The Opera is loading in this week in the MOD (CalArt’s flexible black box theatre), and things have been incredibly busy for the entire production team. Scenic is about 50% load in and things are looking good on there part. There is a lot of rigging involved in this show for these giant red kites that can fly and collapse in the air. Sound loads in their gear tomorrow. Paints starts their treatment and touch ups on Friday. And Lighting is a little more than 50% hung, but not focused yet. I have an 8 hour call on Thursday to bust the rest of the plot out.
Overall, our production team is working well together and we are all helping each other. I have found it very important to be in the space as much as possible. I get a lot of lighting work done, but I find it surprising how useful it can be in other regards. Right as I was leaving for the day, I saw one of the red kites which we are using as a projection surface for our super titles being loaded in. There was a little miscommunication about where a wood panel, to prevent light from washing out the projection, was supposed to be placed. One panel was in the correct location, the other was unnecessary. My first reaction was that it was going to change the way my lighting would illuminate the kites. After thinking about it more, I realized the panel would be in the sightline of the audience if we did not remove it before we rigged it to fly.
In lighting land things have been on a roller coaster ride this week. I found out these very specific architectural footlights that I ordered are delayed because 8 of the 9 units are in stock and the company is waiting for the remaining one to arrive before they ship. I was basically forced to expedite my shipping so they would arrive in time for tech and the show.
I also have run into an electrical problem with getting power to the 2.5kw HMI unit I am renting. At first glance it looked like we could power the unit fine, but after a closer look, we decided we would need to tie into one of our circuit breakers to power the unit. It was a busy day of phone calls and meetings with the school electrician and PRG. I had to add a good 100’ of feeder cable to my order to get from the breaker box to the HMI ballast. I do want to give a big thanks to PRG for being so helpful today. I am still hoping everything will work out alright when we install the unit, as I am still a little nervous.
I’ll have some pictures of the space/set up soon, but I left my camera in the theatre.
And on a final note, I can’t wait to fly back East and attend BLMC. I got a phone call this morning confirming my registration which got me psyched. And as yet another reminder, make sure to register for any of the Master Classes before May 1 to get the $100 discount. See everyone there!
It is really nice to be in an academic setting at times, and have a light lab at your disposal. I have been finding myself locked away more and more this week in our lab, not for our weekly light lab homework assignments, but doing tests to make sure all of the individual ideas I have for the Opera will actually work. One of the big moments that I wanted to really hit on the mark was this rainbow that appears at the end of Act 1. We have a 20′x8′ vinyl wall that will turn into this abstract graffiti covered rainbow. I had picked some preliminary colors for the rainbow from multiple swatch books, but nothing beats seeing it for yourself. I spent a few hours in there swapping colors, changing my mind, going back to my original choices. In the end I am pretty satisfied with my take on how the colors will blend with each other. I am still a little unease about the green. The current choice in the photo below is R95, by my original choice was R93, slightly more blue, but I think it will fit better. Finding the right green has been the biggest challenge in this test. There is also a lot of water effects in the show. I met with the director and set designer to show them the type of effect we’ll get by shooting an instrument into a plastic container with water. We discussed a bunch of ways to keep the water rippling: fans, battery powered bath toys, pumps etc… Ultimately though we went with the most economic solution, that I am interested in exploring. I was very fascinated with how a single drop into a still container of water would make it shimmer. Our idea is to suspend a bag of ice above the containers with a few small pinholes in the bottom. As the ice melts over the course of the show it’ll keep the water moving and shimmering. The backup plan is small fans. So that is what I’ve been doing with most of my free time, along with running around picking up a lot of small accessories I need. Light rig for the show is tomorrow, but it is being double hung with a music festival concert that opens this weekend.
Also if anyone knows where I could order about 7 or 8 of these, I would greatly appreciate it:
Just a quick update about how Platee is going. Tuesday is when we have our weekly scheduled production meeting. We meet for about an hour to update other departments on our progress and to set up meetings for the next week. Today was fairly productive. We covered a lot of ground and are really preparing for the final push, as the show opens in less than a month. I also got the approval stamp on my final plot for the show from Don in class on Monday. What normally happens for each production is that we have a preliminary plot due a week before our final plot is due. This time is used to discuss concepts and concerns with the ALD and ME on the show, and get some input from Don. The next week is then spent furiously making minor alterations to the plot to be presented the next week. I think my plot is in pretty good shape. I have a lot of very specific ideas that are very solid and idea based for each Act. The only minor concern I have is insuring there is enough systems to light the show as a whole. The giant red box kites that are hanging in the air have put limitations on many of the standard hang positions. I am confident that this problem will be resolved as we start to see rehearsals on stage, and I can add in the last remaining lights I will probably need.
Now for a little treat. If you click the image below it should download a quicktime video that lets you interact with the set. You will be placed in the audience and have the ability to take in a 360 degree panorama of the set and zoom in and out.
Use your mouse to navigate left and right and shift and control will allow you to zoom.
While our forum is still in its infancy, I can’t help but comment on a recent post by jenniferdroberts (check it: http://forum.livedesignonline.com/forum/2008/03/25/ldi-through-the-years/). Don’t ask me why I’m commenting here and not there…you guys should go there and comment. It’s your forum; that’s the point.
Anyway, Ms. Roberts (if that’s her real name and doesn’t really matter if it is) raises an interesting point about the value of face-to-face interaction. Aren’t we all guilty of the occasional mental holiday, relaxing a little too much and forgetting that our professional lives should still be an ongoing educational process? How about that, no matter how many IMs our PC and Mac screens produce, there’s value in live interaction and not all can be achieved via email (that said, while I tell you all to read our forum. Coincidence? I think not).
My point? Stop reading this blog and go out and visit a museum, walk in the park, check out the clouds, see a show, talk to your fellow designers, programmers, and technicians in person. Then, come back, register for our forum and talk amongst yourselves. Gotta love the irony.
I have been working non-stop lately. It has just been one thing to the next thing for the past few weeks, but that is the life of a lighting designer. Things started off with spring break in the middle of March. The break really meant about 2 days off, 2 days of travel and 3 solid days of work. It was more of a time to catch up on everything that is happening at school. I did manage to fly back home to the East Coast for the week. I worked a lot on laying out some ideas for the Opera I’m designing (the preliminary plot is due tomorrow, yikes!)
I also got into NYC for the day and met up with a few CalArts designers. And I was incredibly fortunate to obtain a seat to see the revival of South Pacific at Lincoln Center. It was an excellent production, but if you want to see it try and find any remaining tickets now, the run looks like it is going to be sold out for a while. It was a really nice experience, because we have been working on individual scenes from the musical in our light lab class for the past few weeks. It was refreshing to see the similarities and differences from our projects to the actual show.
I also had a final paper project due for Edward Albee’s Peter and Jerry, which I hope to post at some point in the future, and various light rigs and focuses at school. This past week I have spent most of my time around Orange County assisting at the South Coast Repertory theatre. The current show is a new work called ‘What They Have’, as part of this Pacific Playwrights Festival. I think the play is an incredibly funny, interesting, and a very modern style piece. I think it will do well over the course of the run. There are a surprising number of CalArts alum and faculty working on the show too. It has been a very comfortable show to work on. Previews started the other day, and the show opens next week, so things are calming down a bit, but not that much. Overall, it has been great working with the LD on the show. The coolest thing in the show by far is this mobile fish tank that has LED I-Cove units and a wireless dimmer to light up the fish tank. It’s pretty sweet, especially when it changes colors.
In other news, Kevin Adams going to be in town on Monday and is guest lecturing at school. Additionally, he’s a CalArts alum. Seriously, alums are everywhere; I really don’t try and find them. Regardless, I’m excited to hear his lecture and have class with him. A few of my design elements in the Opera are right up his alley, and I’m interested in hearing anything he has to offer about them. I was really tempted to go see Passing Strange when I was in NYC, but I’m planning on going to BLMC in May, so I figured I’d wait since the master classes are going to see it.
I think that covers just about everything that has been going on in the past 3 weeks. I have really been meaning to put up a lot of images about the Opera at school, so below are a few shots from the set model. Let me just explain how detailed this model is. Not only are there plastic lighting instruments hanging in the grid, they each have an individual fiber optic source in them to make them glow. They are not practical at all to actually light the model, but they look cool. I also have some metal bulb guards that are over some A-lamp foot lights, which were even soldered and made to scale. It’s pretty crazy; the photos barely do the set any justice. So here is to a full day of working in Vectorworks and making my light plot look nice and neat. Cheers!
photos and sketches courtesy from my set designer Kit Stolen
