ChurchProduction.com: After teaching student lighting designers for over twenty-five years, I have witnessed hundreds of errors, many of them quite silly. When my editor assigned me this article, I thought, “Great! I am sure that I have countless stories to share with my readers concerning common mistakes that young lighting designers make.” However, after compiling several dozen, I quickly realized that even the most experienced lighting designers with hundreds of productions behind them still make mistakes. I believe that the difference between the rookie and the professional is that professional knows how to survive the mistakes.
11 comments:
I think that problems one and three, so many cues and lights that the lighting becomes distracting, and over saturated colors can be combated by having a strong willed artistic director. Now there’s a thin line, because I’ve definitely seen some directors and designers step on each others toes, as rookie mistake five in this article points out, but I think if there is a mutual respect and trust then the criticism can be very worthy. If the show is not a light show, the main focus cannot be the lights. A director with a clear vision can stop a designer from distancing themselves from the production at hand, in order to pursue a more extravagantly lit version of the show.
Mistake 2 is one I hope I can circumvent as much as possible, although time management really does come from experience. I think CMU will give me this experience in my time here before my professional career, but I’ll no doubt over book myself a few times over the next four years.
Lighting is such an interesting beast, as more and more fields demand intricate lighting. Most of the lighting articles I have commented on have been from churchproduction.com, only attesting to the fact that the field is truly growing to the point where churches have become the place for cutting edge lighting, and a place for budding lighting designers to earn their stripes while still getting to work on big productions. The mistakes in the article are important for any designer, however, church or otherwise. Writing too many cues is a big one, as many lighting designers I have worked with have gone ballistic on point cues, with each adding intensity by 5% or less, instead of having one cue in which the lights fade up. Building lighting around an atmosphere instead of every specific line the actors say tend to remove the audience less from the experience, as too many light switched take attention away from the truth of the work. If you are lighting something that takes place in reality, do the lights change intensity every five seconds? Exceeding limitations is a bit more ethereal, as it is tough as a designer to stop and say what you can really do. Someone that can is truly a good designer. Over saturated colors is a bit of a stretch, as if you are specifically trying to display another presence or another world, harsh colors are the best way to give the audience a sense you have shifted regions. Blacking out on stage without warning the actors is a given. Going dark is one of the most important phrases in a lighting designer's toolbag. Arguing with the director is the biggest pitfall, as art is collaborative, and the second you start to be difficult you have planted the seed that you can't be worked with. Good luck getting work once that info spreads.
As someone who has been taught unofficially in bits and pieces how to design lighting, this article held much interest for me. With little formal, codified curriculum, some of this common sense, while not new to me, is definitely information I would have liked to have been taught before I had to learn the hard way. This comment may easily devolve into a rant about the various failings of arts education in America, but I digress.
Going back to what was said earlier in the article, I found the tips about time management interesting. As someone who's struggled with budgeting my tech rehearsals effectively, the advice in those paragraphs about exceeding limitations spoke to me in particular. It's been a while since I've run a rehearsal, I'll keep the advice given about scheduling and labor management, and take it to heart.
Ultimately, while the information in this article may seem bite-sized and easily digestible, and the mistakes detailed may seem trivial and easily rectified, this article is written because these seemingly simple mistakes crop up sneakily, even in the work of the most experienced designers. Simply being aware is enough, and this article illustrates that perfectly.
Number five on the list of “Rookie lighting designer mistakes” spoke to me the most. I always found it frustrating that the director may or may not have an image of what he wanted the lighting to convey when it was fully executed, but they would always have opinions about how it was executed. The discussion between the director and the lighting designer should be about the “what” of the lighting design, and the designer should be more or less responsible for the “how”, understanding that it should fit within the commonly agreed upon idea of “tech” so as to not frustrate the actors, designers, and stage management. Likewise, the designer should stay out of the world of direction and staging, unless they are recognized as having a valid opinion in the matter. Even if the director/lighting designer knows better about the field of the other, they should keep their mouths shut and do their respective jobs.
These points speak to me extremely clearly, and a lot of them are extremely annoying when you see them taking place. I think that another point here is that a lot of these decisions should be made before tech happens. The conversations that occur during which the director and designer discuss what the cues should look like should happen before tech so that tech can be the process of changing and rehearsing that which already exists. If the director and designer start having these discussions (which sometimes leads into Number 5) during tech, it is a waste of time for many people. That being said, I think that a lot of the previous mistakes made by rookie designers lead to that moment in tech.
When the lighting designer has exceeded their available resources and has to re-conceptualize during tech. When the show is over-cued, and it is either impossible to call or it looks not great due to timings that there isn’t tech time to fix. You see these things happen all the time (not just in educational facilities), and I wonder when the designer and the director will begin to change how they approach that relationship to avoid that singular awkward moment in tech where it becomes obvious that they haven’t discussed cues yet.
The tips that this article gives can certainly extend beyond the realm of lighting design. It can extend into costume, scenic, media and sound design. Theatre is a collaborative atmosphere and it can be tempting to go over the top because "how else is the audience going to understand 'x' if I don't shove it in their face!!!??". We need to assume that our audience aren't idiots and that these sort of subtle changes can and will be picked up. The piece of advice on not pushing it too far in terms of speaking to directors is an important part because the ability to be constructive is important. Being able to give constructive feedback without offending is such a crucial skill in any department but especially theatre since we all work in pretty close quarters for the most part.
Coming from high school, the number of times a new freshman on the board and goes to a blackout without warning is disturbing. They usually learn after a few times, but it's very disorienting for anyone on stage. This is true for all the mistakes on this list, and now that they have been clearly pointed out, I can think back to times when friends or even myself have made them. This kind of self awareness is really helpful for us students, that's why I always choose these types of articles. I have a little nagging voice in the back of my head saying, "Cassidy, I bet you did everything on this list!" One thing I've always enjoyed in my education were stories about major screw ups the professors (or the professors friends) made, and then he they fixed them. Knowing what to avoid is as essential as knowing what to do.
This is so relevant because I was talking to my friend about these sort of problems exactly. I came from a high school where the lighting resources were sorta limited and couldn't really do all the cool tricks done at carnegie. One show that I noticed was in Much Ado. Since I was sound board op, I was able to hear each time the SM would say "lights...GO". But when I heard that, I saw the tiniest change in lighting on stage, if anything, none. Too many cues for nothing, well I'm sure it had purpose but if he was battling with time, then this would not be wise. To reference the use of so many saturated colors, maybe this is my style, but I enjoy them, obviously not where they don't make sense, but if the scene requires "fun lighting" then I'm all about the colors.
The issues the article brought up stem from the fact of a rookie lighting designer having a huge ego and not yet experiencing a reality check. In order to be in the mindset of making those mistakes, the person is unfortunately trapped in the delusion that the lighting design is the most important part of the show and the vision they themselves holds is greater that what the director wants. While it’s also sad to say that so many designers fall into the trap of the addiction to over saturated colors and want to take over control of the mood of the scene and end up pushing the visions of the other designers to the wayside. And that tends to lead to them into the lack of understanding that sometimes less is more and not everyone is going to have the same level of urgency and importance in getting things just right as the designer. Unfortunately, all of these lessons eventually get learned with time, but by that point they no longer are a rookie designer. Knowing these are the five most common mistakes, it allows me to first be aware of them and second see that they all are derived from a place of not understanding the importance of collaboration.
This article touches on so many important topics. First off, theatre is a collaborative art form. When working I think it is important that we constantly remind ourselves of that. Lighting designers especially. More than just holding the safety of actors and technicians in his or her fingers, LD's hold the design choices, and even directorial choices in their hands, as well. Lighting affects us all. Lighting is meant to enhance all else that is going on on-stage (scenery, costumes, actors). At it's core, we need light on stage. I find that darker stages are becoming more and more popular with young lighting designers. All designers sometimes get caught up in our specific area but at the end of the day we come to the theater to see actors on stage. So put light on them. Bump up the brightness.
Coming back to collaboration I think it is important that at the beginning of a process all designers come to the table with clear thoughts and views on what their part of the production is going to look like, but be willing to bend and work with each other to create a cohesive production, and at the base completely change if the director says so. Because lighting is so conceptual and dependent on the work of others, it is so imperative that a lighting designer is willing to work with others to enhance everyones work and not focus on just a specific gobo or gel.
The strongest statement in this article is when the author speaks to helping to tell the story. Lighting sometimes can portray mood, however, I feel that at it's essence lighitng it is meant to enhance what is going on stage. I am not a lighting designer, but I understand that just because a character is mad does not always warrant an entirely red stage. I look forward to a collaborative effort where all designers, lighting, scenic, costume, media, etc. work together to create a seamless project.
I absolutely agree with everything this article says, but I think it could have been summed up in fewer words. One of the things I often told my students was to always keep in mind how their decisions told the stories. Working in theater, that is the most important thing to keep in mind. Coming down to the wire on time, budget, and labor (or going over) doesn’t matter if you haven’t told the story. While safety is important, my experience is that most operations don’t have more lights than their venue can handle. These “rookie” mistakes are just that – rookie mistakes. All of the issues discussed in this article can be avoided, but it takes time and experience to understand and learn these things.
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