Rosco Spectrum: In the fall of 2017, the UV project of my dreams was proposed as a possibility. My design advisor, Jon Young, approached me with a request for using UV paint in the University of Oklahoma Helmerich School of Drama productions of Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and Perestroika. I was thrilled and immediately started collaborating with the directors of both productions and members of the creative team to create a mural on the upstage wall and we discussed the potential of incorporating the use of UV paint for the production. The final design was a graffiti mural that masked the UV wings that would illuminate in the angel’s presence.
4 comments:
AHH! This is so cool. I love reading articles about scenic painting experiments, especially something as unique as this. I think that ultraviolet paint is extremely creative way to hide change within a set and then be able to reveal it dramatically later on. UV paint also allows designers to include hidden scenery that maybe they cannot to afford to have because the theatre does not have a fly space or enough space offstage to keep a massive set piece. You can see in this article that Bobo was able to have giant wings for the angel, even though the space had a low ceiling and little to no wings for masking. And while Rosco UV paint is no cheap investment, it is surely easier to do this than build a fly space. On of the Arcades this year used ultraviolet paint to show rejuvenation in the rainforest, and while it was no Rosco UV paint, it was still very well done, and the effect was magical. I think that UV paint is a very interesting and awesome tool to be able to use, and I would be excited to get the chance to see it in use or work with it in the future.
I love this project! I think it's so cool, I think her process is really interesting because it's more complicated than you would think. I really like the concept behind the wings as well, because while I don’t know the show it seems like the wings are used on multiple occasions. I like that the wings are in UV paint, it allows the design a subtlety that wouldn’t be present if there was just a huge set of wings onstage.That was what surprised me most about this article was the complexity of he steps and how she incorporated the wings into the graffitti. In some of the the photos it looks like the UV is present at the same time as a lit stage, which creates a challenge for both lighting and scenic. Even though it’s mentioned in the article, the challenge of having UV light across stage is also interesting and difficult.
This is beautiful. I love UV paint because it is creates such a big impact when done correctly and it can be easily hidden under normal lighting. The images in this article were just spectacular really. To me, this shows good design and great scenic painting. It is such a simple solution to giving someone wings but works so well with the what the show is and what the rest of the set looks like. When only the paint is illuminated it looks as if the wings are floating in mid air - giving an extremely ethereal look that I think is very effective. I do wonder about the cost of such a feat since the wings are so large. It must also be taken in account that the production must purchase black light fixtures specifically for this moment. I am sure this was all calculated and, as Katie has mentioned above, was probably cheaper than installing a full fly system but I do wonder what the budgeting and redesigning phase was like to conclude in this solution.
UV paint is so cool. The way that it can be hidden under or on top of other paint only to be revealed later is so awesome. It really makes things feel otherworldly in a way that very little else does. I’m really glad that this article actually explained each step the artist went through to achieve her desired effect. The photos look even better than I could have guessed. I haven’t messed around with any UV effects recently, but I don’t think I was ever able to get that level of glow, especially with other lights on around it. The graffiti paint treatment was very clever because it leaves no trace of the UV paint. I would have loved to see this show with no other knowledge of the paint treatment. I think that my breath would have been stolen away from me. I hope that I’ll be able to use a treatment like this on a project at some point. The effect is too cool.
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