Fundamentals
Atmosphere – choosing colours to fit the scene
Illumination – lighting surrounding objects to show the atmosphere
Selectivity – choosing something specific to light
Dimension – choosing the area to light instead of whole set
Techniques
Top light – Light coming from above the subject to focus the audience’s attention on that specific thing or person.
Side light – light coming from the side either illuminating the shins, body or the upper body/face.
Front light – light coming from the front focussing on the face and sometimes casting a shadow on the floor.
Back light – light coming form behind showing only their figure as the front of their body is a shadow.
Foot light – light coming from the feet shining up creating a shadow on their face mostly creating suspense.
Angles
Genres
Straight play - just acting with lights mainly being white and naturalistic lighting.
Comedy - mainly just someone being funny with a folowspot on them and a colourful light set.
Dance - using dance as a way to portray emotion in the form of a play with sidelight to highlight body.
Panto - actors portray emotion without saying anything by using gestures or music with colourful lighting as it is mostly watched my familys/children.
Concert - bands play music with flashing and moving lights creating an intense atmosphere.
Musicals - Theatre shows which are predominantly music based with lights looking like concert lights.
Colour Theory
RGB – red, green and blue is most used and mixing these colours together can create any colour on the colour wheel.
CMY- cyan, magenta and yellow are similar to RGB but just use different colours. These colours can also be mixed together to make any colour on the colour wheel.
Additive colour mixing – mixing RGB together. Starts with black and when more colour is added it gets brighter.
Subtractive colour mixing – mixing CMY together. Starts with all of them together makes black and when being taken away, more and more light is added.
Techniques
Smoke / Haze - Smoke to enhance the beams of light and make them show more sharply.
Smoke vs Haze - Smoke is thick and hard to see through whereas haze is more subtle and a thinner smoke.
Gobo - Used to create different shapes with light.
