THTR 475 - Lighting Design
Lighting Design is my passion and lifelong pursuit. Over time, this class, like all my courses, has evolved to better meet the needs of my students. Due to the specialized nature of the content, I only teach it every other year. I continuously refine the course to focus on the essential knowledge and skills students need to become successful lighting designers. The course emphasizes storytelling through light, using it as a medium to communicate ideas. Much of the coursework involves reading and discussing plays, then creating lighting scenarios in the light-lab, where students experiment with the effects of different lighting choices. This class emphasizes the importance of making creative decisions quickly, therefore, we also engage in lighting cueing exercises in the lab.
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While many of the technical skills required for lighting design are covered in other courses, I do review lighting technology and emphasize the choices made by lighting designers when creating a Lightplot for a produced play.
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In the syllabus below you can see how I have structured the course. Continuously looking to improve my teaching, I am currently working on a re-design of this course to give more students more opportunities for application of their skills in the course.
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Below the photo on this page is an example assignment.
Observing Lighting Phenomenology: Photo Journal
75 points
The goal of this project is to observe lighting phenomena in real world situations. The most important part of learning about light, is training yourself to “see” light in your day to day surroundings. You should look for the following lighting situations and take photos of what you observe using your camera. You can either turn in one photo print (on glossy photo paper) of each lighting situation - or - you may submit your photos electronically via dropbox or another
cloud-storage service.
Alternatively, you can insert your photos into a Word document, and then in the same
document answer the questions below associated with each observation.
Everyone must turn-in a typed, written articulation for each of the questions below via the assignment submission link on Canvas.
1. Sunset
What colors are in the sky?
How do these colors change over time?
What does the sky look like behind you (not facing the sunset)?
How does the changing light change your perception of color in your surroundings?
Are there many clouds?
What colors do you see in the clouds?
Are the shadows cast by the setting sun long or short?
Are the edges of the shadows sharp or soft?
What color are the shadows?
When do the shadows disappear?
What color is the light at the end of the sunset?
How long does it take for the sun to set below the horizon?
Can you perceive the sun setting, i.e. can you see it move?
What does dusk look like?
2. Moonlight
Note: Moonlight observations are best made during (or just before/after) a full moon on a clear night. The moon will be at its fullest next on Saturday September 10 and again on October 10. However, observations can be made clearly in the days leading up to the next full moon, as well.
What color is the moonlight?
How bright is the light?
Can you read by moonlight alone?
Are the shadows very strong or distinct?
Are the shadows long or short?
What color are the shadows?
3. Fluorescent Light
What color is the light source?
Are there any shadows? What color are they?
How does the light make people look?
What does the room feel like? How does it affect your mood?
How does the light affect the color of your clothes?
Can you describe a difference in color between outside in natural light and inside this room?
4. Grey Day
What are the shadows like today?
Is there a definable direction to the light?
What color is the light?
Are the shadows sharp or soft?
5. Woods
What is the quality of the sunlight? Is the sunlight very present in the woods?
What causes most of the light?
What dose light through the trees look like?
What might help you recreate this effect onstage?
6. Street Light
What direction is the light coming from?
What color is the light source?
What color are the shadows?
What are the shadows like? Is the edge of the shadow sharp or soft?
Does the streetlight change the color of your clothing? Does is change the color of the cars or
buildings nearby? How so?
What does your skin look like?
What do people look like as the walk along in the streetlight? Are they evenly lit all of the time?
7. Sunny Day
What is the direction of the light? What color is it?
Is the sunlight really yellow?
Are the shadows sharp or soft? How long are they?
How are the shadows different at different times of day? Why do you think that is?
What do you notice most about the changes throughout the day?
Is the mood of the place the same or different at the sun moves?
8. TV in a Dark Room
What is the tone of the light in the room? (Look at the wall opposite the TV)
What color is the light on your face?
Does the light move?
Does the color change as the picture moves?
Are there shadows? What do they look like?
9. Incandescent Light in a Room in your Home
What is the color of the light source?
What happens when you turn on an over-head light?
What happens when you turn on only table or reading lights?
What are the shadows like?