Sure it's great, but the problem with technology (Part 2)

TECHNOLOGY USED FOR GOOD

So, I know I probably put a bad taste in peoples mouth by making it seem like I am all Anti-Technology. I'm not, not at all, I am anti technology when used for technology's sake (and let me be clear I mean in the theatre - rock concerts are different). So that's why today in part 2 of "Sure it's great, bu the problem with technology" we'll examine situations where Technology has greatly impacted designs, in ways that it would have been difficult to do the designs without. These are all designs I was either an assistant or the actual designer for.

ELIXIR OF LOVE (LD Paul Palazzo) - Color Scrollers to the Rescue

To get some background on the major challenge in this show, take a look at this link. While not specifically from the production I assisted on with Michigan Opera, It's the same set and it's also, I think, the same Lighting Designer, Paul Palazzo but in San Francisco. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAsBDVHkSDI . You will notice the GIANT gazebo sitting in the center of the stage (A zoomed out shot happens around 1:25), it's kind of hard to miss in all it's glossy white glory. Roughly 23' - 0" wide and 20' - 0" deep, at it's widest point, there was only 10' - 0" of electric to hang lights before you were behind a leg, and it's shape made it virtually impossible to shoot around. So hanging space was at a premium. Add that to the fact that we were dealing with a gloss white set, and a sunset into night had to happen, color mixing by double, or triple hanging everything was not a good way to go because it would have lit of the set like a Christmas Tree and would have become "Elixir of Love" starring the Gazebo. So how did he solve it?

Lots and Lots of Scrollers. Paul put scrollers on a lot of the gear and designed the scrolls so that we could seamlessly live scroll as the day progressed into night. This really killed two birds with one stone, first by solving the limited space to hang gear issue, and then by solving the problem that may have been caused by using multiple systems to mix color. The result was impressive and made for a beautiful design. But again, this wasn't just throw scrollers in the air, thought went into it. By custom designing his strings to live scroll, Paul had spent the time at home to decipher what colors he wanted, when to scroll, and how. Sure, sometimes we are stuck with a theatre's stock scroll, however, that doesn't mean you throw the scrollers somewhere and figure it out in tech. Sit at home, look at that scroll, and use it to make informed decisions about your design.

CYRANO (LD Donald Edmund Thomas) - VL2500's and All their Glory

This production of Cyrano was a definitely on the large side (Scenery by John Pascoe). Somewhere between 5 and 6 tractor trailers are needed to move the scenery. To get an idea of how much scenery we were dealing with visit http://www.donaldthomaslighting.com/Cyrano.htm the Lighting Designers portfolio page of the show. Unlike Elixir, nothing about this show was unit, except for the giant branch which played twice. Even with the large amount of equipment and dimmer space available to us at the opera, to light all the scenery and light the people well would prove difficult. With the scenery moving in so many different ways, entire systems of light were used in mostly scene specific ways to keep the light clean on the scenery. So the question became, how to light all this scenery. While some lights were available to light scenery, they couldn't do it all. 10 VL2500's saved the day and filled in where conventional fixtures could not.

But again, some things that proved thought in their use. First, movers were placed and used in a very methodical manner, as such, the lights made sense with what ever was the key light in terms of angle in which it struck the scenery. We also spent time recording library colors for the designer, he had a specific list of colors he wanted out of the movers. Even though these are CMY fixtures and can mix MILLIONS of colors, he handed us a list of ten. Only on a few rare occasions did we mix colors live in tech. This is a HUGE time saver. This all again shows thought and process at home, in the studio, a solution to a bigger problem of how to light this scenery, and since it was all new scenery, people wanted to see it..

DANTE (LD Andrew F. Griffin) - CXI Faders adding Color

So I'll wrap up today's post with a design of my own, and this time not at some big opera company. This a production I lit for Synetic Theatre in their home at Rosslyn Spectrum. Dante was a theatrical retelling of Dante's inferno as we travelled through the 9 circles of hell. The scenery was done with 3 show portals that echoed these circles, but also looked like a spiral staircase leading us down into the depths of hell. Sadly not a lot of good portfolio

pictures were taken by our photographer full stage, here's an idea of it was though to the right. Other challenges were that it was done in forced perspective with the portals and none of the electrics flew, no box booms, no near boxes, no balcony rail, and finally, and roughly 60 dimmers in the space (I realize that's a luxury for some) depending on the week / day / cycle of the moon, we've all been in those places. Each circle of hell had to be unique, and doing this with angles was out of the question since the portals limited a lot of backlight, diagonal backlight, and other options. So the answer became color. But how to get color on the portals, and in the same token people, and how to do at least 9 colors evenly for each section (and being a dance movement company we all know that changes in music would require lights to follow along). After exploring a lot of conventional options, the answer become CXI Color Faders.

Due to limited FOH hanging space, the only way to light the portals was booms with two units a piece in front of each corner of the stage as up lights. This lit the portal well, and also acted almost as an FOH toner on the bodies as the lights crossed across the stage. I explored the option of scrollers, but Faders allowed me to leave the lights on and cleanly change from color to color live. Again, as I mentioned before with the previous examples, I sat at home with the Wybron CXI color wheel and figured all the colors I wanted to use prior to getting in the space (even made a handy magic sheet with the front and back string intensities for each color) and made minor adjustments in tech. The only real pain was adjusting times so the faders would fade through the colors I wanted as we went from scene to scene, or music change to change as the case sometimes was. But these really made the show, and allowed us to accomplish something seemingly impossible with great limitations. (More pictures here http://www.andrewfgriffin.com/Andrewfgriffin/Portfolio/Pages/Dante.html and the video trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4JdStJ9x4Q)

So where am I going with all this? Technology, when thought out ahead of time can be an incredible asset to a show. Not only can it solve problems and take design to another level that previously never thought of, it can save time and money by hanging fewer lights, taking less time to focus, etc. It's when advance thought isn't given and technology is used for technology's sake, or when a designer uses the technology as a crutch that it becomes a problem. Next time in part 3 we'll talk about that.