Blog 5: A View from the Sky

I always enjoy a good plane ride; whether I'm going home, back to uci, or just traveling in general. I was (and still am) one of those people who always ask to sit next to the window just so I can see the view. Some people enjoy looking at the ground and watching the plane slowly lift off the ground. I, on the other hand, have a special moment during the plane ride that I like to stare outside of the window. Whenever the plane has reached one of it's highest points and it is in the clouds then slowly creeps slightly above them. It looks as if we're sitting on top of the clouds. I'm religious so whenever this happens I always look for angels because everytime this happens, I feel like I have one foot in heaven and it's magical. In this particular picture, not only were the clouds almost perfect, but the sun was in the perfect position; kind of pushed to the side so it wasn't blinding me with its brightness. I understand that Jaymi said to try to stay away from sunset pictures but I figured that this would be an exception considering that it's from a view from inside a plane.

Blog 4:"In life I was your partner...JACOB MARLEY"

I know "A Christmas Carol" was performed a while ago but I never got rid of (nor will I probably ever get rid of) this picture. To start things off, I was one of the spotlights during the show; I was spots 1 and 3 to be exact. Spot 3 was the moving spotlight for Rosie's character, the ghost of Jacob Marley. This was probably one of my favorite moments in the play just because of the lighting. Brady did a great job designing this piece in my opinion. When I first saw the spotlight, Rosie wasn't there so it was on the floor and, in my opinion, it looked like a moving forest so I didn't think it would be very effective. But when the spot was on Rosie, especially when she was in costume, she looked extra creepy...and it was awesome! 

Blog 3:A Kiss of Heaven

Many people don't really pay much attention to the little window in Studio 4, myself included; all it took was one day. My friend said he wanted to rehearse a song that he was going to perform and he needed a piano. So, we walked inside of studio four and checked if anyone was there. Of course no one was, so he just sat down and started playing his song. I got bored so I decided to look around. There aren't many places to go in studio four, as we all know, so I simply leaned on the piano and looked out the window. What I saw was truly amazing (at least to me it was amazing). The brightness of the sun shined through the window onto the floor at the perfect angle. When I saw this I had to take a picture. When I looked at the picture, it looked like a red shadow of the window had peaked from under the brightness of the actual sunshine that was pouring through the window. The picture and view were so amazing to me, I named the picture "the kiss of heaven."

Blog #4: Shadows on a Staircase

I was working on lighting focus for Nickle Mines and a part of the set is a staircase from a catwalk onto the center area. As we were focusing the lights I noticed the way the staircase cast a shadow onto the ground and also how each step cast a shadow onto the next step. I decided I would take out my flashlight on our break and explore these shadows. The pictures show some of the different things I was looking at as I look down from the top of the stairs with my flashlight pointing down. One of the more interesting things I noticed as I did this I wasn't able to get a picture of but if I was able to line myself up in the right position the shadow that is cast to the side onto the ground could be lined up with the dark side of the staircase and they would form a pyramid shape haloed by the light on the tops of the steps and the light being cast over the edge onto the ground.

4am Disneyland lighting

Ok, so maybe I could spend less time at this place. But why? LOOK AT IT. hehe. Here's my second Disneyland photo. This time, it's Disneyland at about 4am on May 23, 2014. I walked out of a restaurant and was just in awe of New Orleans Square! LOOK HOW PURDY IT IS.
First of all, the Mark Twizzy Twain boat. some simple Christmas lights and it looks epic!
Secondly, i found it really interesting how despite Disneyland's grand efforts in turning the park into a disco club, the lighting element that next catches my eye is not the crazy color funtime, but the simple streetlamp. I like how this small touch can be used to tell a story. Light is light is light and an be deigned in a way to create a specific mood (as we are discovering in our projects) but i never really focused on how light fixtures can do the same. Sounds dumb but c'mon! The streetlamp is not only practical but helpful in creating an atmosphere. I also just like the different shadows and colors and layers found in this scene. You can see so many different things for such a dark picture. I like it.

Blues and purples. Blog 4!

Michaela Jenichen
Drama 50C

Last Thursday, May 22nd my sorority hosted our Stars and Crescent formal. This was the sign that was shown outside of our venue, the Port Theatre.

(PSA: Sorry for the crappy quality picture- my phone is not the best at capturing this stuff) 

Although the quality of the picture is a little bit sub-par, when I saw it close up and personal, I couldn't believe how beautiful and vibrant the colors were. The blues and purples from the sign illuminated down to the sidewalk and seemed to spill onto the rest of the building. When I saw it, it reminded me of when I saw Our Town at a theatre near my house. The colors were the same as the ending scene when Emily is looking at her life and giving her closing monologue. I think that these bold colors in particular are a great use of passion and longing, but also give off this "come look at me" type of feeling. I think that this color scheme could also be one that I'd like to use in my final Glass Menagerie project. 

BLOG #3- Blinds

Michaela Jenichen
Drama 50C

When I was at my mom's house for the Easter Holiday, I noticed that she got new blinds for her bedroom window. Normally I don't like blinds because I like it better when it is completely dark when I sleep. But because I had to get up earlier than normal, I noticed one morning that they were making a really delicate and pretty shadow on her decorative curtains. Even though it isn't bright and extravagant, the simplicity of it and the warm and comfortable emotions I felt (maybe it was because I was home) but they made me want to open them and let even more light into the room. It evoked a sweet curiosity which is an interesting way of describing something, but also could be used if designing a show that one hopes to bring about a similar feeling. 

S'mores

So it's kinda hard to tell what this is but it's marshmallows being roasted over a fire at Corona del Mar beach! S'mores. but more importantly: firelight! I loved the shadows it cast, and the ominous yet somewhat romantic lighting it produced. It reminded me of how in class we talk about lighting design as 'shadow design' or what have ya. It was cool to me how through its light, the fire created a specific mood, and it wasn't even trying! just naturally! whoa! light!

Lighting my furry models

Every once in a while we will all at some point be momentarily blinded by that really annoying glare of light that reflects right off of someone’s watch or glasses straight into our eyes.  While this sort of light reflection is terribly bothersome, I use a similar lighting concept to entertain my kittens.  By finding the perfect spot, I can use either my watch or the screen of my cell phone to reflect a small spot of light on the floor or walls.  The result of this light, as well as my movement of it results in ample playtime for my two furry little creatures.  Now, however, as I watch my kitties chase after it, I can’t help but think of the first few weeks of our class, learning how light actually works.  It is interesting to stop and think about how different surfaces can either absorb or reflect light.  It is funny how we can manipulate and shape light in the most simple of ways.  I also love the shadowed silhouette of my cute little model.  

Blog 4: The Struggle is Real..

For the past 2 weeks, I have been working on the E-Hang crew for Nickel Mines. It has been a very educational experience. However, there was a moment of confusion where I was not sure how we were going to focus the upstage lights because of the set that was installed. The electric could not be reached by Genie or ladder! Brady reintroduced to something that I completely forgot about, bounce focusing. I did this before with Kristin on Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson when it came to focusing the electric in front of the proscenium. I completely forgot how much of a pain in the booty bounce focusing is. You bring in the electric, make adjustments, then fly it back out and see how it looks. If it is right you do the same thing to the rest of the lights. However, if it is wrong you have to keep doing it on that same fixture until you get it exactly how you like it. This can make focusing harder; considering the fact that there are possibilities of having to adjust the spike length on some of your electrics, which in your focusing being off. I’m happy that most of our instruments were able to be focused using the Genie or a ladder. It definitely made our job easier.

I see color...

Ever since we started The Glass Menagerie projects I've just been seeing color in light everywhere. I don't mean pre intro to lighting design when I thought a light bulb was yellow and thats it, but I see blues, greens, reds, yellows and pinks wherever I look. The other day I saw a painting on a wall because the incandescent light was mixing with the natural sunlight and there were blues blended pinks which were bleeding into some greens. I even pointed it out to my friend, and although it took him a while to see it, he did eventually.  I then began to wonder how I could recreate that on stage so that it was actually natural light and it wouldn't come across muddy or too saturate or just like an oompa loompa. I have concluded that I think to much about lighting when I'm not in class, which is a good thing... I think. 

Cory Mortimer - Post 4 - Morning in the School of the Arts

It is really amazing what we can stumble upon in a day. I was just walking to class and I saw this interesting scene unfold in front of me and I was like "I want to talk about this for lighting" and took this photo. Here are a few things that I find interesting about this picture.

I will never get over how blue the sky in California is. It just looks extremely fake because it is so perfect. I think we would be able to understand what makes color look good by looking at the sky in this picture. If one would look closely, the sky is lighter towards the bottom of the picture and becomes darker as it moves up the photo. When lighting in theatre, especially when making a sky scene, it would be a good idea to produce this same effect.

I also think that these shadows are extremely striking. There is an extremely crisp shadow on Studio 4 and it makes the picture look so dynamic and edgy. I think this enforces the point that we are shadow designers instead of lighting designers because the shadow is what makes Studio 4 look interesting. These might be interesting things to think about when lighting a city scene.

Mulu Caves in Malaysia

I found this picture in Google images and thought this was beautiful.  I LOVED the light coming through the cave.  The light seems like a white light with hues of light blue and purple peering through as well.  It is magical and relaxing.  The photo makes me smell the salty ocean breeze.  I can also hear the echo that comes from inside the cave.  The light peering through the right side illuminates almost the whole cave, with a reflection on the water.  I like how the right side of cave is almost all dark and the left side is being illuminated.  the white light shows the shadows of the left side beautifully.  It seems like a February morning around 10am.  It is still really chilly I want to visit this place so much!  It is so beautiful!  

Central Park

I picked this picture of Central Park because I loved the way the sunlight shines through the trees.  It seems like it is 3pm on a spring day in New York city.  It may seem weird, but this picture makes me feel the climate.  It puts me in the mood of the picture which is happy and warm.  When I first saw this picture, I immediately was drawn to the enchantment of the light peering on the over of the tops of the trees.  I loved how it made me feel "at home".  I pictured myself walking through the park after a long day of classes and relaxing.  It's funny how light can make you imagine yourself in the picture and create a little story in your head.  After the top light, I noticed the street lights that were on.  The street lights added a magical touch that I found to be so romantic.  What a beautiful and adorable first date location!    The street lights then made me realize the leaves on the ground.   The more I look and analyze the picture the more I notice and fall more in love with it.    I love how the street lights have a touch of pink in their hue.  The top light is a warmer yellow/orange while the street lights are yellowish pink.  I think this picture is beautiful because of the light.  I have never noticed light as much as I did in this picture.  

Blog #3: Fountain Light

I was at UTC with my friends really late one night and after a certain point the fountain stops running, but it still has the lights on in the bottom of the pool. I was really captured by the way the water effected the light and then lit up the underside of the fountain. The fountain would still have a few drops going down and hitting the main pool of water and these would cause tiny ripples that refract the light from the bottom. This image is taken of the the underside of the fountain with the rippled light projected onto it, also you can see on of the lights and the gently rippling water that produce this effect at the bottom.

Piece of Mind

On Friday, May 16^th at 4pm the interview projects performed Piece of Mind for the opening preview to Congresswoman Grace Napolitano’s speech on raising awareness on mental health.  Because it was in the Pacific ballroom there were no stage lights, however, they did bring in two big lights for each side of our little makeshift stage.  At the opening of the performance the first actor that speaks is center stage exactly and I am sitting on a stool about three feet upstage left of her.  The two of us were perfectly at a diagonal line with the light on stage right, so one of my first thoughts when we began was about the lighting.  I noticed that the light was so harsh from this angle that it created this powerful, almost Divine glow shaping the outline of her face.  I have no clue how this read to the audience but I was thinking that it had to have been overly intense for the mood that we were trying to convey.  My second thought was that I needed to write about my attention to this light in my lighting blogs for class.   My third thought was that I should actually be paying more attention to my acting since two hundred people did not come to watch me look at the way light hits an actor. 

Fantasmic!

Since I basically live at Disney I didn't want to do anything Disney-related BUT I took this picture and was quite impressed by it. THE COLORS, MAN. The show Fantasmic at the Disneyland Resort has been around for 22 years and continues to dazzle audiences every night. Every time I see it I am impressed by the elements that come together to make such a spectacle happen, successfully. Although the lighting is very theatrical, it is unique in that the show is on an island, which means multiple angles of vision and it seems like few places to hide electrics. But what do I know. I also noticed the way lighting was used not only to grab attention, but to hide the magic that makes the magic...that is, the technical stuff behind the illusions. In the show, light and video are projected on water. They also recently installed the same water pipes that are used in the World of Color show, and I don't really know how they work but they create streams of water that change color...so I guess there are electronically controlled gels in the light-water-pipe things underwater? WHOA 

Supernatural Blog 3

For this week’s blog, I will be talking about the lighting from Season 1 Episode 10 of the television show “Supernatural.” In this episode, Sam and Dean are in an old asylum that is haunted by patients that revolted against the head doctor because he was inflicting cruel and inhumane punishments on them. In this episode a young girl and boy venture into the hospital one night to see if it is really haunted. Ultimately, they get separated. In the picture, the boy is trying to get his flashlight to work as one of the ghosts appear in the doorway behind him. The key aspect that made this scene scary was the use of shadows. The shadows went along with the main aspect of this asylum. The patients were forced to bear through gruesome experiments, thus leaving them deformed. By using a backlight and low intensity diagonal back light, it gives a clear silhouette of the ghost. We are able to know what it is, but our curiosity continues as we wonder what the ghost really looks like. As I have gone through the first season of “Supernatural,” I have found that they use this tactic very often because it is effective in raising the stakes and getting the scare they want.

Cory Mortimer - Post 3 - Aldrich Park Daytime

I have a hard time finding interesting daytime lighting examples because I feel like the sun only does an amazing job at fully lighting everything, but this was the first scene that I found more interesting than any of the others throughout my day.

Like always, the picture does not do the scene justice, but it does help me see some things that I didn't see before. For example, the spots where the sun breaks through the trees are extremely different from the spots where there is little light coming through. Coming from the shadowed portion of the grass to the center of one of the areas where light gets through, the color goes from dark green to a lighter green to a white color. I think this is a good find because when lighting a show, I'm assuming based off of this photo that if we use a light at full intensity, it might white a person's face out.

Another interesting point of this picture is that we get the best color of the grass when light is not directly hitting it. This makes me believe that the McCandless way of lighting gets verified by this photo. With a warm light and a cool light coming in different directions and not directly hitting the person head on makes for a nice light.

Other than these few points, I feel that light during the daytime is not as interesting as light during the night. I feel the tools that daylight has are a full intensity light (the sun) and gobos (shadows on the ground). With night scenes, we can have street lights creating different colors and designs as well as different colors during a sunset.

Post 3: And All That Jazz….

As many of you may know, Greek Songfest 2014 was this weekend. My chapter, Gamma Phi Beta, did a 12 minute rendition of Chicago. All of the lighting was actually pretty incredible for a show that was almost completely run my students, most of which had no lighting experience. Our lighting designer, AEPi's president Alex Silver, did have some experience, and was set on having our lights really "pop" (pun intended). One of my favorite choices was his use of the purple gels throughout the entire show. That choice of color along with the use of the fog machine definitely created a sultry atmosphere. One of the things that I thought could have changed was how bright the spotlights were. In every picture that I've seen from our show, Whoever was in the spotlight seemed completely washed out, while everyone else was not seen as clearly.

Another great lighting aspect from our show was our "Chicago" sign. This sign was hand crafted by Alex Silver and the Gamma Phi Beta girls using orb bulbs and foam poster board. The lights were programmed into the system and were set to come on and off and dim when needed. It was a really great addition to our 12 minute production.


(Photo credit to Gamma Phi Beta member Julie Tan and video credit to Sigma Phi Epsilon member Anthony Benedetti.)

Tartuffe

So I went to see a production of Tartuffe at South Coast Rep tonight and I have to say that I was a bit confused by the lighting design. The play, possibly one of the best known classical comedies, began with the type of lighting that one would expect from a horror movie, the stage almost completely dark with faces engulfed in shadow with the vast majority of visible light coming from dim lights offstage right. This started the play off with an unsettling tone which was not conducive to laughter and this barely-visible lighting persisted for roughly ten minutes without any notable alteration. As the play continued it became apparent that the designer was going for a strictly realist approach with the lighting, as sunlight began to become more visible from stage right and gradually, over the course of the entire play, move from one side of the stage to the other as sunlight would as the sun would travel across the sky. This felt extremely limiting because there were no points in the show where lighting was used to accent much of the emotional or comedic content of the play, as the lighting queues were not geared to enhance the story of the play or the emotions of the scenes, but seemed to be simply fixed to the time of day at which the lighting designer thought the moment should take place. This choice was confusing to me, since the acting, the blocking, and the sound design all took creative liberties to breach realism when necessary, but the lighting design was perhaps the most strictly realistic I have ever seen in a play and it did not service the content at all.

Green Clock Tower

Color plays such an importance on our overall moods and emotions.  Just one color can possibly trigger memories and/or even stand for something grander than just aesthetics.  For example, normally our campus clock tower shines a blue light, typically, however, the school changes the color of the light shone in order to stand for a specific cause.  May 8^th the clock tower lit up green in honor of mental health awareness.  Because I am a part of the interview projects with Cynthia Bassham and our class is participating in mental health awareness week, I have learned that something so simple as a colored light can actually have a significant effect over someone.  Without words or anything accompanying it, one individual light can send a powerful message that is able to inform and inspire the individuals who see it.  

Morning Sunlight

Before this class I did not give much thought to the role of light in my day-to-day life.  However, now that I am instructed to look for it for class, I realize just how particular I have been about lighting.  For example, I am not a fan of most artificial lights on during particular times of the day.  I never turn the lights on in my apartment in the morning because I love the sunlight to peak through my blinds.  I notice that natural lighting makes me significantly happier and puts me in a much better mood for the rest of the day.  Although I wake up before the sun has come up, I still enjoy watching the processes of light gradually fill my room.  Even at night I typically avoid turning on the ceiling lights.  Instead, I use lamps that give a much warmer feel.  It is interesting that although I have had a very specific lighting routine, I did not notice how it really affected my emotional/mental state until now.  I did not completely realize or even think about how one small shift of lighting or source of lighting can change our emotions so drastically sometimes. 

Blog #2- lighting that society had tied to an idea

I live in a dorm and the bathrooms have showers where they basically pushed the wall of the bathroom back a ways and then placed the shower in these separate coves, and each one has their own light. A couple days ago one of the lights for the shower was going out. So there is this section of my bathroom where the light keeps flickering on and off, and the shower gets pretty dark at night without the light on. When I see this I immediately think "Someone is going to die. This bathroom is the next murder scene." This made me think about how there are some types of lighting that are so built in as an idea that they automatically make of something in particular when we see it. So many movies have used a flickering light as something horrifying or foreshadowing that something bad is about to happen that when I see this in my bathroom that thought automatically goes through my head.

THE THING THAT I CANNOT NAME

Okay, so I am sure all of you had one of these or seen one of these in your past...

I mean I even had one... but what are they called? Big bobble of electricity? Lighting zaper thing? Our mind illustrated in a glass bowl? Electricity yo? I don't even know but it just so cool and science-y.

The beams of light itself is like WHAT ARE YOU, I don't even know but its all purple, blue and super electric-y looking and when you turn it on and switch off the lights it looks even cooler. It's like pitch black darkness and little patches of light with a small dot of darkness in that patch of light. And basically those patches of light are wherever the electric-y thing in the bobble forms.

Also if you have not seen this thing, it does something even cooler.

It does that!!! And I'm not even going to try to comprehend how that works but what if we could take the same idea and put that on stage. So you have a bunch of lasers moving around and it clumps together to follow an actor or maybe a moving prop or scenery. I guess they already do have that with motion sensor lasers. Also how much cooler would it be if someone could recreate a seriously big version of this and put that on stage. It would have to be a play about Tesla.

And because I'm crazy, if you put a piece of aluminum foil on this bobble and take knife (do not do this at home cause you will get shocked) you can create an electric shock that is visible. It's comes out as white light, and you burn the foil.

Science with lasers and light, its just so cool!!!

So I Saw a Building...woo.

So this morning I was walking home from class and I was passing through UTC, and I was near Chipoltle when I looked ahead toward University Tower (I think that's what it's called). Anyway, its a building that I pass by several times a day, and despite the fact that it is the tallest building in the center by a significant margin, I almost forget that it is there most of the time. Today however, I noticed how the morning light caught the right side of the building, the diffused sunlight producing a pale glow against the grey exterior of the building. The front side was still well lit but was notably more shadowed that the right side. The contrast in light on these two sides of the building gave this otherwise bland and forgettable bit of architecture a somewhat imposing look as it stood high above the center. I found it kind of odd and interesting how the shadowing of the front of the building evoked a similar emotional effect as if I were to have seen a person's face shadowed in a similar way. Sorry I don't have a picture, but it probably looks this way most mornings.

Lighting in Shrek!

Week 6:  I did Shrek at the Fullerton Plummer Auditorium this summer and was in awe of all of the professionals around me.  From lighting, costume and scenic designers, to the actors themselves, I learned so much in from each one of them.  I didn't work directly with the lighting designers, but I could start to understand their process hearing about the meetings and seeing them work during tech.  I would ask a lot of questions about random things just so I would know about almost everything happening around me.  I spanned this shot with my Iphone during Lord Farquaads big production number "Duloc".  It was a very comedic number with A LOT of cues.  This was the last cue of the number and I found it magical.  The box 3 booms on stage left in the second wing, as well as the many smaller lights in the first wing stands out the most to me when I look at this picture.  The many lights from above, diagonal, fog and etc make it look so colorful and fun!  Everything is directed upstage C completely highlighting the main attraction.  I feel so joyous when I see of the angles and colors used in this one cue.  I love the use of yellow and red and touches of blue light.  This is how it looks from stage Right, I wish I could have seen it from the audience!  

bench in san fran

Week 4: I saw this photo right after I did my Picturization project.  A part of me wished I picked this photo.  Its dated for January 4th, 2014 in San Francisco.  If I were to have used this photo for my Picturization project, my two words would have been Dreary and Lonesome.  The dullness of the picture really spoke to me.  The colors are all very earthy browns, moss greens--even the sky and water aren't vibrant colors.  Never really stands out except the shadow of the bench.  That was one of the first things that pulled my eye.  The sun was shining from the back left side creating a shadow coming slightly diagonal right.  If I were to light this, I definitely use Channel 15.  I think that channel alone portrays the words dreary and lonesome.  It covers half of the face and creates a halo effect around the body with the shadow emulating the lonesome factor.  The dreariness may be accomplished by blurring the edges of softening up the edges of the light a little.  With such a sharp circle around the light it can portray other words not meant for the picture.  I really like this picture and am glad I found it after my project so I could like at it in a different light instead of just passing over it.  

TV lighting

A friend of mine was filming for the ABC Christmas special for Disney and I was able to watch the process.  It all was exciting and fun to observe all of the professionals in their element.  The one thing I noticed and found very interesting were the lights they used.  I always knew "there was tv lighting", but also knew it differed based on location, indoors/outdoors etc.  It was about 1pm during this shoot--middle of the day, and the interesting thing was that even though the sun was out, they still used so much light!  I thought to myself "why would they be using SO much more light?  Aren't the dancers going to look crazy white?"  Sure even enough, 2 months later when we watched it on the television, they looked great.  They had that "tv" glow that we never can capture while filming home videos--and thats why.  I'm not sure what kind of lighting instruments they used exactly,  but they resembled par cans. That would make sense because the Par cans have wider beams that give off so much energy needed for a television shoot.  It was cool to be behind the scenes because I got to witness all of the professionals (sound, lighting, directing and etc) in their element.  It was also exciting to see it all being put together on TV! 

Blog two: The Glass Perspective

So I had bought lunch with my friend one day. I had bought pasta and an Izzie for a drink. It was a nice day so we decided to sit at one of the tables outside. When I was done with my Izzie, I held up the bottle and this reflection went through it onto the container. And I sort of fell in love with it.

I know that glasses were among the first instruments used to shape the lighting used in theatre. I honestly didn't know why they used glasses until that day. I absolutely loved what the glass did to the sunlight. I almost looked like a mini galaxy in the middle of the day. It also looked like rain on a glass window. It looked like many things. And the effects only got better whenever I would rotate the bottle. It had sort of a hypnotizing effect on me. I just wish I had color to add to it just to complete the whole effect.