paulears
Veteran
Perhaps what we're really discussing is simply 'style'? I've been a theatrical lighting designer for a long time now, and we have a kind of equivalent to 3 point lighting. We also have a need for what the video people call key light, and sort of have a fill too. Our snag is that our viewers are spread about left to right in front of the stage, and we don't have zoom eyes, so in general (and of course a few people tinker with this) we have symmetrical positions for our lights - mirrored left and right. The oldest 'rule' is that light from 45 degrees left or right of the centre line, coming down at 45 degrees looks best for everyone. Other front light from more central positions is rarely soft light, because it spreads too much and lands places you want to keep dark, but more what video people would call hard light. It's often much harder than a Fresnel key light, because in general we never use Fresnels out front, only over the stage. what we do is more akin to the two key light, centre fill version of 3 point lighting, but with a centre facing subject, rather than two people looking at each other. From the video perspective this give two shadows on somebodies nose, left and right - which looks to the camera a bit odd. We use colour (often to the annoyance of the video people) for mood. Humans soon forget that somebodies face is pink or blue, and tune it out. So we use pinks and reds to make people feel warm and happier, and the bluer tones to cool it down and make it more edgy. Some designers like to look at their symmetrical lighting plans and cool one side down and warm up the other. If stages are bigger, then we break them down into areas and duplicate the lights. Another thing that we do that annoys video people is that many designers like me don't light scenery - in most cases it's already lit by spill from the actor's lights. We only light scenery if there's a need.
The other thing we do that seems odd to video people makes up for the lack of the human eye's zoom feature. Imagine you're doing a 'who dunnit' style murder mystery - and you need to show the villain slipping the gun into somebodies coat pocket. In video we have a cutaway, so everyone sees it - in theatre you can't do cutaways so you do it by changing intensity. If you bring up the lighting on the villain, then the eye notices and is drawn to the change in intensity - it can be quite subtle - as in not a sudden jump, but a slow change over maybe a few seconds will do it. Drop the light again, and the audience's focus shift away again. We also use quite a bit of back light, often in quite 'wrong' colours - so yellows and peach colours work quite well, as do a warm to match a cool, or vice versa. All this seems totally different from video 3 point, but really it isn't - but we just duplicate the rig across the width. We love Fresnels because for lighting a larger area, multiple units blend well. We use profiles (US ellipsoids) like Source 4s with gobos. Our favourite gobo is the breakup - splurges, essentially - which we use slightly defocussed. Video people hate these because as actors walk through them, they sort of go light/dark/light/dark - but on the stage, it looks great.
'Normal' lighting designers who do opera, often have a totally different approach. I don't do opera, but do get to see lots, and one very common feature is a HUGE, often TV/movie sourced, Fresnel backlight. Opera scenery is often very tall, so upstage, furthest away from the audience is often rigged with a 5 or 10K Fresnel, mounted very high so it doesn't shine in the audiences eyes, as backlight. It's a style of it's own, everyone having a very obvious halo and creating very vivid shadows on the floor. We don't seem to do this in other genres, just opera.
Some of this could explain away some of the theatrical looking styles?
The other thing we do that seems odd to video people makes up for the lack of the human eye's zoom feature. Imagine you're doing a 'who dunnit' style murder mystery - and you need to show the villain slipping the gun into somebodies coat pocket. In video we have a cutaway, so everyone sees it - in theatre you can't do cutaways so you do it by changing intensity. If you bring up the lighting on the villain, then the eye notices and is drawn to the change in intensity - it can be quite subtle - as in not a sudden jump, but a slow change over maybe a few seconds will do it. Drop the light again, and the audience's focus shift away again. We also use quite a bit of back light, often in quite 'wrong' colours - so yellows and peach colours work quite well, as do a warm to match a cool, or vice versa. All this seems totally different from video 3 point, but really it isn't - but we just duplicate the rig across the width. We love Fresnels because for lighting a larger area, multiple units blend well. We use profiles (US ellipsoids) like Source 4s with gobos. Our favourite gobo is the breakup - splurges, essentially - which we use slightly defocussed. Video people hate these because as actors walk through them, they sort of go light/dark/light/dark - but on the stage, it looks great.
'Normal' lighting designers who do opera, often have a totally different approach. I don't do opera, but do get to see lots, and one very common feature is a HUGE, often TV/movie sourced, Fresnel backlight. Opera scenery is often very tall, so upstage, furthest away from the audience is often rigged with a 5 or 10K Fresnel, mounted very high so it doesn't shine in the audiences eyes, as backlight. It's a style of it's own, everyone having a very obvious halo and creating very vivid shadows on the floor. We don't seem to do this in other genres, just opera.
Some of this could explain away some of the theatrical looking styles?
