Hello from lighting…
In the mornings we have time to refine technical details without the cast on stage. Tamara often has notes from the night before for us to work through, and I normally have a long list of things to discuss with my team. It's normally a combination of tiny small adjustments from anywhere in the show, and more detailed work on particular scenes. We often ask the stage managers to stand in for the actors, so we can judge how the lights look - very dull for them, but it makes a huge difference - It's almost impossible to light an empty stage. (and we enjoy watching them act out scenes. The Pearl Harbor attack performed by John, George, Annique and Georgia in place of a cast of 30 is worth paying good money to see.)
Yesterday we spent all morning on "Pearl Harbor- timing lights, sound, projection and smoke with the music. Tiny changes can make a huge difference - for example extending a sound cue by 0.7 seconds connected it better to a lighting effect and action on stage. Many seemingly imperceptible changes like this add up to a tighter show. This morning we have been working through the music of a dance number bar by bar, refining how lighting shifts can connect closely to the music and punctuate the action. We work closely with Patrick, the Deputy Stage Manager to refine cue points for lighting changes. There are over 500 cues in the show, and Patrick (the voice you hear Front of House telling you to take your seats) calls every lighting and technical cue precisely to the music or the action.
In the afternoons we have the cast onstage and light over their rehearsals. Any changes to the text, music or staging has implications for lighting. And it is a good opportunity to make lighting adjustments with the real people on stage.
Each night I watch the show from different places - back of the stalls, side of the circle, back of the gods. I'm very happy with the look of most of the show, but on a show of this complexity lighting needs to focus on the action like the camera's lens on a film. I need to be sure that the people at the back of the theatre can follow the story as clearly as those at the front. It's sometimes a tricky balance to maintain the beauty of a scene while still picking up the details of performance that allow the audience to connect to the characters. At times we choose to make the lighting really stylised with big dramatic statements. At others it's about setting a look for a scene, but really focussing on main characters. Much of this is done using followspots, operated by Richard and Kirk, who are with us in rehearsals every day, and are managing their complicated plot brilliantly. Followspot operators (like stage management ) are unsung heroes of a performance, when they do their job well, nobody notices they are even there, but done badly, any moment of the show can be ruined (no pressure guys...)
Posted by Bruno Poet (Lighting Designer) on 17/10/2013 @ 16:13hrs