Thursday, December 02, 2021
Lighting for musicals: an interview with Emanuele Agliati & Oscar Frosio
et cetera...: Emanuele Agliati and Oscar Frosio are two lighting professionals from Italy with an abundance of experience, especially in the world of musicals. Emanuele is an esteemed lighting designer and co-founder of k5600 Design – an associate studio of lighting designers focusing on visual lighting design projects. Oscar is a lighting designer and programmer and works in close collaboration with Emanuele as the main lighting programmer and engineer for k5600 Design. Additionally, Emanuele and Oscar teach lighting design and lighting programming respectively at La Scala Academy (Accademia Teatro alla Scala) in Milan.
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6 comments:
It's cool to see the similarities and differences of the lighting design process in Italy. Like here, the designers note that designing for a musical is a quick process, and the lighting team must have a good workflow in order to achieve the desired effect. And honestly, it seems like this is true beyond musicals as well. Maybe I've only worked with short tech processes, but it always feels like the lighting team should have some more quality time to spend on their work. Another interesting thing I learned from this piece is that in places where technical theatre training is not extensive, individuals often turn to the manufacturers to learn the new technology. I know this kind of training sometimes takes place at CMU, but it's cool to know it's available beyond a university. I feel like this makes the learning process more equitable for individuals who don't necessarily have the ability to commit to a full course of study.
I wondered for a second why they were so focused on ETC until I realized that this article was literally on the ETC blog and I also may be illiterate. Regardless, It always fascinates me listening to designers discuss both the technical and artistic elements of their designs working in concert with each other. I feel like oftentimes when talking about a design, it's necessary to acknowledge both of those things at once while also putting them into the context of a production schedule. It's part of what attracted me to theatre design in the first place - the blending of technical, artistic, and practical skills. It's a rather unique skillset, all things considered.
Specifically in the article, I appreciate how they touch on the topic of limited time and availability of the space, and the tools they use to help with that. Visualization software is something I'm still trying to get the hang of, and quite frankly, I'm still looking into whether or not something similar exists for sound.
Honestly what they say about the Source Four 750W is so true. There is nothing like that light, it’s just the best. Not that an ETC Source4 is really all that fascinating, it’s just a versatile light, yes with limited capabilities, but there is nothing better than the quality of light that it produces (within an artificial light source that is, nothing can come close to the sun in my opinion) I started using an ETC light board in my high school theater. I started on an ETC Element and have wanted to continue training with the EOS Family Software, but I have let COVID and college consume most of my attention over the past few years and haven’t sat with the consoles and software for a while :( I don’t personally know how I feel about Augment3D, to be honest. I get the hype of saving time and having the ability to cut costs, but shouldn’t we be thinking about whether it is allowing us to produce the best designs? Lighting is a quickly evolving technical field and there is always something new and exciting to use or try but aren’t we getting caught up in the technology rather than the design? IDK it’s a hard balance to find as a designer and creator nowadays. I feel like we are spending more time trying to keep up with the technology and the new gadgets and software rather than ya know… designing? I think my head has just been clogged this past year with so much information that I haven’t been able to think straight (about design at least)
It is pretty amazing to see how ETC products have pretty much become the worldwide standard for theatrical lighting products. At least it definitely feels that way. Pretty much for every single theatrical show I’ve heard talked about on this page or just in general, they have used some sort of ETC product in some way. Usually their consoles are used because of their amazing programming capabilities. It is interesting, though, to see that some of this equipment seems to be new to these Italian designers. I am curious to find out when they started implementing this technology into their work. For me, I was introduced to ETC Eos family consoles and ETC lights in high school and have been going from there. I wonder if ETC just recently opened up Italy as a market for them and that’s why they don’t seem to have had this before? That part of the interview definitely made me curious.
I agree with James that it is impressive how ETC is not just the choice in the American market for theatre, but maintains a massive worldwide presence. It is just really hard to beat a product that has been so highly developed for the theatre market yet remains incredibly versatile across design disciplines. I'm particularly intrigued with Augment3D, and honestly wished I had spent more time over the pandemic learning about the system. Similar though to the Tait Navigator space devices, I wonder how much it can really help in our world. Of course, with lighting, there is an element of getting everything cued well in advance, but how much effort goes into that process vs what you could just do in the space should always be considered. It is good to see, though, that these designers found it useful for programming their outdoor shows. I sure could have used this a few years back where we spent an inordinate amount of time during a 48hr changeover programming cues that could have been written far in advance.
This article made me consider the way we have strongly categorized what a musical is. There is a very harsh expectation from audience and designers for what that entails, as mentioned by the article, these can be things like technical prowess in large moving onstage set pieces or dynamic complicated lighting and it is very difficult to get away from those things. They tend to permeate the theatre space and with Broadway we see this become the almost one ideal that is a way to measure success or achievement when there are so many other directions that theatre can be taken in. Part of that might very well be due to limited experience with musicals, but especially with people who are not deep into theatre and especially as someone who is not as familiar with the breadth of theatre as a work as a whole, broadway is displayed as that gold standard
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