Designing lights was always one of my favorite parts of directing. I was blessed with a lighting designer who had an amazing personal collection of lights and fixtures that flooded the stage with more lights and colors than I could even use.
Now, you don’t have to have a ton of lights and fancy moving gobos (pattern projections) to get creative with your lights. All you need to do is have a solid understanding of your show, which by this point you should definitely have and maybe keep a few of these ideas below in mind.
Designing lights for a musical plays a huge role in conveying the show's mood, enhancing performances, and creating a visually captivating experience for the audience. You can pump up energetic moments, create extra tension, and intensify dramatic moments all with well-placed lights and some color. To make a comparison, imagine a dramatic scene in a movie without a soundtrack below it.
Like, the reveal scene in You’ve Got Mail without Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Yeah, same great acting but it just adds another level. That is exactly what lights can do for your musical.
As the director, your main role when it comes to designing lights for a musical is not typically hands-on technical design but rather one of creative direction and collaboration. You will work closely with the lighting designer to make sure that the lighting design aligns with your overall artistic vision of the production.
When it came to lights when I was directing, this is how I was involved with the process:
Relay my thoughts and special needs to my lighting designer
Plan light cues (where in script, what the change is, how long the fade is)
Program light cues with your lighting designer, relaying your plan to them
Give up some control and allow them the freedom to adjust and fix as needed without your approval. (You have enough to think about during tech week. Be a collaborator as much as you can.)
In my opinion, lighting design is an art. So, go into thinking that there are no strict rules. Your design should serve the story and enhance the audience's experience. Don't hesitate to think outside the box and innovate to achieve the desired impact. That being said, here are 6 tips for effectively designing lights for a musical:
Understand the Script and Music:
Before you start designing, thoroughly read the script and listen to the music. Understanding the plot, character arcs, and emotional shifts is essential for creating lighting cues that align with the narrative and music. (You should know this by now, but it is worth saying in case it is someone besides you designing the lights.)
Have a Lighting Plot:
Develop a lighting plot or plan that outlines where each lighting fixture will be placed and how it will be used. Consider the key areas on stage, such as downstage, center stage, and upstage, and how different lighting angles and positions can be used effectively.
Normally the lighting designer will provide the plot, or map that shows where their lights are hung and pointing. When they create one for me, I ask them to number the stage so I can easily convey which section needs to be lit - example of the numbering in the pic.
Use Color, Intensity and Angles:
Experiment with color, levels of brightness, or intensity, and angles of where your lights are coming from to create the right mood and atmosphere for each scene. Color gels can be used to create various emotional tones, and changes in intensity can draw the audience's focus to specific characters or elements on stage.
Plan Your Lighting Cues:
I have watched people try to wing this. It’s not pretty. Do your job and come prepared. Develop a cue list that includes specific lighting changes for different moments in the musical. These cues should be synchronized with the music, dialogue, and choreography. Smooth transitions and well-timed cues are essential.
When planning lights, I will mark in my script exactly where I want a cue to go and make a quick note (such as more “add side light”, “change color to blue”, or “dim back light”), along with a fade time.
Utilize Moving Lights and Gobos:
If you have them, moving lights and gobos can add dynamic elements to your lighting design. These are great for adding extra textures to the stage and for drawing the attention of the audience where you want it to go. Which takes us into the next tip…
Utilize Isolation
This isn’t just for you. I’m not saying to find a dark closet and escape from it all…. with some candy.... mmmmm... maybe a Symphony Bar. Those are the best. NO! Though that might be good advice at times! Isolating where you want the attention of your audience to be is huge. So many times I have watched a show where there are two people on one corner of the stage, but a big, bright set is illuminated across the entire stage. It’s distracting and less impactful. AND, if you plan your scenes and scene changes correctly, you can have a small scene on one side of the stage, focus in on them with lights, and ninja a scene change on the other side of the stage to eliminate the downtime of scene changes.
Record a run to watch and refer to while you plan your cues: - This was huge for me. There are times when you will forget exactly where people are positioned OR (more likely) when your blocking has evolved a bit due to your actors taking liberties. Being able to refer to the video will take out some of the guesswork and rework later.
That’s a lot to think about if you have never been involved with lighting design in the past. Remember that more isn’t necessarily better though. Simple can be more effective in many cases. So, don’t get overwhelmed. Think about the story and how you want the audience to feel in specific moments and start small with simple angles and colors and maybe try to limit the number of cues for the fist couple of shows you do until you get the hang of things.
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