Extra Soft Box picture - Yirone

Katie Dobbins, Meredith Lytton lighting assignment

gels

Katie-fresnel light

Meredith

using the fly reels

fly reels

fly reel close up

lighting bridge

dimmer racks

box boom view

cvc light

chart to see where lights go/gels used

fresnel

lipsodel (sp?)

For our (Katie and Meredith) assignment we contacted Jeannie Weingarth with the Koger center and were able to go help out and observe the lighting crew as they set up for The Nutcracker. We worked with Scott, the lighting director, who is in charge of most of the lighting for the events at the Koger center. In order to set up for this ballet there were many different lights used

They had all of the different lights set up across several different batons or pipes. On these batons were Fresnel lights and lipsodel (sp?) lights. Both of these types of lights are set up on the same baton and grouped together. Each light was set up on and wired through multicable cords that are wired through multicable cords that are wired from abover the stage.

Another type of light we got to see how it worked was the cvc light. They used this to bounce lights and was similar to a wide angle flow light. They were set up in the back of the stage and they all can have either the same or different colors. They never turn these lights off during the show they just dim them using the dimmer racks located above the stage.

We also went into the "boom box" to play with the lights up there. In this area were the lights they use to light the audience. Scott also took us onto the lighting bridge. This was a long platform with more Fresnel lights that they use during the performance for front lights if they need them. He mentioned that the equipment they use is very old so they always have to do maintenance on them.

Lastly, we went up to the area above the stage where the men were working with the fly reel. They used the fly reel for cues such as pulling up a curtain or a backdrop which are connected to the battons as well. There was also a pin rail up there that could be used to pull cables up form the stage if they were in someone's way or in the view of the audience.

There were also lots of gels and diffusions put into the lights, because a lot of different colors and tones of lights are needed for a show such as this one. We also got to look at the chart they put together to know what lights go on which batons and what gels and diffusions they need for each of them. It was a great opportunity to see all the lights, how they were organized, and how everything ran!

Holly Stout - Soft Light

Video Lighting Adventures...

So this is the only photo I could get of the two group projects I helped light... and it's not even technically something that I lit. This is just an example of how I helped them use natural light effectively (avoid backlighting by positioning the camera and use the natural diffusion of a cloudy day).

For both shoots I forgot to check out an actual lighting kit so I had to get creative. The first shoot, Stephanie Reeves' group, was a narrative short and I mainly helped them by repositioning the lights that they already had in the room. The scenes I helped them with are the shot above and walking through the halls of the house immediately after the shot above.

The second shoot, Robert Lipe's group, was a documentary and I helped them light an interview outside an apartment in Stadium Suites. For this shoot, I decided I had better bring something so I bought two work lights and brought a lava lamp without the lava part.

The halogen work lights had a very warm color temperature that ended up working pretty nicely to contrast with the cool light of a early winter afternoon. I used the strongest work light as a key light and the lava lamp as a fill light.

Here's the link to the work lights I used.

http://www.lowes.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10151&catalogId=10051&cId=SEARCH&productId=3182631&cm_mmc=SCE_gps-_-gps-_-gps-_-Utilitech%20250-Watt%20Portable%20Work%20Light

So yeah. I had to think outside the box for both shoots. It would have been nice to get to try out an actual light kit, but I feel like I learned some useful techniques if I ever need to get better lighting out of a situation when I don't have access to good quality equipment.

Foxy Soft Box

So I decided to take some pictures of my friends stuffed arctic fox because it's easily the most unusual thing that happened to be lying around and the fur looked pretty neat with the light.

It's pretty amazing how much light the soft box kicks out. It was completely dark except for the one light and I could still use a pretty fast shutter speed. It's kind of a pain to carry around (it barely fits in my car), but I should definitely be able to get some use out of my new light.

Tabletop lighting #2 with softbox - Scott Fowler

Soft Box - Scott Fowler

Tabletop Lighting - Scott Fowler

Soft Box - Dustin Glendinning

I had these little characters from the beginning of the semester. Got these off this blog.

Box Light Picture

Soft Box- Yirone Huang

Bailey Watson- Picture with Soft Box

Dustin Glendinning & Scott Fowler

First set-up. Three cameras to get different angles on the two actors.

Second set-up. One bounce light for some subtle lighting when the actor walked out from the door.

Bailey & Holly - Lighting for Video Shoot

Initially, we started out doing the interview on the patio by the pool so there really wasn't any use for our lighting equipment. However, after camera issues, the two students filming the interview decided to do the rest inside her apartment. In the photo above we used two of the Fresnel lights as well as the natural light coming from the windows. The Fresnel light that is located in front of the interviewee was a 300 with a layer of diffusion clipped to it. The other Fresnel was located farther off the to back side of the interviewee. This light was a 600 with a lot of diffusion. We would have gone with a 300 most likely but we had to work with what we have. Over all I think we were able to help the interviews produce a good shot for their interview.
In this picture I am using one of the 300 Fresnel's to help light some "filler" footage for their video.