Today, on our third birthday, we take a look at the past three years, reveals some top secret statistics about this site and have some very exciting news too.

So, On Stage Lighting is now three years old.

Finally toilet trained, feeding self and able to stand for significant periods without falling over. But enough about the editorial staff, what’s been going on under the hood at OSL for the first three years of life, and what does the future look like?

Brief History of On Stage Lighting

After a few years of amateur dabbling, making and marketing web sites and, more importantly, making mistakes, I read about ways in which content writers were creating websites, attracting visitors and stimulating conversation while often paying for their work by selling targeted advertising. These  professional bloggers often used the free blogging platform Wordpress to enable them to set up a professional and easy to administer web property on their own domain. They often choose a niche subject, often a specialism that they could build a brand around, and found both enjoyment and employment in writing online.

That interested me and I decided to try an experiment while developing my web marketing skills. It made sense to write about the subject that I had a lot of experience and and a passion for and as a stage lighting professional, the subject choice was obvious.

After a fairly quick set up, the first article was published on the 9th July 2007, a brief rundown of considerations when hiring lighting equipment. It was simple to follow advice from a professional written for anyone with little stage lighting experience, a template that is still the mark of an On Stage Lighting Article today.

As time went on, awareness of this site grew and visitor numbers climbed, I was no longer writing into a vacuum but had readers, subscribers and now even a few reeeeeealllly big stage lighting names that I know follow this site (erk). Oo er, better make a go of this experiment then…

Learning from the pros in the blogging world, as a content provider, I do quite a bit of research into what visitors are looking for when they come online. This takes many forms such as the comments sections, a  simple poll or question, but also research into what users are searching for, both at the main search engines such as Google, and our internal site searches too (they tell me that many people are trying to find article on “Concert Lighting Techniques” but also “Curtain Tracks”, not something yet covered). Content that is popular in terms of sharing, linking or even the amount of comments (nearly 1000 comments in total so far), also shows areas that stimulate the interest of readers.

The main requirement for any On Stage Lighting article is that it is not only informative and enjoyable to read but that the on site Signal/Noise Ratio is favourable. This means that the bar is pretty high for what I consider writing, and why the possibly surprising figure of only 106 published articles makes sense, especially as we try to avoid duplication.

Personally, it takes me most of a day to get just a written piece together, much longer for  tutorials and that’s excluding time coming up with ideas or the 20+ years of lighting experience behind them. The posting schedule is often dictated by the amount of work it’s taking to make a living in the lighting business (which recently has been a lot) but also on the availability of good content, having something to say. It’s been fairly quiet here at the site in the last few months for reasons that will be revealed further on.

But On Stage Lighting has never been about one person and a lot of ideas and advice here is a result of input from other lighting professionals. We’ve been lucky to attract some really high quality guests in Lucas Krech (with a great piece about lighting for  dance) and  Richard Cadena (about getting to the top in lighting). Publishing a wider range of writers at On Stage Lighting is something that I’ve been working toward for quite a while, whether it be big names or readers with new experiences, and it’s definitely something we are keen to encourage.

Looking Back

Over the last three years, On Stage Lighting has published a range of articles from how-tos such as Lighting An Orchestra, introductions to RDM DMX and Media Servers plus practical guides on fault finding, PAR Lamps or focussing like a pro. There has also been plenty of information on working in the entertainment business and the state of the industry, something that our large number of undergraduate readers have found useful.

Some pieces have turned out to be faintly amusing, particularly the  Guide to Lampie Slang, and on occasion a little ranty,  Dr Mr Speaker…, a piece on the importance of visibility based on years of bitter experience. We even got a glimpse into the world of teenager Josh and his  first experience on the lighting crew at Glastonbury Festival.

In September 2010, I am hoping to be able to continue the tradition of the PLASA London reports as in 2007,  2008 and 2009, getting around the halls and avoiding the press release police while picking up the real buzz from those in the industry.

Some articles are more popular than others, often depending on search demand (our quick DMX guide or pieces about  lighting control software being particular examples), and ones that attract more comments, such as LED Lighting. Sometimes pieces that I really like or think will attract more feedback perhaps don’t perform as expected but every one plays it’s part in the evolution of the site ( Live Lighting, a piece on my favourite approach to performing with light, put me in touch with Nick Hunt at Rose Bruford and his work on the subject including a fascinating contraption for lighting performance)

Some readers like the technical tutorials (yes, I know, MagicQ Moving Light Tutorial, still stuck in the pipes), others the more abstract concepts in pieces such as Concert Lighting Programming in 30 Mins. My personal favourites sometimes stem from my own enjoyment of thinking about the subject, such as new ideas in Fixture Personality Files.

The Stats Behind the Scenes

The geeky part, let’s have a nose backstage at some site stats.

Getting up to 20,000 unique visitors per month from over 120 countries worldwide, an average reader looks at 2.2 pages per visit. That’s good engagement by today’s online standards as much of the time, visitors are looking for one specific thing, not to browse the entire site at their leisure. This is particularly good as over 80% of On Stage Lighting visitors come from a search engine (search visitors are not always the most engaged on the planet) and 74% are what we deem to be new visits, rather than returning ones. So, in a nutshell, the site must be doing something that people are finding attractive when they arrive.

The core readership, and the most important to us, is the regulars. Those include the 1000+ RSS or email subscribers (40% email, still a popular way to recieve the latest article), plus those on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, where links to new stuff are published. It’s the core readership that I take most interest in because their needs are most aligned with what we are trying to do. I know that it’s is often the same readers that I am in contact with personally via social networks or email and who often inadvertantly give me ideas for new articles.

All these visitors come from somewhere. Apart from search engines, On Stage Lighting has a number of regularly referring sites, Facebook being the biggest. Many of the Facebook referrals are not connected to either my own FB profile or the OSL Facebook Group, suggesting that these social networks really do promote sharing of ideas and content on the outside. Other big referrers are Wikipedia (aaah, one day a Wikipedia editor will write an entry for On Stage Lighting….) and the Blue Room Technical Forums plus the popular US lighting industry blog iSquint.net.

All these visitors find what they are looking for, not only in terms of content here, but also in our range of advertisers, sponsors and affiliate merchants. Some visitors that see the value in so much free lighting help donate direct to On Stage Lighting and this, combined with the advertiser revenue keep not only the servers paid up, designs done but also enable development and writing to continue on the site.

And the story continues…

Exciting News and the Future

OK, so I said that there was exciting news. It’s personally good news for me but also for On Stage Lighting.

Earlier this year I came off the road, after 15 years as a freelance lighting professional, to explore possibilities for me in the education of the next generation of technicians. Richard Cadena  recently told us that everyone in our business under the age of 30 is trying to work out how to get in, while those over 30 are wondering if it’s ever possible to get out. Well, I just turned 35, I dunno what to tell ya….

Anyway, although a bit of a risk, things worked out particularly well for me as I managed to secure a new post as a Lecturer in Theatre Production at  Bath Spa University which starts in September this year. This is obviously a great opportunity for me to progress on my new path doing something that I love – helping others interested in our business. I might also add that On Stage Lighting as a body of work played no small part in securing that gig.

The reason that this new role is good for On Stage Lighting is that it will enable me to spend more spare time writing and creating, and less time loading trucks at 0300 and generally living life on the edge as a freelancer. Working with students day to day will give me more ideas, create more content and generally improve on the last 3 years of work while maintaining On Stage Lighting as a free resource for current readers and future ones. I will also have the opportunity to research new things and continue my own learning while maintaining my links with the professional lighting world.

The thing that writing has given me is the opportunity to think about the subject, something that is not often the case when you are stacking Martin cases in the back of a forty five footer at silly o’clock in the morning. Trying to interpret for others that which you know by instinct is a great way to a better understanding of your subject.

So, Happy Birthday everyone. On Stage Lighting is a product of everyone here, readers and contributors alike so buy yerself a drink (or see if you can spot me at PLASA London this year and remind me that I owe you one).

Here’s to the future.

PS. Though On Stage Lighting is unlikely to receive any birthday cards, you can celebrate the occasion by writing something really nice about the site in the comments section, tell us about your favourite stuff so far or how we’ve helped you.

Candles image by TheRainbow on Flickr

If this has helped you, consider buying me a beer and CLICK HERE to donate a few bucks to On Stage Lighting (why should I donate?). Thanks, - Rob

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On Stage Lighting looks at the workhorse of gaining employment as a lighting professional, the Curriculum Vitae, and considers how you can create a killer CV.  But first, how does your CV actually fit into the recruitment process?

As a lighting professional, either freelance or looking for permanent employment, at some stage you will try to gain access to people and places that don’t know you from Adam.  It could be an advertised job or simply an attempt to create an “in” with a company you would like to work with.  Let’s focus on advertised jobs for today, you’ve seen an ad inviting CV submissions and want to make sure you give yourself the best chance of securing an interview.

Even when you have a few years behind you in any industry, you’ve met new people and have the beginnings of a contact network.  As time passes, those contacts move about, find new roles themselves and you slot into new areas of work, and meet even more contacts. But remember, that ideal gig might just be around the corner,  and you may still be facing a cold start to get it.

Note: Modern Curriculum Vitae are often shorter versions of a more traditional CV, with some emphasis on personality as much as a list of employment history and qualifications.  These are more like the US “Resume”, but as I’m sitting here in sunny England, we’ll use the term CV for today.  We also aren’t going to look at covering letters or application forms, also important tools in the process.

Many On Stage Lighting readers are in the early stages of their chosen path. As a student or budding lampie just starting out, applying for jobs and pitching yourself in amongst a gaggle of other doing the same, your CV is vital.  While there are a number of ways in which employers invite applications, including standard application forms and personal statements, the CV is still probably the most common way to make that first contact with a potential employer in our business.

What does the CV do?

Simple.  The purpose of the Curriculum Vitae in this scenario, is to get you in front of the employer, the next stage of the selection process.

The Recruitment Process

Before we dive into what you need to do to get that job, it’s worth understanding the process from the employers point of view. Be the employer for a moment.

As an employer, you need to hire someone to fill a role.  You want to make sure that you have the best chance of finding the right person, the person that fulfills your requirements – the person specification.  That spec might be laid out in a document, be set down by industry convention or just thoughts in the head of the hirer.

As an employer, you try to reach many possible candidates by placing advertising in places that are the most relevant to the industry – perhaps in The Stage ( in the UK), Stage Jobs Pro among others.  In the job advert, you want to give enough information to reach only the most suitable candidates, a hands off weeding out process.  The next part of that process might be to invite prospective candidates to apply for more details / information pack, where they can read a detailed version of the role and the person that you are looking for.  The second weeding, if you will (?!).

After that, you as the employer will want to shortlist a choice of candidates for interview so may invite submissions of CVs.  Sifting through CVs can be an onerous task, especially with a large number of applicants who, due to the first two stages of elimination (advert and information pack), all basically fit the vacancy based on qualifications and experience.

The CV Sorting Scenario

As the employer you have a stack of CVs that have rolled in since your advert went live.  It’s time to start shortlisting but you are busy and don’t have all day to study CVs, you do have a business to run.

From 100 CVs in the pile, you and a colleague are looking to find ten, just 10 CVs, to discuss and consider more fully with a view to shortlisting five candidates for interview.  For one job.  That means you have to bin 95.  Let’s hope that at least 70% of applicants make it easy for you…..

Tips for creating that killer CV

Ok, that’s enough of being an employer.  How might you attempt to make sure that your CV isn’t in the 70% that are hardly read before losing out in the first cut?

Making your CV attractive and readable

I don’t mean making your CV possible to read, but making it seem easy to get the information the employer wants.  This is where formatting and first impressions counts.  Maybe you only have 20 seconds before your CV is put on the “nah, not today” pile.  (20 seconds is an age these days, I reckon you have 3 seconds to keep a web visitor interested in an article enough to read it!! )

If an employer feels that getting to the information is going to be hard work, they may not make a special effort to drill down into your experience or outside interests long enough to keep your CV in their hand.

How should I layout my CV?

In the first instance, this could mean good use of headings, groups and columns alongside other formatting such as bold text or horizontal lines.  I personally wonder  about the wisdom of straying so far from CV convention that the reader has to work out your own personal UI before getting to the information, particularly in this scenario against 99 others.  Whacky and unique is not always an asset.

If it looks easy to read, it’ll get read.

Note: In a sea of white  floppy printouts, you might even want look at the paper you present with, remembering that in the end, paper is not going to actually get you an interview.  I find I hold on longer to documents on thicker than normal paper, but that’s just me

Attention to Detail

Anyone ever seen a person spec or job of any kind that doesn’t require attention to detail?  Ever?  No, thought not.

Spelling and grammatical errors on a CV don’t suggest attention to detail but they do make it a great deal easier for your CV to get “passed over” – i.e. canned.

The Right Candidate

The CVs on the pile should be from people who actually qualify and are suitable for the job,  after all, that’s one function of the advertisement.  So how might you make your CV stand out from the crowd in the suitability stakes?

For me, this means understanding that “your” CV is not a static entity – something that you create once and send out with every application.  OK, so you are you.  But, how do you fit into the job for which you are applying?  A busy employer would like an easy-to-spot clue that you fit the person specification for this job, a clue that’ll keep your CV in their hand long enough to make your pitch.

This might be in the way the headings are titled, a tag line in the header or simply the order in which you present things.  Some categorise CVs as Chronological or Functional (Skills Based), either a list of employment history or a precis of skills and experience – and the two can be combined. (I assume that we all tend to scan a document top to bottom first time round and it’s silly to put your most relevant experience half way down a second page just for the sake of chronology)

The employer isn’t looking for a CV to shortlist, they are looking at pieces of paper to find a person that fits their requirements.  If you are the right person, make sure they see that.

How does a CV get me an interview, anyway?

Right, so you’ve passed the spellchecker, the layout test and have demonstrated that your skills and experience fit the person specification.  What is actually going to get you from the final ten CVs, to the shortlisted five for interview?  Still hangin’ in there in the final 5%…

The employer feels that you would be a suitable candidate by now, else they wouldn’t still be considering you.  Each job, person and CV is different but getting to interview comes down to one thing:  They want to know more about you.

Interviewing can a hard process for employers, especially if they are not professional recruiters.  They have to think of questions to ask, how to interpret the answers and base what could be a big decision on a short meeting.  And then do that four more times or more.

While there are some stock questions that are popular with some interviewers in all industries, the trouble with stock questions is that they can lead to stock answers. So, at some point, this interview is going to be more specific – not about your ability to deal with stock questions but about that which is unique to you.

The employer might see something in your CV that will make their life easier as an interviewer, something they could ask about.  It could be a gap year doing something particularly interesting or relevant, or maybe just a bullet point in your Skills and Interests section.  It might be that you have had two recurring roles in particular that seem wildly opposed.  Asking about those things is what makes an interview, both for you and them.

I’ve recently spent some time reviewing CVs of Technical Theatre graduates, people starting to make their way in the business.  As your work life move on, things get more diverse, skills and roles held become unique.  At graduate level, your skills and experience are very similar to those of your peers – CVs can look pretty much the same.  At this time, it is even more important to highlight those unique parts of you that makes a potential employer wonder and to want to know more.

Make sure there is plenty to wonder about.

Take Home Points about your CV

To wrap up, here are four stages that you poor little CV has to go through during the shortlisting process before you get that call for interview.

• Don’t get binned – Errors and formatting can effect your chances of getting much more than a cursory glance.
• Make me want to read – Look like you’ve got something to say and I won’t have to struggle to find what I’m looking for.
• Let me know – that you are suitable for the post and fit the person specification.
• Find out more – Make me want to ask you more about your Unique Selling Points.

On Stage Lighting readers will often find themselves pushing to get that next gig .  Graduate or a seasoned pro, looking to make a life in an industry that is suffering as much as any.  Using a CV to get access to a potential employer, from a cold start, is hard and potentially daunting.

Hopefully, we’ve managed to nail the important points and given you an employer’s point of view, to help you create your own killer CV.

Now, go do.  Guess you could always get a T shirt printed up instead … (image from Blackbird Tees)

While OSL has a lot of student readers, we also have a lot of more mature lighting peeps around here too, many of which are employers.  So guys, if you have any experience or insight on what makes a good CV for you, comments as usual please.

If this has helped you, consider buying me a beer and CLICK HERE to donate a few bucks to On Stage Lighting (why should I donate?). Thanks, - Rob

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In the run up to the season of outdoor concerts and music festivals here in the UK, On Stage Lighting looks at a reality in concert lighting, the benefits of having different information and asks you “Which is more important to you? Knowing the music or knowing the rig?”.

It’s a secret kept from the Billy Bunters, but a large proportion of concert lighting is the product of the unknown. Wrangling a lack of information is the stock in trade for many techs in the concert and events business. A lot of shows are done on the fly by people who really should be paid more for their talent and creative techniques.

I was recently called in as “house lampie” at a local venue. The band to play that night had all the usual, sound crew, backline techs but no dedicated LD as such. For lighting, I checked and prepared the house rig in anticipation of either having to run the show myself or hand it over to their regular Tour Manager who was arriving later in the day. A bit of busking programming done, palettes checked and tweaked, faults sorted.

An hour or so before the support act went on, I’m stood the desk and feel a presence before seeing the familiar sight of a hand to be shaken, names to be exchanged – the aforementioned Tour Manager. Standing there, between the TM and myself, we had the full picture: I’d used the rig a few times before and had programmed a few pages of subs for busking, he knew the show and the music, down to the last beat.

The usual conversation takes place, more often in a leaky Kwikform FOH tower as sounds of rain and crowd anticipation filter though the earplugs. I run through the kit, the programming I’ve done and we discuss who will run the show. He’s not the band’s LD per se and is a bit rusty on the desk, so having listened to what I’ve created for him work with, he requests a couple additional tools to be programmed and we leave the question of who is running the show open for now.

Show time. I run lighting for the support act, of course. They are OK, pretty dynamic and I busk some decent looks together with movement and accents when it’s obvious. I know where everything is on the desk, so can play along quite well. Having worked there a few times recently, I also know the rig well enough to know all those little things that can add up to a good stage picture, angles that work well and nice balances between fixtures. But I don’t know what they are going to be playing or what is coming next The result is good, however.

Time for the main act. TM decides that he fancies running the show and will see how it goes, I hover to field questions. It goes well, the lighting is obviously a different style, not just because everyone has different eyes but also because there is a limit to what you can do having only just walked up to an alien desk and rig. He excels in knowing every song, every beat and every break – dynamically right on the money.

It started me thinking about the nature of busking concert lighting from different perspectives. So, why not look at those perspectives and break them down to analyse their strong and weak points?

Knowing The Rig

Give me a rig for a second night, and I will create better lighting than last night. Last year I was depping for a friend of mine for two days on an indoor festival. His rig was nicely flexible and the focus good (really can’t over emphasise the importance of a good focus, eh?) – I created a page of subs for my own use even though he and I use a console in a similar way. The first day went well, you can feel your command of the stage growing as you get used to the kit and programming – after all, this is your instrument. On the second day, I added some of my own “hey, I’ve got time” special palettes and tweaked a few things. Result? Really kick ass lighting!!

So, what’s good and bad about knowledge of the rig and the programming?

• This is your instrument – it’s helps if you’ve played it before.
• Able to concentrate without thinking about the technicalities of doing stuff – heads up, looking at the stage.
• Understanding of what really doesn’t work with what you have.
• You have found those happy accidents: good positions or angles, fixtures that catch something nicely or colours that work well.
• You have more time to see.

But

• Never quite sure what song is coming up, in order to choose colour combinations and nail them every time. Erk, this isn’t a blue song?
• While you can react to dynamics and a lot of music is pretty predictable, you are always slightly following.

Tactics and Techniques?

Use time you save looking at the desk to constantly evaluate the stage picture, you don’t need to mentally compute what you are doing so use your energy to keep looking and keep up with what’s happening visually and musically. Line up your best base layers (like decent colour washes), use them to underscore more complex stuff and to return to when you need to “stop all that a-wagglin’ and a a-strobin’, like, yesterday!” Always know how to stop stuff like chases and movements instantly. If you don’t get the beats, do something that isn’t a rockin’ out bump fest, movement speeds or even shutter chases that are more textural and less beat dependant.

Knowing The Show

Just like the previous perspective, give me a second show and it’ll be better than the first. In the world of concerts and events, many shows only happen once and often with little rehearsal. After a while you get used to the idea that you all do your best as professionals, what happens happens. But doing a rare show for a second time helps you remember how much better it can be and the luxury of rehearsing.

• You know the set, you can be ready for the next thing. Colours parked up, specials ready to go.
• Hardly miss a beat and aren’t surprised by a sudden stop (there is nothing worse than moving lights still moving when they obviously shouldn’t be)

but

• May be not aware of all the tools available or the capabilities of the rig
• Haven’t tried out different combinations or looks
• You may spend more time looking at the console than the stage

Tactics and Techniques?

Your show is made by hitting that beat, so make sure you have the ways and means to bump like a demon. Three intensity subs work for me, or split the blinders into two sets. Keep them on your free hand (left hand on many consoles) so you can select and adjust other fixtures while keeping the beat.

Concert Lighting – Ideal vs Reality

Obviously, in an ideal world we’d all have the rig of our dreams, plenty of rehearsals and everything would be just dandy. But like we said at the start, a lot of concert lighting is created using the only information available. That may be a knowledge of the kit or of the show but often, it ain’t both.

Geek Out: Lighting Techniques  – What submasters were used?

As an aside and for your interest, here is the recipe for the secret lighting sauce that night. All submasters are programmed as attribute only faders (not whole fixtures) to retain flexibility. A rundown of the subs used in addition to the usual fixture selection tools and palettes that would do the bulk of the work.

Generics

Not may generics in the rig: Front fill light, Specials Intensity (Source Fours with Apollo Right Arms, position set by palettes), House Lights.

Intelligent Intensities

Get those fixtures on: Washes, Spots, Scans, PixelLine intensity on individual subs
Make those fixtures chase: Same deal, shutter chase, fader position controls speed.
Strobe: Make some of the rig strobe. Different strobes according to fader position, strobe released on fader out.

Bump Splits

Intensities, splitting the rig into three sets: For beat bumps and kickin‘ that beam structure around the roof.
PixelLine: PL intensities, split across 2 bump subs.  All together now, Flip, Flop etc.

Movement/Position

Moves with speed controlled by fader position: Circle, Tilt Saw for both Scans and Washes. Could have used simple Pan Only Saw and Tilt Only Saw and mixed them but it uses up too many subs on several fixtures types, so Pan Saw was left out for the rig layout in question.

OUT: This is my all time favourite sub and one I use on most concert shows. It’s a position only Crowd position controlled by fader. Fade in, the heads all move out from their starting point on stage, fade back, they return. Move position by fader means that you can also do quick moves DJ style especially with scanners. In this case, there were no dedicated blinders.

So, there you have it. A hand full of subs for a truck full of shows.

What do you think?

During the show, I asked the question on Facebook and Twitter : “Which is more important to you? Knowing the music or knowing the rig?” which received a range of responses. Some came down on the side of knowing the instrument well enough to be able to play along while others suggested that knowing the show was the better option, being able to hit every beat was desirable.

This is an interactive so let us know what you think. In that situation, would you rather know the setup or the show? And what are your own approaches and techniques in these different situations? Come over and put your comments in the box below as usual

If this has helped you, consider buying me a beer and CLICK HERE to donate a few bucks to On Stage Lighting (why should I donate?). Thanks, - Rob

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Many On Stage Lighting readers are young aspiring lighting designers, keen to get into the industry and begin their journey to the top of their chosen profession. In this guest article, Lighting Designer, Author and all round stage lighting guru Richard Cadena tells it like it is.

How do I get to be a top lighting designer, then?

One of the most common questions I’m asked is, “How can I get into the lighting industry as a top lighting designer?” or something similar. It always reminds me of the punch line, “I don’t have to outrun the lion; I only have to outrun you.” (Oh, come on! Don’t tell me you’ve never heard that joke.  OK,  it’s at the bottom of this page)

But in this industry it’s not a lion that’s chasing us; rather, we’re chasing the lion and we have to outrun everyone else in the industry if we’re going to catch the prized position. If you want to be the one that chases down the king of all lighting positions, you’ve got to be prepared to put in some extra effort to prepare for a long chase. Here are some of the things you need to know.

You’re young and don’t know any better

That’s good because most people I know in this industry who are over 30 years old are trying to figure out how to come home off the road without giving up the salary to which they have become accustomed. And most people I know under 30 who want to be in this industry are trying to figure out how to go on the road and earn the kind of salary to which those over 30 have become accustomed. It’s a cruel trick of nature but it’s for your own good. If you knew what you were in for you might not be so anxious to go on the road. I won’t bother to tell you about all the missed birthdays, weddings, funerals, holidays, first baby steps, new teeth, broken arms, tonsillitis, first days of spring, report cards, quiet nights home with the family, not-so-quiet nights home with the family, graduations, and beautiful sunsets because you won’t listen anyway.

You don’t know how good you have it

Back in the day, there was no such thing as off-line editors, visualizers, the internet, social networking sites, smart phone apps, online user manuals, specialized books on stagecraft, lighting design software, or computers, for that matter. Nor was there Starbucks, Red Bull, cell phones, iPods, MP3s, or noise-cancelling headphones. We were lucky to have airplane travel and land lines. But here’s the reason I bring this up. There are lots and lots of resources to help you make your way up the industry ladder. All you have to do is put down your Wii, Nintendo, television remote control, and your texting down long enough to put the ladder against the wall and start climbing. Spend some quality time putting your brain in overdrive and learn the stuff. But don’t expect it to happen overnight. I hate to be the one to break it to you but it takes a lot of time and a lot of effort to master the fine art of being a master.

It takes more than automated lighting and a console, and less money than you think to create compelling lighting

Just because you can lay out dozens of automated lights, call them up on a console and record a scene in a console doesn’t necessarily make you a good lighting designer. The best lighting designers are the ones who can make a piece of wire, some gaff tape, and three sheets of gels sing like a songbird without resorting to the use of an effects engine. How do you think the great masters did it before the days of automated lighting? I’m not talking about the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, I’m talking about Renoir, Van Gogh, Monet, and Rembrandt. They did it all with shadow, light, and color. No effects engine required.

It’s easier than you think to be a part of this industry

Half the job is knowing how to get along with people, half is showing up on time, and the other half is bringing a great attitude. You don’t even have to know much math.

There are times when it’s okay to take chances and there are times when it’s not

The times when it’s okay to take chances include: moving to a different city to be close to production centers like London, New York, Paris, Chicago, Dallas, Munich, Los Angeles; taking on a project that requires you to stretch your skills and imagination; peppering the industry with resumes; asking a local production company if you can train on their console in exchange for sweeping the floors. The times when it’s not okay to take chances are when someone can get hurt: climbing without a harness on and clipped in; lifting a safety ground in an electrical system; rigging heavy objects over people’s heads if you’re inexperienced… You get the drift.

Have fun

If you really enjoy what you’re doing it shows and it’s contagious. Then people want to be around you and they’ll call you back again when they’re putting together their next crew list. You’ll be even happier when that happens and it turns into a vicious (but happy) cycle. If you don’t really enjoy this business then do us all a favor and get out. Chances are you won’t be making a terrible financial decision.

Read Rob’s On Stage Lighting blog

There, I said it. Now do it.

Richard Cadena has been in the lighting industry since the time of the bag phone.

He is the author of Electricity for the Entertainment Electrician & Technician (which is also available at in the US at Amazon.com ) and Automated Lighting: The Art and Science of Moving Light in Theatre, Live Performance, Broadcast, and Entertainment
(now in its 2nd edition) (Also available in the US at Amazon.com).

As an ETCP Certified Entertainment Electrician and an ETCP Recognized Trainer he conducts seminars about electricity, power distribution, and controls. He is also the editor of PLSN magazine and he has missed his share of weddings and funerals due to circumstances beyond his lighting control.

The Lion Joke

Two guys on a photo safari in South Africa far from their vehicle or shelter with no means of protection. All of a sudden they realize that a lioness has crept up behind them unexpectedly and that they are in grave danger of being attacked. One of them immediately takes off his safari boots and starts to put on some trainers.  The other says  “Are you crazy? That’s just a waste of time – you’ll never outrun a lion.”

The guy replies “I don’t have to outrun the lion, I only have to outrun you….”

If this has helped you, consider buying me a beer and CLICK HERE to donate a few bucks to On Stage Lighting (why should I donate?). Thanks, - Rob

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Quickie – Just a heads up about a potentially interesting webinar on modern lighting technology.

Creative Stage Lighting is hosting a webinar at Friday, March 26, 3:30pm-5pm EST called “The ABCs of Lighting A Green Show”.  Hosted by Richard Cadena (him wot wrote the book on automated lighting) and with Rush LD Howard Ungerlieder, the blurb says:

In this webinar, we navigate the unchartered waters of lighting the stage of the future. We’ll explore the newest technologies and how they compare to conventional sources in terms of light output, color and rendering, dimming, flicker, effects, and cost. When the smoke clears you’ll have a better understanding of what you can and can’t do with the newest lighting equipment, how it will look, and what the payoff will be.

Thats sounds pretty interesting to us, and so probably does to the On Stage Lighting readers.  There is still time to register and find out more about this subject that is growing in importance in our world.

If this has helped you, consider buying me a beer and CLICK HERE to donate a few bucks to On Stage Lighting (why should I donate?). Thanks, - Rob

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Like any workplace, a theatre or other live performance venue, presents hazards to those working and visiting. A two-part guide to Health and Safety and how it relates to working in the theatre,before we go into the detail, this first part looks at some big picture safety concepts. Next time, we’ll look at the specific safety issues in our own backstage world.

On Stage Lighting regularly gets asked questions relating to ‘Elf N Safety in a theatre environment: What is the law about this? What are the rules on doing that? Is it true I have to wear a harness when working over 2m from the stage floor, on a Tuesday, if there are less than 2 qualified electricians within 50 metres of the work area? That kind of thing.

Now, while these are all valid questions, they often are seeking some kind magic “law” that gives absolute clarity over what and what isn’t acceptable working in a theatre or other venue. Instead of getting bogged down with rules, regulations, codes of practice and other guidelines, let’s just cut to the chase:

If it’s unsafe or unhealthy, it’s not acceptable!

As On Stage Lighting is read in over 120 countries around the world, we’re going to avoid getting too muddled up in different legislation and instead take a good look of the reality of a maintaining a safe working environment in the theatre.

Show business has always had a reasonably good safety record, which is mainly down to the people who work in it, and many areas of the business are really getting to grips with health and safety in the modern world.

It’s everyone’s responsibility to do everything they can to mitigate the risks of working on stage, at crew level this means an awareness of hazards and your duty of care to your colleagues.

I ♥ Health and Safety

I have a confession. As someone who has spent my entire professional career at work on stage (?!) – I love health and safety.

I don’t mean I love clipboards, men with dodgy moustaches and nasal voices going around spouting spurious bits of legislation. I mean, I love being safe at work and knowing that I will be able to come back tomorrow. Being self employed, your biggest workplace fear is injury.

Health and Safety – What’s it all about?

The H and S phrase has, certainly in the UK, become a bit of dirty word. Often used by Jeremy Clarkson and Daily Mail journalists who don’t have to work for a living, health and safety has become synonymous with killjoys, The fun being taken out of children’s playgrounds and the halcyon days of of our youth, when the long summers were spent dying of asbestosis and other work related diseases. When planning of large construction projects, Human Resources factored alarming death rates into their recruitment policy.

The purpose of Health and safety at work legislation is to protect those in the workplace, to defend them against a lack of care on behalf of others such as unscrupulous employers, who would rather get things done quicker or cheaper while putting people in danger. In countries with developed safety legislation, the basic requirement is to be able to demonstrate that you and I did everything we reasonably could to reduce risks.

To create a safe working environment in a theatre obviously has to start with an awareness of what dangers present themselves, with generally or specific to a particular show. In order to understand the risks, those in charge need a plan of how the work is to be carried out.

In the UK, this usually results in two pieces of paperwork – a Method Statement of the work to be carried out, followed by a Risk Assessment of any possible hazards arising. As well as identifying hazards, the Risk Assessment also goes on to detail how this risks can be managed. Reduced as far as is reasonable practicable, in other words.

The other key point about risk assessments and their associated documentation, is that the process does not end with the printing out of a .doc. Risk assessment is a continuing and evolving process over the lifetime of a project.

A lot of questions about health and safety are focused on the details of what people perceive it to be – fall arrest harness, hard hats, hi-vis vests. Here’s some news, these are just the finishing touches to a safe working environment.

Let’s take a look at some of the really big tools of good safety practice, anywhere.

Good Management

Management and a clear structure is the key to safety planning. At the top level, an understanding of the chain of command and competent handling of the flow of information, as well as proper understanding of the risks.

At crew level, clear guidelines of your responsibilities, how and when the work is to be carried out plus and understanding of your place in the hierarchy.

Management doesn’t just mean paperwork and calling instructions, it means providing appropriate supervision for everyone. Crew chiefs, senior techs and other experienced team members provide the supervision for more junior staff.

Good Training

A big phrase in H & S is “adequate training”, a right to be provided with the training and for those working around you to be trained sufficiently for everyone’s well being. The level of training varies with each task, a crane operator will obviously need more training than the most junior crew member, but each needs to be sufficiently trained for their task.

As part of the Risk Assessment process, many measures to reduce risk include using only operatives holding “X” training certs, licenses etc. It’s a way of being able to demonstrate sufficient training. Of course, there are many experienced staff that may well be much better than their certificated juniors – that is sometimes a judgement call for those ultimately responsible and how their Risk Assessment demonstrates training. It comes down to what you feel you can prove about their levels of competence. A certified plant operator that causes an accident doing something unspecified in the training, they have been negligent. If the operator has no certificate/proof of competence, it could be shown that the management failed to ensure they had adequate training.

Anyway, enough about criminal proceedings, we’re here to talk about safety.

Good Scheduling and Separation

Probably the biggest weapon in the health and safety armoury is scheduling. It’s a huge tool to mitigate risk, so simple that there’s not a lot to say about it.

Scheduling activities on stage so that the risks are reduced to those not directly involved, keeping physical separation between two tasks and not having everyone working on top of each other. This can be laid out in the main production schedule but it also comes down the different departments what share the same space, choosing not to work at height with loose hardware while those underneath build the set, for instance.

The Professionalisation of Show Business

The growth of show business, particularly the backstage and technical disciplines, in the last 30 years has led to ever greater professionalism in the industry. In the 70’s, rock concerts were being staged and staffed by mavericks in a toddler industry just finding it’s feet. Today, we have job descriptions, centres of education and professional bodies all geared toward working in a theatre or show as a profession.

All this has led to better training, more skilled staff and a greater awareness of health and safety issues. Several friends of mine are now specifically engaged to manage safety on large sites, as ex-technicians they are the best people to genuinely understand the risks.

It would interesting to know if this will have an impact on actual statistics of safety in our business, one that already has an enviable record. But there are places that still lag behind on the awareness of even the basics of legislation. In my experience, the best parts of the concert and events business lead the way in the application of modern safe working practice on stage, while some theatres continue on with a less formalised approach which seems to work for them (whether they are complying with all their legal obligations, I wouldn’t care to say).

Next time in this two part series, we’re going to look at some specifics of safe working in a theatre environment, particular hazards and how they can be avoided. Hopefully this has given you something to think about in the meantime. There is some useful Q and A style information on health and safety in the Performing Arts here. 

If this has helped you, consider buying me a beer and CLICK HERE to donate a few bucks to On Stage Lighting (why should I donate?). Thanks, - Rob

You May Also Like:

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An up to date look at stage lighting iPhone apps and what they do.

July 2008 saw the start of stage lighting’s entry into the world of Apple’s iPhone apps – lighting themed software that you can use with the iPhone (or iPod Touch) and now, the iPad.

Since the first few iPhone apps became available, the market has become awash with beam calculators, DIP switch thingies (seriously, just read our article on how to work our binary DIPs without all that technology) and other goodies. Luminair were early on the scene with V1 of their  iPhone based DMX controller and have continued to develop the product, while tradtional console manufacturers have added remote functionality that can be controlled via your phone.

Image by William Hook on Flickr

Gel and Gobo makers have created catalogues and and references and serial iPhone developer Michael Zinman has launched his Genielux platform, a sort of worldwide lighting equipment hire database.

We can safely say that the market for lighting calculators is well and truly saturated. The addition of hardware like the Seachanger Color Bug, could bring some extra usefullness to the iPhone in your pocket. DMX testers and continuity checkers are things that spring to mind, not so sure about measuring 415v or using the iTouch to clamp meter yer PowerLoks but anything is possible.

Here’s what we know about stage lighting specific iPhone apps, grouped into a few sections with links through to the relevant Apple Apps Store page.  You can click on the image and find out more about each app.

DMX Control and Lighting Control Apps

Luminair DMX

Luminair enables you to wirelessly control, view, record and manage intelligent DMX lighting fixtures, dimmers, consoles, other software and media servers straight from your iPhone™ or iPod™ touch. Using Artistic Licence’s Art-Net protocol over your device’s built-in Wi-Fi connection, Luminair communicates with other compatible hardware and software nodes on your network.

A Lighting control interface on your iPhone, the Luminair software boasts the ability to control DMX lighting fixtures. The wireless DMX signal from the iPhone is sent using the open source DMX over Ethernet protocol, Art Net. This can be routed via a Wireless Access Point/Router into your DMX universe / ArtNet node. The app also has file management capabilities and colour mixing control.

“Right, can I have channel 47 @ 50% please”
“Where’s the desk?”
“Hang on – I’ll call it, what’s the number?”

Get Luminair at the iTunes Store

Zinman TCP/IP Remote

For IT professionals, systems integrators, and anyone looking for customizable control of any software or hardware capable of TCP/IP communications.

A general iPhone application that can be used in stage lighting situations. The software enables customisable remote triggerin of TCP/IP and UDP capable software. This includes professional level lighting consoles like the Grand Ma and media servers. Sounds like the kind of thing that developers dream of

Get it at iTunes

Grand MA App

The grandMA consoles are the core of the fully integrated MA system. The grandMA consoles are able to control – in the most elegant manner – moving lights, conventional lights, and effects, as well as LEDs and video. The reliable and proven operational philosophy allows a direct, flexible and intuitive way of working.

The Grand MA app is free at iTunes

Martin Max Remote

MAXRemote is your personal assistant to remotely control lighting devices straight from your iPhone or iPod touch. It is the ultimate remote tool for your Martin Maxxyz™ lighting console and Martin Maxxyz PC™ with a beautiful user interface and original features.

Martin’s Max Remote is free at iTunes

Other lighting consoles

Other desk makers including ChamSys, Avolites (Titan platform) and ETC have their own personal system for remote control of their products, some of which are browser based rather than actual apps.

Lighting Information and Catalogues

Lighting Handbook

Lighting Handbook is a new app for the iPhone and iPod Touch, it provides detailed information about Moving lights, LED fixtures, Scrollers, and more DMX fixtures.

It also provides access to the manual.

Get the Lighting Handbook at iTunes

Wybron iSwatch Gel

The Gel Swatch Library by Wybron, Inc., lets lighting production personnel browse, search, and compare more than 1,000 gel color filters made by the following manufacturers:
- Apollo (included in Version 1.4 release)
- GAM
- Lee
- Rosco

Buy this app at iTunes

GenieLux

Genielux is a user-friendly application that helps you find the exact model of lighting, audio, film, video, or other production gear that you need. It searches local vendors inventory for rent or purchase and returns a list of results based on your current GPS location. You can also provide an alternate location to search for the nearest vendors who can provide your gear.

Genielux is free for users, hire companies pay to list their inventories

The GenieLux app at iTunes

Wybron Moire Gobo Library

The Moiré Gobo Library from Wybron, Inc. lets lighting production personnel browse, search, and experiment with more than 3,600 different A-size gobos from the following manufacturers:
- Apollo
- GAM
- InLight
- Lee

Lighting Calculator Apps

ShowTool LD

Simple. Powerful. Comprehensive suite of Lighting Design and Electrics utilities for theatre and film.

Showtool LD is a bunch of lighting design related calculators : Beam, Gels cuts, Power Law, DIP switches and DMX all one app.

Buy ShowTool LD at iTunes

DMX Color Mixer

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/dmx-color-mixer/id349839425?mt=8

Colour mixing app that you can pick colours and cross reference against dmx values.

Get it

Wybron CXI Calculator

The CXI Color Calculator from Wybron helps lighting production personnel find and program colors for the CXI dual-gelstring color changer. Scroll through two overlapping gelstrings of cyan, magenta, and yellow to blend the ideal shade, then plug its numerical values into your lighting control console to have a CXI color changer move to that color. The Color Calculator also gives you the values needed to replicate several colors from the GAM, Lee, and Rosco

Get this app at the iTunes store

Zinman Pocket LD

PocketLD is a photometric database and calculation tool for stage lighting and TV/Film lighting professionals. Simply enter your throw distance, than select manufacturer, fixture and a lamp to calculate beam/field diameter and fc/lux.

MZ brings us another neat little iPhone and iTouch app that does Lighting Designer type calculations with a comprehensive fixture database to make life easier. Free database upgrades, so you can get new fixtures for the software as they are added.

Get the PocketLD app at iTunes

PowerCalc – West Side Sytems

PowerCalc performs basic electrical power calculations with watts, volts, amps, and motor power factor.

A calculator for power law, resistance, inductance and other useful stage lighting stuff. Although you could do these sums on the iPhones standard calculator, this little app makes life easier. Requires the iPhone 2.0 software upgrade and is only a few pennies

Buy it at iTunes

Beam Calc – West Side Systems

Use BeamCalc to calculate the geometry and photometrics of spotlight beams. Position and direct three light sources (chosen from the included library) to determine lighting characteristics: elevation angle, beam and field pool width, illumination, shadow length.

A handy beam calculator to help you choose spotlight angles for your lighting designs. The BeamCalc needs just a few measurements such as trim height and horizontal distance from the subject. It spits out the beam width of a given angle or can reverse the calculations for you, helping you to decide if you spotlights will be wide enough.

Update:  The next generation of Beam Calc is now available with improved functionality and is compatible with the iPad.  More information at the the application’s iTunes page.

DMX Calc – West Side Sytstems

Entertainment lighting equipment uses a control system called DMX512. DMXCalc is a simple and elegant calculator which does address arithmetic for DMX equipment.

DMX Calc on iTunes

Zinman Gel Calc

GelCalc is an iPhone/iPod touch app for stage lighting designers, electricians, and stage hands.
Quickly calculate number of sheets of gel, best cutting direction to yield the most frames per/sheet and pricing.

Get GelCalc at the apps store

Zinman iSwitch DMX

iSwitch DMX is an easy to use binary DIP switch utility for stage lighting electricians, technicians and programmers. Selecting a DMX address updates the DIP switch graphic with the correct DIP switch settings.

Get the iSwitch DMX app

Zinman ML Finder

For the stage lighting tech addressing a light plot. ML Finder displays the DMX footprint for over 500 moving lights, LED’s and media servers. Know how many DMX channels each device uses, in any mode. Simple to navigate and FREE to download!

Zinmans ML Finder on iTunes

Seachanger Colour Bug

The colorBUG from the SeaChanger group at Ocean Thin Films, Inc. is a wifi enabled, handheld light/color metering device that works with your iPhone or iPod Touch running the colorBUG client app, allowing you to measure:

- Color in CIE 1931 x,y space
- Illuminance in lux
- Color Temperature in degrees Kelvin

This software requires a colorBUG light/color metering device for functionality.

The software is free at iTunes

DMX Ref

DMXRef is designed to take the math out of working with DMX lighting equipment. DMXRef includes DIP switch and auto addressing functions, conversion between local and global addresses, and Dimmer Doubler decoding.

Buy it at iTunes

Rigging with the iPhone / iTouch

OK, so the actual swaggering around wearing a greasy clutch chain like a scarf is still down to you. But rigging calcs are always something that are better made without mathematical errors, so here’s a few rigging calculators for the tricky stuff like bridles and load distribution.

Bridle

Bridle is the innovative bridle creation app for the entertainment rigging industry with a fresh perspective to the ancient craft of calculating bridles.

Get Bridle at the apps store

iBridle

iBridle is for use within the events rigging industry. It can accurately calculate bridle leg lengths, apex angles and load distribution. There are no set measuring units, so regardless of whether you work to metric or imperial standards you will always get the answer you need

Buy iBridle here

JR Clancy iRigging App

Rigging app that provides tools and reference data for many areas of rigging, including wire rope, battens, arbors, sheaves, stage ropes, motors, curtains, and fleet angles. Available in Imperial or Metric Versions.

The Imperial rigging app is free at iTunes

The Metric versions at the apps store

Other useful Apps, not lighting specific

Zinman Portfolio

Portfolio is the perfect app for Photographers, Illustrators, Artists, Designers and anyone looking for an intuitive way to showcase their work on an iPhone or iPod Touch. Includes the same look and functionality as Apple’s Photo app, with improvements relating to an electronic portfolio.

If you’re a lighting designer or have any kind of visual portfolio to organise and display on your iPhone, this takes care of it nicely.

Get Zinmans Portfolio

That’s pretty all the stage lighting iPhone apps we  know of. If you own any of these apps, let us know if you like them in the comments.  Perhaps you’re wishing for a lighting related iPhone app that you’d like to see the devs working on?  Funny or serious, stick it in the box as usual.

If you think we’ve missed some, just add them below and we’ll update the list.

If this has helped you, consider buying me a beer and CLICK HERE to donate a few bucks to On Stage Lighting (why should I donate?). Thanks, - Rob

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To kick off 2010 at On Stage Lighting, we thought it would be nice to point out six things of lighting goodness elsewhere online, maybe new to you. Oh, and to invite you to add your own stage lighting related finds online that you think other OSL readers will find interesting, in the comments section.

Why six? Well, lampies can only work in sixes can’t they?

Theatrical Lighting Database

Funded by the New York Stage Council For the Arts , the lighting database is a great collection of lighting paperwork for a few of Broadway’s legendary shows, designed by the a few of biggest names in lighting design such as Tharon Musser, Richard Nelson and Jules Fisher.

The paperwork in the database includes plans, plots and equipment schedules. The detail in the paperwork of theatrical lighting design, including focus notes and gel calls, is not only a vital part of planning and communication at the time, it also gives us a sense of what went on. Looking through the various sheets can also help anyone learning lighting, particularly theatre lighting, to improve their knowledge of how to present ideas and plan a show, as well as rig design itself. And using tools from an era before there was software to do it for you.

Learning stuff about lighting always includes a certain amount of staring at other peoples plans, well as squinting at the pictures in equipment catalogues. You can find the Theatrical Lighting Database here.

Theatre Freeware Lighting Plan Software

Talking of lighting design software, if you are looking for free software to create simple rig layouts and some lists in .cvs format, Karl Eaton’s Lighting Design freeware is great. It’s so simple to create an “old fashioned” lighting stencil plan, with bars, numbers and basic geometry and you can easily create custom fixture attributes and assign them to a symbol without having to wade through endless libraries and wondering if you have the latest version.

If you need to draw a clear plan, show where fixtures should go and how they should be plugged up and fancy something a bit more sophisticated than my frequently used “Biro and back of a tour schedule” method, this is great. You can’t “Save As” a crumpled paper schedule, for a start.

Spend more time doing lighting and less time learning CAD.

MQ Scroll Wheel for PC

On Stage Lighting is keen on the Cham Sys MagicQ, it’s a good desk, but also because of the free software version that allows a user to learn the concepts of a number of professional lighting consoles, while actually using a cheap USB DMX interface like the Enttec USB Pro as an output device.

The function that has always seemed frustrating, probably as a result of the PC software being a ported version of the console, is the difficulty with which you can manipulate the encoders without hardware – one of the most important bits of moving light programming.

The MQ scroll wheel is free 3rd party application that gives you scroll wheel control over an encoder as you hover over it on screen. It’s simple, just download it and run the .exe while running the Cham Sys software. The resolution of mouse scroll wheels are not always that fine but it does work and actually makes a difference if you haven’t got someMagicQ hardware in front of you. If you like it, don’t forget to donate too.

GAM Split Gel Guide

As a reader of On Stage Lighting, you know that we like to publish articles on different aspects of learning the trade, giving you tips, ideas and information in a unique way. A guide to using split colour (using a multi coloured filter made up of different gel pieces) is just our kinda thing.

But, the On Stage Lighting Guide to Split Gel is not coming any time soon while this baby is out there. The web page from gel maker GAM, tells you pretty much all you need to know on the subject and has some great techniques that you might not have thought of, even if you have experimented with two and four way diagonal splits. It even has comprehensive images of the filters plus the resulting light.

iSquint Flickr Group

iSquint.com is one of America’s fastest growing lighting technology sites. Justin has some great stuff over there, particularly his Rumour Mill column which frequently flags up things going on the kit makers trade. (I also did an interview over there, but wouldn’t dream of calling that a highlight)

Justin created a Flickr group for people to add the sexiest show pictures of lighting designs they have done. On Fridays, iSquint features one of the images as a showcase snippet for the LD. Get along there to see some inspiring images and some cool lighting, even add your own pictures and show them off.

Take a look at the details and visit the group

Lucas Krech’s Blog

You might remember that Lucas wrote a great Introduction To Dance Lighting for On Stage Lighting last year. We loved that piece and appreciated in particular the way that Lucas adapted his writing to fit with our “house style”, I’m sure you found the article useful too.

I’ve been following Lucas’s blog for a while now and he always has interesting things to say on a range of subjects including lighting design, the finances of the freelancer and even his passion, philosophy. He even wrote a piece on why he thought his blog would never become really popular, citing too broad a range of subject matter or writing a scholarly manner.

Recently, Lucas has started publishing some articles that I think will really be of interest to you. He talks through his design process on a recent show, The Sisters Rosenweig and has come up with two great Colour Theory Basics posts on Hue , Saturation and Chroma.

I really recommend you check out his blog, especially with the recent trend in posts on lighting basics. To get a taste al the interesting topics Lucas covered in 2009, take a look at his round up from last year.

You really should read this guy.

OK,  so hope there’s something in that lot for you.  If you have any favourite stage lighting related online discoveries, put them in the comments box and tell us what they are all about.  Happy New Year.

Image based on picture from Jus’ fi on Flickr

If this has helped you, consider buying me a beer and CLICK HERE to donate a few bucks to On Stage Lighting (why should I donate?). Thanks, - Rob

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In the stage lighting calendar, the Christmas season is awash with choirs and orchestras, carol concerts and recitals. On Stage Lighting considers how to light a classical concert ,an orchestra or choir (while keeping conductors and musicians happy) including a simple rig design without overstage rigging postions.

Such musical events might not call for a huge light show of Wobbli Buckettes a-dancing about the place but lighting an orchestra isn’t a walk in the park. Despite what everyone else around you might think, lighting is integral to a successful concert.

In the world of orchestral musicians, “show” lighting is unimportant. Music is all about sound so you can pretty much wave goodbye to any of this “we are all here for the common good” guff – as far classical musos are concerned, you are of no consequence to them. Classical musicians don’t become top class instrumentalists with their ability to see the bigger picture, sometimes leaving you wondering if they would rather even the audience weren’t there.

However, they will know if they can’t see their music in the gloom and are not ones for keeping their troubles to themselves.

The audience, on the other hand, didn’t pay good money just to sit and listen to the CD while not being able to hit “pause” and pop off to the toilet. While not all of the audience delight in watching their favourites warbling or scratching away, seeing the performers is important to the rest and to the management.

Your goal as “person lighting this show” is help the show by making it possible to read dots, not to p**s any musicians off and to light the gig to the satisfaction of the players, concert manager and audience. In the controlled lighting space like a theatre venue or church, there is little ambient light so you are in charge of every bit of light needed.

Lighting The Music

A lot of tiny dots all bunched together – musicians cannot play properly without well lit music. While pit orchestras in theatre use Rat stands (music stands with a built in light), most classical players need a more “comfortable” dot reading environment. Your primary lighting concern should be to enable the musos to read their music easily but you can’t just issue the entire choir with Petzl headtorches – it’d be too expensive for a start.

Lighting the Conductor

The Maestro needs to be lit so the ensemble can see the frantic arm waving that makes sure everyone gets to the end of the tune at the same time. Being able to see music and conductor comfortably is pretty much 90% job done. You might also consider front lighting the maestro for the curtain call, so bows can be taken and flowers received.

Lighting for the Audience

Unlike theatre, intelligibilty of the spoken word is not a big issue but the audience have paid good money to see the show so it would be nice to be able to actually see their favourite artistes at it, a bit of low intensity front light “filling in” helps.. You can also push up the frontlight when it comes to bows and flowers time.

Arty/Mood Lighting. While some Musical Directors will request different colours, moods or textures, we won’t be going into how to achieve this today. The arty stuff comes down to whatever suits the performance which with 90% of these gigs is “Open white and leave it alone” to be honest

Lighting an Orchestra – Know Your Enemies

No, I don’t mean musicians – lighting enemies. The things that are most likely cause members of the ensemble to raise their hand are shadows and glare. Shadows on the page make it harder to read the score – the contrast between the white page and the black notes should be good. Uneven contrast on the page makes the eye work hard and if shadows move (like a violinists bowing arm or a percussionist arms), even harder.

Note about shadows: A light source and an object on stage create a shadow. There is a myth that adding more light sources cuts down on shadows, in fact they just increase. More light sources can mitigate the contrast effect of shadows but can also make them more complex to control. And controlling shadows is our goal, we’ll look into that further on.

Glare in the eyes of the players or conductor is a potential problem. While having lights shone in your face is uncomfortable it also effects the iris of the eye, making it smaller and harder to read music on the page.

We know some potential problems are and how they are caused, so avoid them from the start. Otherwise you will spend your time fielding complaints about the lighting and others will lose confidence in your lighting abilities. Once that happens, the world finds problems even where none exist.

Let’s look look at the practicalities.

Lighting The Scores

To light a choir and orchestra so that they can read their scores with minimal shadow or spill, you would like to use height. Putting your lanterns high up overhead and pointing them straight down means no light in anyone’s eyes, audience or orchestra. It also gives you the smallest, most controllable shadows (if you stand under an overhead light in your house and look down at your feet, you’ll see what I mean). The lower the angle of a light source, nearer horizontal like a sunset, the longer and more unmanagable the shadows become and the longer a shadow is on stage, the more performers it troubles.

The downside of heavy “toplight” is that it can make your ensemble look like they’re being beamed down from an alien spacecraft. A lot of harsh hotspots on the tops of heads and scary gaunt faces. It is also not always possible, quite a lot of concerts setups don’t have the overstage lighting positions required for these angles.

Your options are to bring the toplight a) slightly forward or b) slightly backward. Steep frontside top light can still seem pretty harsh from the audience, especially at levels that light up the music well. Steep backlight can light music while avoiding the hollow faces and foreheads that are too “hot”.

The trouble with steep backlight (directly from straight on upstage) is that, particularly for standing choirs, each persons head throws a shadow directly onto their score. For seated musicians, this is less of a problem. Lighting choirs, this can be eased by moving the steep backlight to one side and adding another backlight from the opposing angle – effectively lighting over each singers shoulder. Any shadow caused by a choir members neighbour is mitigated by the light from the other side.

Lighting the conductor is pretty uncomplicated, the orchestra needs enough to be able to see the stick and any facial expressions used to drive the piece. Light could come from upstage ish but mustn’t fly off into the eyes of the front row. Again, bring the angle steeper (more overhead) or from the side as an alternative. If there are no rigging positions overstage to light the conductor, see if you can find a cross light angle that is not going to bother the audience or the players.

Ok we’ve looked at ways of lighting musicians scores and the man with the stick, what about seeing them from the stalls? To be seen from “out front” we need to add some lighting from somewhere in front of the target (muso, singer, harpist etc). This could be from good old fashioned theatre style front light 45 degrees up and 45 degrees apart, but there are other positions that fill in here. The important thing to remember is that our biggest problem here is going to be “lights in the eyes” of players facing the conductor. This often makes the 45 degree angle less than attractive – a cello player sat in the front row will be guaranteed a front light in the face while trying to see the baton.

A more front/side or side light position fills in faces and is less of a nuisance for the majority. In a horseshoe setup, the players most likely to have the sidelight in their faces are sat either side of the conductor, facing the sidelight position. Just bear this in mind when focussing and cut off top edges at chest height on the opposite side to mitigate glare for the those facing.

The principle with this front light, is that that unlike a traditional theatre method for lighting a stage, the front light is Fill lighting that will be used at a lower intensity. If you are lighting the scores with positions from both sides of the stage, the sidelight provides most of the brightness required to see the orchestra from the back row of the audience.

Looking at the image, you can see lighting angles that are useful marked in green while red ones are going to cause problems. The arrows are not fixture positions but indicate direction with stubby ones being steeper (from over stage). As the graphic shows, any lighting angle that travels straight into the face of a player, particluarly via the conductor, is to be avoided. The angles that travel from upstage to down vary according to venue design, just make sure that audience members are not in the firing line when shooting from lower rigging positions.

Lighting a Concert in Reality

Many church recitals and school carol concerts are in venues that aren’t “the ideal world”. So, having looked at how we would really like to light our concert, let’s look at a common setup. Makeshift concert spaces often have no facility for rigging overhead, making wind-up lighting stands the only option.

We don’t have option to use high fixture positions overhead to light our orchestra – we need to be clever and even more aware of our angles, shadow and spill. Common wind-up stands go to a maximum height of 3-4 metres, a lot of our lighting angles are going to be shallower than we might prefer.

The benefit to portable stands is that we can place them pretty much where we like around the perfomance area – within reason. The other key to success is using a decent number of focussable fixtures with barndoors. 650W or 1000w fresnels are fine, depending on the size/throw of the venue ( 750w Source Four PARs/ PARnels are common in my world). The final piece of the puzzle is to use a number of stand positions to get “localised” light around the stage.

The first example here is scaled down version of a setup I have used regularly to light a choir and orchestra. The actual rig version uses double the number of fixtures to cover a larger area, but here we’ll use 12 fresnels for simplicity of demo and to allow for the smallest of budgets. We will pretend that the choir is also stood on one level. Tiered staging is often a feature of professional choir setups. Ideally, each lantern should be individually dimmed to allow for the maximum intensity control. Pairing two fresnels on each stand, while convenient, can cause intesity problems expecially as often the fixtures are working on different tasks and throw distances.

Looking at the diagram, one the lights on one side are numbered (the opposite partner of each lantern performs the a mirror task).

• Light 1 provides some front face lighting and a bit of light for the conductors stand. This is the danger angle that you probably won’t want to use too much apart from the walk-on and calls.
• Light 2 provides music sidelighting for the DS ensemble members facing across stage, lighting their music AND creating friendly front light for the players on that side of stage.
• Light 3 does slightly back lighting for the next US set of musicians. It also lights the conductor for the players.
• Light 4 side lights along the next row and a bit of front fill for the opposite side choir ranks.
• Light 5 creates front fill across the back ranks and is at an angle that troubles no one.
• Light 6 cross lights the rear rows of the choir ranks, far side. Music light, enough for 2 or 3 rows if you’re lucky.

Focus Notes:

Like most lighting, it’s all in the focus.

The FOH face lights are the worst offenders for “in the eyes lighting” of the opposite musos. Don’t forget to run them at a low intensity during the show, you can whack them up for the curtain calls.

Any light going downstage of the conductor must be cut off the front row of seating at chest height. Barndoor off to suit .  Although the conductors face is important to the players, you can cheat this by top dooring lower. There is often enough bounce from the score to see him grimacing.

Downstage crosslight/conductor sidelight – watch the DS b/door and long door off the audience seated.

Far cross lighting along the singers should be top doored off to just above head height on the other side of stage. This sidelight is going to be lighting faces as well as music.

Near lighting fresnels will need to be as wide as poss. Spot the far lighting ones down a touch to get a bit more oomph out of them.

You can let all US back/side lights light as far downstage as they go unless you think that their shadows are going to be a nuisance. Look out for the eyes of any front row audience and the two most downstage musicians.

Keep all barndoors tidy– every door should be in to at least the start of the visible beam.

Check light levels on stage by holding your hands out, squatting down and generally doing things that approximate where the scores and seated players will be. You can’t predict where every shadow will come from when a stageful of players appear, but you know you’re on the right track.

While the basic 12 light version of lighting an orchestra is simple, it’s a pretty blunt instrument that will only really cut it on a smaller orchestra and a handful of singers. A larger ensemble and some tiered risers for the choir mean you could do with some more fresnels (18-20) and a some larger wind-up stands or extensions that lift our rig higher , 4 – 5 meters should give the additional height to accommodate the rear riser lift. But the principle remains that same.

What next? Orchestra Rehearsals

Having set up the kit and a rough focus (often known as the focus in these situations) you await the influx of odd shaped intrument carriers, the rustle of scores and the sharpening of the conductors baton – the orchestra arriving for rehearsals. With any luck you have done your job so well that, after ascertaining that everything is good for them, you can slink off for a cup of tea. But how do you know if your lighting is to the choirs satisfaction?

Although you’d probably like the world to know that you are lighting the show, it is better not to make yourself to obvious and keep a safe distance, while watching players unpack and set up their music. You can easily tell if someone is uncomfortable or having trouble with the light levels on their scores. Often, musicians will adjust their chair position or rearrange their stands to get rid of unwanted bow shadows and you should let them get on with it. Only get involved at the behest of the conductor when there is something that only you can solve.

There is a rule amongst technicians that you never ask a musician if they are OK – they feel the need to find something to give you as an answer which is likely to result in pointless work on your part. Avoid direct questions like that. I usually prowl around the ensemble for a few minutes early in the rehearsal to see for myself if I would be happy with the light levels on each music score.

On a recent show, during this prowl I noticed that the organist had moved the organ into a position that meant no significant direct light was lighting his music. I quietly approached him in a break to see if he needed an Anglepoise or to move his intrument. We discussed the possibilities and he decided in the end that he didn’t want an Anglepoise for fear of knocking it overe during the show, and was happy to live with the light levels as they were. The guy was amazed that someone cared about his personal comfort that, despite my stupidity of breaking the golden rule, it was resolved by his rare “make-do” attitude.

If anything really needs adjusting, you obviously can’t clatter around with ladders during rehearsals so it must wait until rehearsals are over unless the problem is too intrusive to continue. For now, the orchestra and conductor just need space to get on with their bit.

After rehearsal, you can get on with whatever jobs you have left to do. But there is one more person you have to consider, now the orchestra have gone: The Tuner. There are two things that make their life harder – a lot of noise and working in the dark. If you have stuff to do, leave a light for the tuner to work by and keep the clatter of ladders to a mininum. They’ll finish much quicker.

All Done

Hang on Rob, what about the show?

As an On Stage Lighting reader, I am sure you have the show under control. The thing about lighting an orchestra or choir concert is that the rehearsals are the break point. A successful gig in this case is getting to the end of rehearsals with no questions about dimly lit music, glare or your focus.

After that, the show is just the thing between you and the load out.

If this has helped you, consider buying me a beer and CLICK HERE to donate a few bucks to On Stage Lighting (why should I donate?). Thanks, - Rob

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Taking common lighting complaints of our readers, On Stage Lighting looks at the really vital skills you will need to succeed as a stage lighting professional and finds a surprising place to learn them. We also bust a myth about life on the professional side of the fence. No wobbly buckets, PC console emulators or LED based duvet covers were used in the making of this article.

Through this site and my professional life I have a fair amount of contact with lighting beginners, many of whom are starting out in stage lighting and some of which hope to make it into the business as fully fledged lighting professionals. When discussing their own lighting set up, be it a small theatre, school or church, there is a common theme:  Dissatisfaction.

Opening with “we currently have crappy old lanterns” or “the rigging positions are bad because..” or “If we had some more kit and a few moving lights…”, there is a general assumption that lighting would be better or life easier if only there were access to the comforts of the modern stage lighting professional.

The Myth of Professional Lighting

Last week I was doing a show of the type that I generally call a Scrapheap Challenge. Take one lighting professional, a pile of lighting kit of questionable standard and see if you can get a show together in time for rehearsals in a few hours time. It’s a reasonably common occurence if you work in commercial event lighting and something that I assume I must display some talent for, based on the number of times a month I seemed to be booked to do such a gig

Notable negatives of this particular situation included:

• A lantern inventory that only partially resembled the one put together by the original Lighting Designer
• Equipment that has probably not heard the phrase “maintenance schedule” uttered in it’s presence
• Cracked lenses, missing focus controls, floppy barndoors.
• A mixture of Source 4 and Strand SL profile spots with a mixture of beam angles not necessarily ideal for the task – all with iffy optics.
• Socapex multicore spiders that were not all marked correctly
• A generic rig that was a bit too big for the 18 channels of dimming that turned up, meaning pairing and plugging up all channels at (and over) capacity
• 2 dimmer channels of the 18 were unusable for various reasons, making the above situation more tricky.Missing infrastructure that meant it was not possible call up more than each 6-way dimmer without repatching the control lines, making the focus a PITA.
• Not enough colour frames and other shortages that really make your day longer.
• I’m sure there was more, I just can’t remember what it was.

The marking and infrastructure issues also made fault finding longer than it needed to be but otherwise things were done, problems were solved and by rehearsal time, we had a show and the quality and suitability of the lighting was never in question.

The point of telling you this unremarkable story of yet another gig is to bust the myth that, in a professional lighting situation, life is easier because we all have better kit, newer toys and a whole host of other comforts not available in school, churches and village halls. We don’t. What professionals do have is the experience of dealing these things and a lighting experience nearly always started the aforementioned schools, pubs and village halls.

A lighting professional is paid to turn in the goods, not to complain about the kit. We also have the professional imperative to get the job done.

But I Don’t Have Enough…..

In Stage Lighting on a Budget, we found out that even the biggest shows suffer from contraints such as not enough channels, fixtures, control availablility etc. The article also runs through common solutions to the problem of not having enough of something, take a look.

My Stage Lights Are Too Old

Lately I have spend some of my time working in a school environment to get their stage lighting up to scatch. We go in, strip their rig out, maintain and fault find before re hanging it for general use and giving every lantern a decent focus. More often than not the lighting kit is old and a small amount of it may be electrically dangerous so that gets fixed up or very occasionally condemned. The rest get a check up and a rub down and are good for another few years yet – the solution is very rarely that they need to buy much new gear. The equipment is old but probably hasn’t been actually used a great deal unlike modern hire equipment that has usually seen a lot of use in its short life.

By the time we leave, a whole new lease of life has been breathed into the rig with a small amount of maintenance and an understanding of how to get the best out of what is there, the focus in particular. Despite great leaps in lighting techology, a conventional lantern is basically a metal box of some kind, with a lens and a reflector and a bulb. Sure, some are better than others but the essence of good stage lighting isn’t the date stamp on any fixture – light comes outta the end, we do something with it.

We Have The Wrong Fixtures

LIke “bad” weather (vs. the wrong clothes), you could question whether there is such a thing as having the wrong lights. There are fixtures that suit a particular purpose, purposes that suit a particular fixture and rigging positions which may or not suit both of those. The thing is these are the fixtures we have, what are you going to do with them. A common complaint starts along the lines of ” We only have PAR56s so….”. A normal PAR 56, last time I looked, spewed light from the end of it like anything else so in my book that’s a perfectly good fixture, especially if you are trying to pretty up a pub band.

If the director wants a tight spot and you only have cyc floods, there could be a problem. It could be resolved by trying to find out the required end result of this spot and suggest a lighting alternative you can do. Or maybe not being able to have a tight spot could be flagged as a must-have in which case the Production Manager will have to be approached for the budget to hire one.

It’s their call, all you can do is the best you can with the equipment you’ve got.

Our Rigging Sucks

This is a common one: “We’ve only got a couple of wind up stands” or “We only have two bars over stage” etc. I’ve done a ton of lighting using wind up stands and still do in the events market. They are quick and very flexible as you often have a number of options of where to put them and half of the lighting design equation is where each fixture is placed (vs. where it points). Only two bars over stage? How about zero bars overstage, then? That’s not a far fetched scenario, last year I lit an 8 metre stage presentation using the only viable positions in the venue which were crosslighting from either side of stage at about 5ft from the deck.

In every rigging situation there are things that you can do, things you can’t and things that “it might be nice if..” In lighting, it’s part of our job to dream up innovative and safe ways to get light sources where we want them or, quite often, to think up an achievable lighting alternative.

My Venue is Special Because…

Everyone likes to think they are special. Equally, everyone likes to think that their venue is the only one in the world that has x, is only as high as y, or you can’t do z lighting in. While every venue is unique, it’s not an option to throw hands in the air and exclaim that everything would be alright if only we were somewhere else. Even purpose built venues seem to come with their own purpose built foibles (which makes them even more frustrating), so the thought of one day walking into the perfect venue for lighting might have to be put on hold for now.

There is a common theme developing: this is the venue we are working in, this the kit we have, this is where we can put it. THIS IS IT.

The Solution? Good Lighting Skills

The solution to this ghastly world of the wrong kit, in the wrong place at the wrong time is lighting experience. The knowledge of what and what isn’t possible. What’s important and what’s not. What works and what doesn’t and having more than one answer to every question.

Basic lighting skills such as a familiarity with lighting angles such as side light and back lighting, the effect of different positions, shadows / reflection and making decisions when you don’t have enough of something are what really counts. While it’s tempting to overdose on finding out about automated gubbins, ethernet control, pixel mapping and learning software version 16 of the GrandHog MaxMA Pro Expert VII, light is still light and (we assume) always will be.

Where Do I Learn Good Lighting Skills?

I can remember the first stage lighting rig that I played with when I was very young. At my local village hall, under the supervision of my dad, there were two bars over stage, a couple of low perch positions Front Of House. Oh, and I think we had one push up stand. Control was done using two banks of domestic light switches (at least it was electric). I can even remember the lantern inventory: 8 x Patt 137 floods, 1 x Patt 23, 1 Furse  fresnel (in Hammerite blue with an orange mains lead) and our new pride and joys, 2 x Strand Minim fresnels (no barndoors). There weren’t too many different things you could do with this rig so Dad kept things pretty simple but always managed to work some creativity into the productions, perhaps the odd gobo hire.

After that, I went on to learn lighting skills in youth theatres, schools and other places associated with a general lack of lighting wonderfulness. All of my current colleagues in professional lighting did the same, finding out how to deal with lighting situations in an often simple environment, without the aid of sizeable budgets, shiny toys or fantastic kit inventories. Instead of deciding that your lighting kit is too old, point your attention using all your available skills to get the best from what equipment you have.

Maybe one day you hope to be in the exhalted(!?) position of a professional lighting tech or designer, getting paid for your own personal contribution to the lighting Scrapheap Challenge that is life day to day gigging.

If you are looking to learn good lighting skills to prepare you for such an undertaking, you’d better hope your learning enviroment encompasses shoddy equipment, lack of facilities, ridiculous deadlines and the general feeling that this time it really is going to be impossible. If you look around and find yourself in such a pitiful situation already, congratulations.

Welcome to the best place to learn stage lighting skills, have a nice day.

Before you complain about old lights, poor rigging positions and the wrong kit, think what wonders it’s doing for your lighting education.

Image by Toholio on Flickr.

If this has helped you, consider buying me a beer and CLICK HERE to donate a few bucks to On Stage Lighting (why should I donate?). Thanks, - Rob

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