Rosco Spectrum: We’ve shared several stories about the spectacular architectural installations featuring Rosco LitePads and other stories from filmmakers about how they’ve used LitePads on the sets of your favorite movies & television shows. This post will show off some creative ways LitePad has been used in theatre – including a backstage installation that illuminates theatrical line-sets, a few examples of how LitePad can make props glow and a creative project that used a LitePad to back light scenic elements on stage.
9 comments:
These are really cool. I think the ability to give an actor front lighting while they are reading a book is amazing. This could also be used for many interesting effects within scenery. The article also said how it could make computers seem more accurate and gives them the glow you would get off an actual computer. There would be many possibilities with this equipment and I would be very interested in getting the chance to work with it.
The effect of using the LitePad inside the book to light the actors face i think works really well. I however think that some of these applications could be just as easily done with less expensive (non rosco products), especially in the case of the lock rail lighting.
I think these examples are cool. But they do not seem to always be the best executed. The lion king example is a nice idea but it seems it could be concealed better but maybe that's just because it's not under stage lighting. I feel like dry erase marker for the linesets is a novel idea but could end up causing problems... "hey who accidentally wiped off the label for this lineset?" I also think that in the Joseph example, the cool light of the light pad looked out of place in the rest of her warm light. Would a gel be able to fix this? This isn't a problem in the next example since that palette is cool overall.
Technical theatre is all about finding innovative uses for products that aren't necessarily designed for use in theatre. I found the lock rail example and the book in One Arm and a Leg to be the most effective examples shown. I really like the idea of backlit index lights on a lock rail. Being able to get rid of the standard overhead lights but still being able to read the labels, most likely more clearly, makes a lot of sense to me. Instead of fumbling around trying to read labels that are written poorly to too small in the dim light of blues, the backlight makes them much easier to read. The only thing I would be worried about what how much light they cast on stage but since they are dimmable that problem pretty much fixes itself. This the kind of innovation that really moves us forward.
Awesome! Most of these applications seem very real and extremely effective. Like most before me said, the lighting of the actor's face whilst reading seems like a great idea that looks stunning. Some of these other idea, like Chris said, could probably be done in cheaper more efficient ways, but hey, if you have the money and want a really neat effect, why not?
It seems as though Rosco has created a very versatile and useful product that has found its place in theatre. Its outstanding how great of a lighting effect this simple pad can give. I understand the need for this product especially since LED's typically give a very splotchy light and aren't very pure in color. To have such an even throw from such a small place is nothing less than outstanding.
LEDs are great for SO many things, as this article points out. I love the LEDs by the fly rail, I think they could be great as run lights. If there were blue lights under the locks there may be less light leak onstage, but the actual rail would be as clear as day to the run crew members in that area. Putting LEDs in the book are very cool, it is something that productions are constantly trying to do. At CMU we are always putting LEDs in books and under chairs and pretty much everywhere we can put them so I am sure these pads would be really useful.
The LitePad is a cool little product. I would like to know more about available power options for it because the dimmer in the lectern seemed rather large for such a small product but they did mention putting a battery holder into an actors costume. If the LitePad is easy to power "wirelessly" than it could be used as a very cool integral lighting element on stage. I'd also like to know what Michael said about how it looks with Gel.
This is a really cool product that I can think of a few applications for. I can think of quite a few places where these would be great at my high schools theater, least of which would be a replacement for our index lights as well since they were really poorly maintained (in other words didn't really work). Additionally, they sound like rheyd make great catwalk light for times when the crew had to be up there during a show. I'd really like to try these and see how they work in person.
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