Post 5: Camino, you are NOT the light of the world. *rant blog*

I live in Camino, and let me tell you. I've been saving this post for last. I can not STAND the lighting in Camino. Ever since the beginning of the year, I've felt that this lighting is so bad that it actually puts my in a bad mood. I'm not sure what kind of lighting it is, because I've never cared enough to ask, but it's definitely not bright enough. Even with other lamps on in the room it just makes me feel so washed out and sad! It's a real drag when I have to do anything in detail at night, like, oh I don't know, do my makeup, or my homework, or you know, see things. Plus, whatever lamp they have over the light sucks! I'm pretty sure it's not an incandescent lightbulb because Camino likes to save money, so maybe it's an energy efficient fluorescent. It still sucks, though! I can't wait to move our in four days so I can see my face again!

A photo of said lighting catastrophe. 

Helen Pashigian

Just a few days ago I saw an article in the Los Angeles Times that caught my eye. “She Loves Light, needs space” is about Helen Pashgian, a Light and Space artist.  Her studio is in Pasadena, California and her first solo show is now at LACMA.  I remember seeing Pashgian’s work at the Pomona College and her work with light is truly unique.  She is very mysterious about the technicalities of her work, saying that people should simply enjoy her art.  I loved how in the article it states how at ‘just the mention of the word “light” and Pashigian’s face softens’.  Pashigian describes her affinity for the depth and the light, floating objects floating in space that is not defined.  She wants to capture the change of light, which, to her, is its most beautiful aspect.   

Open for business.

My friends always like to throw giant parties. I mean, what friends don't. We're in college. I do have some clever friends, though. Instead of using regular ugly Camino lighting, that makes us all look incredibly washed out and gross even though we spent 45 minutes glammin' ourselves up for this thing, they use really inventive laser lighting. One of my favorite things that they do is they use an "OPEN" sign. Instead of the traditional neon lighting, this open sign is LED, and you won't believe how much light this thing actually produces! This one open sign can light an entire living room full of college students! The combination of the bright red lighting and the cool purple lighting creates a romantic purple lighting that gives a great atmosphere! The best part is, it uses almost no electricity!

Unexpectedly Lit

My phone was confiscated and used for general tomfoolery in this class not more than a week ago and the resulting pictures displayed an impressive command of light. Note the way that the subject has framed himself in between the two light sources in the upper left and right corners. 

This example includes an even more interesting framing of the subject's left eye, as though the light was only illuminating that one section. 

Both examples include a lot of sculpting of the facial area and utilize shadows to emphasize the face.

Life Sized Gobo?

About a year ago, I had a European adventure. I was absolutely determined to make it to Musee D'Orsay but my traveling partners were not all that interested in going to a museum, which ultimately ended in me getting terribly lost on my own in Paris. Worth it. Musee D'Orsay has a clock on the outside and visitors are able to explore a unique view of the city from behind it. 

Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of the shadow cast on the inside of the museum by the clock but in retrospect, the clock face acted like a life sized gobo inside of this museum. It may have been one of my favorite pieces of art in the building, which is big when that building also contained work by van Gogh.

Big Bear Lake

We had the Fechtig Family Reunion up in Big Bear a couple weeks ago and I took it upon myself to explore the surrounding beauty to get a break from the antics. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and I couldn't have asked for a better day. This spot gave me the best experience of the whole view. There were just enough clouds to keep the sky interesting but their reflections on the water were what I really enjoyed. Each moving ripple almost made it look as though they were dancing in the smoother, more glassy areas you could see a perfect mirror image of the lighting reflected.

Cat Light

With this post, I solidify my crazy cat lady future. The other day I noticed my room suddenly looked a bit darker than it had a minute ago and looked up to find my cat blocking some of the light from the window. She's got a thing for lying on top of books and apparently could not resist napping on the stack that I had left on the record player. I noticed the light seemed to create a halo effect and appeared to almost be bending on the blinds in the background. What's more, the light coming through the glass of the candle looks like it made a blurry rainbow on the back wall on the left side of the photo.

Week 5 One Acts

During a rehearsal for the week five one acts, our lighting Designer was tinkering with lighting for the transition when he seemingly accidentally created this effect in the Nixon. Those ugly backstage curtains looked satin and luxurious out of nowhere. I don't think we ended up using this particular look at any point in the show but it was enough to make me stop and take a picture in the middle of tech.

The sun!!!!! NOT REALLY DOE

So this is an image from a filming project that I was working on with a friend and I don't really know what it is but while I was taking a snapchat it was turned on and I saw a beautiful light. In person it has a clearer shape and you can see the lantern details but from my iPod all that could be seen is the rough outline of the lantern and this gorgeous white light. Look at how much area it covers and that's with the lantern on, I bet without it it would just be binding, literally :P.

Hahahaha that's Kristen!!!!!!!!!!!

So this is a snapchat that I took when we were taking a break in class hahahaha. I changed it to black and white because I never use that filter and when I made the switch I was like "DAMN. Look at those shadows." I really like how the light creates a big shadow and washes a majority of the floor. It reminds me of like a noir film and things are getting intense.

Don't say anything hahahahaha

So this is a picture of a ring my brother gave me with a clear crystal in the center and what I really like about this picture is the way that the light shines off of the ring. One minute I'm talking to a friend at a table and the next I'm blinded by this light that seemed to come from nowhere then I checked to see that my ring was trying to tell me something :). I can see my shirt in the reflection hahaha

Gel Reflection Lightning! (Blog #5)

Just the other day I left my laptop sitting on a table with some gels in front of it and when I came back I saw this. This isn't exactly the kind of thing I've seen on stage, but I 'm now quite curious to see if it would be possible. A cursory web search tells me that my laptop is made out of aluminum, so I'm wondering if the same or a similar effect could be achieved by papering the back wall of a stage with some aluminum foil. I'm also wondering about what would happen if I attached some gel and/or aluminum foil to an I-Cue. I'd definitely need to do a lot of experimenting before I tried applying this to a light plot, but I think it could be fantastic in the right play.

What intrigues me about the light here is not so much the colors reflected, but the appearance of these weird white wisps. I think they could look really good for something electrical or magical. Perhaps different levels of polish or roughness on aluminum, or other materials all together could produce some different and equally intriguing patterns.

Illumination and Comedy

My bother and I are participating in a film festival this week, so this weekend we had to shoot a 7 minute comedy. Because this film festival requires that the films must be made over the course of one week with no budget, using professional-level lighting was out of the question leaving us to the mercy of natural lighting to provide enough illumination for our movie. This became problematic later in the day, once we started losing a bit of light, because even though the actors were still clearly visible, the jokes were no longer playing well because of the quality of light. Comedy is heavily reliant on subtle reactions in order to maintain its humor, so even subtle changes in lighting can drastically affect the comedic outcome of a moment. For example, as the sun was on its way down, one of the last shots which we had to get for the day was of our actress reacting to a stranger being at the door. When we started her face was well lit and her performance was playing well, but several takes and a quick lens change later and the room was now a few shades darker and shadows had begun to creep into frame. This moment which was comedic several minutes prior now suddenly felt unfunny at best and creepy at worst. We ended up getting the shot the next day, but this instance really helped me realize the fragility of comedy and the extent to which a subtle change in lighting can drastically change the way a scene is perceived.

Santa Barbara - Post 5

I took this picture in Isla Vista, CA during a Shabbaton at UCSB. The weather had not been wonderful and the waves decided to take advantage of the beach. It was so dark and tumultuous, yet so interesting and beautiful. The unsafe feeling of waves crashing on land that people normally walk on is mimmicked in the cold and dim colors. Erosion at work. Very unsettling.

Martha Carter Being Awesome (Post #4)

Right now I'm assistant stage manager on Travis Kendrick's DCP on which Martha Carter is lighting designer. The other day, she started creating the backdrop for the play and we all got really excited and started snapping pictures. Here's one of them that I took.

Using 6 spectra cyc lights (3 in the grid and 3 on the floor) Martha has been making some really awesome looking skies, sunsets, and sunrises. Here there are also clouds projected onto the cyc using a combination of 3 or 4 source four's with gobos taken a bit out of focus.

The top of the cyc gets light blues during the day, which fade down to very dark blues at night. Meanwhile, the bottom cyc lights can create very realistic looking sunsets and sunrises by fading from dark blue up to through violet and purple, into oranges and yellows, and then back down. Using long fades times, it looks like the real deal.

As for the clouds, they can be made to move around and change shape by fading in and out different combinations of the 3 or 4 associated source fours. It was surprising to me, but a gobo that really doesn't look at all like clouds when it's sharp can look fantastic after being fuzzed out just a bit.

I totally intend to steal the techniques that Martha used to create these looks because they're awesome. It's a really great way to establish time of day and or weather in a play and is flexible, allowing the different ambiance in different parts of the play.


Here are a few more photos from Travis's facebook page:

Fire - Post 4

So, if it isn't apparent from this photo, this is a fire. Back in Santa Clarita, where I live with my mom when not at school, our next door neighbors were allegedly cooking meth and smoking cigarettes around copious amounts of acetone. This was their balcony when their condo decided to blow up at 4 AM. I chose to post this because of the heat of the photo surrounded by absolute darkness. I felt that it was very representative of what that situation was emotionally. The downstairs neighbors lost everything they had, left in despair, while the dumbasses(excuse my language) burned everything to the ground.

Rose- Post 3

Something beautiful, small, and whose color is very difficult to capture on camera. This rose lives in the UCI rose garden near the bridge at the main campus entrance. I went around smelling the roses and taking pictures of ones that struck my eye and this rose wasby far my favorite in appearance. It's warm and inviting with those pinks and oranges.

Sky Porn -Post 2

Working on productions can get stressful. Before load in for Julianna S. Ojeda's and Ryan Schwalm's directing class projects, our team wanted to have a day of bonding in Corona Del Mar with a beach bonfire. This was the sunset that day. I love that the clouds look pinkish even with an orange horizon and blue sky. Also, look at that cloud symmetry. If onlythat were a gobo.

Back at Coachella- Post 1

So, my favorite thing to do is procrastinate blog posts until the very last moment. I took this photo at Coachella in April. This was the main stage, one of six large sound stages. All of the stages had amazing effects with lights involving movers, LEDs, and lazors. Every year I go and stand in awe at the lights and admire the differences between something like this- a Muse concert- as opposed to indoor theatrical lighting.

Streetlight Shadow Fills (Blog #3)

I was struck by how cool this streetlight outside the Bren looked the other night. It has two different types of lamp on the same light pole, one warm, two cool.

   

This is an effect that is often seen with stage lighting and this got me thinking about how some really cool effects can be created using different colors of light to fill in each other's shadows. I'd love to play with this effect on a cyc. I think using this effect along with a gobo or two I could create some really cool looking distant mountains, like the kind you see in paintings. I'd love to play around with different combination of of gobos, gels, and fill light combinations to see what kind of pictures I could create with just light on the cyc. 

Blog 5: Contrast in natural lighting

I was in the park the other day as the sun was going down and at first I was just interested in the bird that is in this picture, but also I took notice of the way the sun is lighting this. Because the sun was low it is similar to a side light and I love the way there is a contrasting from a lit side and a shadowed side with the strong directionality of the sun. Even though there is only one actual source of light here and that is the sun, the side of the tree/pole/bird that is not getting hit by the direct sunlight is still lit by ambient light. This is something that we see a need for in creating lighting designs, even when we have a strong light source we need additional light to fill in the shadows with some kind of light so that they are not in complete darkness.

Santa Barbara Beach (Post #2)

A few weekends ago I went up to my home town of Santa Barbara for a day to visit the folks. We ended up going for a walk on the beach and I thought the ambient light of the cloudy day looked rather interesting. The light was very cool and I thought that it would be a great light to use for setting a somewhat melancholy atmosphere. The general lack of hue in the light, along with a touch of coolness communicates to me sadness and depression. I would like to use light like this for atmosphere in play where the general attitude is that of depression or defeat. Maybe something like Death of A Salesman. This is what we think of when we say the weather is "gray," but really it's a shade of blue.

Blog #5!

Michaela Jenichen
Drama 50C

"Streetlight People, up and down the boulevard!.." 

Last night at about 10pm I opened my window to get some air in my room, and saw this. ^ 

The picture doesn't do as big of a justice as the real thing, but I thought the whole scene was beautiful. Something out of a Harry Potter film even. The streetlight/lamp post in the foreground cast a shadow on the pavement in the shape of a "V" as you can see in the middle of the picture. Maybe it was because of the coastal fog coming in, but the lights also were refracted as well which gave off a secretive feel. I originally thought of a play where someone would be waiting for their lover. Or, it reminded me of a horror scene where a murderer would be waiting in the shadows. This scene is something that you can change up the tone depending on how you look at it. 

As You Like It Haze (Post #1)

I had the pleasure of working on As You Like It, as light board operator for Lighting Designer Darin Wade during weeks 3, 4, and 5. Towards the end of act 1, there is a big transition from the Court into the Forest of Arden. Because the play was set in Louisiana, the "forest" is more of a swamp in our production. To really get that feeling of marshiness and swampiness Darin used a haze machine to get things looking nice and foggy.

On closing night the haze looked especially awesome, so I snapped some picture from up in the booth.

Sadly, the pictures I took don't really do it justice, but one thing that you can see is how the light beams become visible, with all the haze in the air. What really struck me about the lighting here was the fact that you can see the light in a way that you normally don't. I really like how it makes light look, since it becomes a 3-D object and I'd love to play around with haze some time to see what sorts of cool things could be achieved with this effect.

Cory Mortimer - Post 5 - Parking Lot of Costco

I decided that my last blog is going to have very uninteresting pictures. Even though these are not the most interesting or lighting intensive, I think they both have a lot to say about lighting in general.

In this photo, we see that there is not that much shadow. The white vehicle has a little bit of shadow on the right side of it, but that is it. This makes the picture very well lit, but uninteresting. I feel like this happens sometimes in theatre. Even though the actors are very well lit, the story can be hindered by lack of creativity within the design. I feel like this happened on my second cue of The Glass Menagerie. I bathed that cue in a warm light and the shadows disappeared from it. It became pretty boring.

Another aspect of this photo that I like is how the sky is a dark blue on the left and a light blue on the right. We know that there is some sort of light source still coming from the right side of the picture and it nicely darkens throughout the picture to the left side. Like I stated in another post, I believe that the ability to have a light transition from a light color to a dark color makes it more real. I believe one our classmates did this with her Glass Menagerie presentation. She had two blue angle washes (I believe) and bathed Brady in a nice blue light. Even though the blue on in both lights were the same color, the blue on Brady appeared to be darker than the Blue around him. I felt that it looked very smooth.

Week 10 CTT Door Light

Leaving Nickel Mines one night I noticed how spooky this light actually is. Again, the part of the beam closer to the fixture seems to be the brightest, yet it covers the entire door. Because of the lip on top of the door, the beam is cut in half to create a sort of half moon shape on the ground on front of the door. It’s used for utility as opposed for design, but I found the shape the light created around the door quite interesting.

Week 8 Engineering Steps Illuminated

Another find on the walk home! I was attracted to how these foot lights bounced off of such steep steps. The brightest point is directly in front of the light, and as it moves closer to the steps it becomes a softer beam. From my distance, the light source appeared quite small, and so the fact that the light travelled so far up the stairs confused me.

Week 6 Sunset Strip in Studio 5

Now that I am in rehearsals for Nickel Mines, Studio 5 is becoming my second home. As I walked in to start setting up for rehearsal, I noticed the sun was setting and when the beams of light came through the glass, the smaller beam was sharper than the larger one. The high angle of the light created a beautiful picture on the Studio 5 wall. It helped that Studio 5’s lights were off when I noticed the sunlight. It’s rare to see natural light come through a classroom/rehearsal space, so I was quite happy to capture this.

Week 4 Humanities Gateway Staircase

I seem to recognize light more frequently at night, when the shadows are more vivid and catch my attention. These light sources piqued my interest because they gave off a more amber glow as opposed to the florescent, bluish white light that emanates from many of the lighting posts around campus.