiful sunset look. Not only do the rich, saturated colors give us that idea, but if you look carefully, you can see that the shadows created by the lighting are long, like they are when the sun has just risen or is about to set.
Objective 6: Establish a Rhythm of Visual Movement
A good lighting designer creates a design that fits with the rhythm and pacing of the entire play. This means that lights will usually shift or change in a way that supports the structure of the play. For example, think of how jarring it would be for the audience if a sensitive, delicate scene ended with an abrupt change of lights, like turning off a switch. On the other hand, a highly energetic play with lots of short, exciting scenes would not be well suited by lights that dimmed or shifted slowly from one scene to the next—this would be like putting the brakes on a rollercoaster on the way down the first big drop.
Concert lighting demonstrates this objective really well. When a band is really rocking out with a high energy song, the lights move and change with equal energy and excitement, while on a slower song, they will move a little more dreamily. The colors may also reflect this difference—hot reds and yellows for high energy, blues and purples for ballads.
Objective 7: Reinforce Central Image and/or Establish Visual Information
The lighting designer’s work must coordinate with all other design elements to create a harmonious whole—reinforcing the central image. Additionally, because many contemporary plays often jump from location to location, and from time to time (like in film and TV), lighting has become an increasingly important tool for helping to convey information about the world of the play rather than relying on more concrete scenic elements. Because lighting is flexible and a powerful conveyance of atmosphere, it has become a key design element in the staging of modern plays.
On this extremely minimalist set, lighting conveys a lot of information about mood and time in this production.
Summation
The lighting designer works to enhance and reinforce the visual world of the play. In order to do this successfully, he has several objectives to meet:
Provide visibility
Reveal shapes and forms
Provide a focus onstage
Assist in creating a mood and reinforcing style
Help establish time and place
Establish a rhythm of visual movement
Reinforce a central image and/or establish visual information
