Week 9 Isolation and Texture

This whole week I have lost my sense of time working in New Slate as Marissa and Jake's Asst. LD. It has been such an amazing experience working with both of them and watching their cueing process. This photo I took today of Jake's design for the dance "Olli" choreographed by Allison Eversoll. I really loved his opening cue with bold texture and brush stroke. I always loved the sense of one main powerful source coming from one direction. Not only does it catch our attention, but it also makes the space feel endless and expansive. The use of the cyc scrape adds an anchoring look, our eyes follow the texture down to the main source. It is interesting how only three sources of light could create a strong statement. I find myself sometimes cueing too many system, and sometimes I lack visibility. With this cue, it worked well as a good starting point to make the audience interested and engaged, and as the world expands it doesn't feel jarring. It is great to find that nice balance, and know what is just enough to make your opening statement. Also being able to work on this show was also a good prep for me to anticipate what will I encounter when I design Physical Graffiti this Spring Quarter!

Week 9: Christmas Lights

I walk past this Princeton Townhome sign a lot, and I noticed a few weeks ago that the area had gotten decorated with string lights for Christmas. Warm icicle lights were wrapped around the tree trunks and placed over the grass, and cooler, blue-toned lights were strung around the sign. This gave the area a festive feeling, and every time I pass by, it lifts my mood a little bit and gets me more excited for Christmas. It's interesting how much we've been conditioned since childhood to associate certain lights with certain things, such as string lights for Christmas, red/yellow/green lights for stop/slow down/go, and flashing blue lights with emergency motor vehicles (especially police). None of these lights have any inherent meaning, but we've associated them with these manufactured meanings for so long all around the globe that just seeing a certain light can make us think of them in a split second.

Week 9, Shadows

This week I am helping on New Slate and I thought it was really interesting that 2 piece focus a lot on the shadow the dancers cast while in light even more than the dancers them selves. It is a great to think of absence of light as a tool. This is not a new tool but it is something I forget that can help support a stamens and/or movement in an interesting way.

Week 9: Color and Direction

Costa Mesa, CA.

This week I chose another photo from my room; one morning I caught a surprisingly streak light coming in through my window. While in my closet I noticed the strip of prismatic light spilling through the crack in my closet door. I absolutely love how dynamic the light appears in this photo. Colored light spills in, creating a directional rainbow across my floor. In a weird way, it reminded me of specials with gobos. It was directional like a Par Can, but sort of textured like a glass gobo might be. Perhaps because it was so directional and specific, it was like it was making a bold statement on my floor. The prismatic light which is normally so soft on my walls or on the floor below my window, through the crack of the door became directional and linear.

Week 9: Variety

On my walk home the other night, I was struck by this view of the School of Business. I walk by it just about every night on my way home, and I’ve always seen that it was lit up, even late at night, but this time, I realized how many different kinds of light there are in that one glimpse, and how each light gives such a different feeling. The sign itself has each letter lit up from behind. That gives a very store-front, city feel, although one that is very different from a neon sign. Neon signs, to me, give a sense of commercialism and advertising and merchandise, but in a very tourist-trap gaudy way. Cutout letters lit from behind, on the other hand, feels like a much higher end classy retail store. But definitely still gives a lot of focus. That almost brands the school as being both important and classy. Then, we have the bare bulb, almost christmas lights-like set up in the courtyard, which gives a much more festive, party atmosphere. That more seems like the outdoor area of a restaurant or party venue. This makes it feel celebratory, fun, exciting nightlife kind of a thing. Then, the individual sconces on the stairwells feel a bit foreboding, a big contrast to the other lights. It’s worth noting at this moment that the sign and christmas lights have a much brighter, bluer quality to the light, while the star lights and inside lights are much duller and warmer. The lights in the stairwell certainly light up the walls and stairs, but not fully. Of course if I were actually there I’d be able to see just fine, but it’s not a full light up there way it is inside. It’s still more just areas of light to get through. And to be honest, the way the lights glow, and allow for darker spots, it’s a bit ominous. It almost looks like a creepy motel like you’d see in a movie, where you know something bad is going to happen. And then when you turn your attention to the inside, it’s just your run of the mill fluorescent ceiling lights. It’s funny, I usually think go those as cool, but they are much warmer than the outdoor party lights. But still, they feel very sterile and clinical. It is very much a business inside (which of course, makes sense, but it’s that much more of a contrast given the sign and bulbs outside). I have always had a basic understanding that fluorescent lights in a room feel very different from incandescent bulbs, but overall, it can be a bit hard for me to grasp how different strokes of light feel different ways. This was a good example of that. Of course, a lot of it was based on color of the light, as well as the kind of fixture, but it definitely gives a good context for how the light feels. Different colors, bulbs, fixtures, and the way the light is thrown onto surfaces, definitely implies a specific story. 

Week 8: Depth

I was on my way back from the bay this afternoon and while on I-5 the mountains caught my eye. The photo quality isn't the best, but when looking at the mountains in person, the shadows were extremely defined and gave the mountains a lot of depth and dimension. Without sunlight causing these shadows, they would've appeared very flat and one dimensional, but the lighting made all the difference. You could easily see the way each mountain sloped, where it reached its peak and came back down, as well as the little dips. This made the landscape look much more interesting than if everything had been in the shade, and it reminded me of how even though visibility is usually the biggest priority in lighting design for theatre, it is still important to sculpt out the actors and add in dimension.

Week 8: Depth - Foggy Night

I took this photo yesterday when when I was walking to my car because it was a very foggy night. Although it doesn't translate well on camera, the fog was pretty intense and I couldn't see too far ahead of me unless there was a bright light ahead, like from a street lamp. I thought this picture that I took showed depth because of all the different layers it seems to have. In the foreground there weren't any lights nearby so the trees and bushes look very dark and it is hard to make out the details. Just past that, the next layer of the photo is revealed because of the lamps lighting the walkway. Here, we can see details of a fence and a clearer image of the foliage. Then, past the walkway is the third layer. Here, the fog creates a sense of endlessness, as the two trees in the back seem to disappear into the haze. The reddish sky accentuates the silhouettes just enough for them to be distinguishable to the eye and creates a nice background to tie together all the different layers.