Archive for March, 2010

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Better than The Best

Monday, March 29th, 2010

Walking down the street the other day I was thinking about what I want as an artist in light. For a long time, until I boarded this recent train of thought, I wanted to be the best lighting designer in the world. I think a lot of people want that. They don’t necessarily want to be the best lighting designer, but they want to be the best at whatever it is they love to do.

So I wanted to be the best. No. I wanted to be The Best. I wanted, so badly, to be the best there was, that I stopped trying to be better.

Now don’t get me wrong, I have certainly improved. And I continue to do so. But my improvements have largely come, from my perspective, behind the scenes while I strove for being The Best.

This was not always the case. For a long time, until fairly recently, I simply wanted to be better. Sure, I wanted to be The Best, but that was a goal pointing me in a direction. It was a vector, not a destination. A verb, not a noun. What I was doing day to day was simply improving my craft in my medium. I kept working, tirelessly, on my craft. Improving my use of color and angle. Getting better at worksheets and drafting. In short I was doing everything that a student of an art form should do. I was analyzing mistakes and working to improve them.

Somewhere along the way I stopped learning in the way that I had been doing. I think I know when it was too. A few years ago I got hired by a regional theater to light a play. What play it was and where it performed is irrelevant. I was flown out from New York, lit the show, and knocked the design out of the park. We’re talking bases loaded, solid contact, clean hit way out into right field and over the bleachers. In short, the show looked damn good.

For many people this would simply be one step towards a new and better achievement. But I have a problem with success. I have had this trouble all my life. Or at least as far as I can remember. I can be great at something until the point at which I become aware of how good I am. Then I falter.

That is not entirely accurate.

The trouble is not just becoming aware of talent. It is when the voice of success becomes louder than the voice of critique. It was that voice of critique that I lost in the success.

This is not to say that I have not done some great work since. I have. Recently too. But the work I have done for the last few years has been largely at the same level. It is often good, but it is not getting better. Further, in striving to be The Best, without working continuously to be better, I have made some awesome miscalculations. Overconfidence is the risk faced when the inner critic is not given full voice.

But more generally than that, when we stop learning, when we cease asking questions, we stop growing. As I have been mulling these thoughts around in my head for the last several days I realized that the greatest artists, certainly the ones I have been attracted to, tend to live as permanent students of their art form.

I am reminded of the line from Shunryu Suzuki’s Zen Mind, Begrinner’s Mind, “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.”

I have come to realize that in order to truly excel as an artist in light I need to first and foremost be a student of light. I may one day become a teacher, but in order to teach, I must be able to learn. Yet right now, in order to become better, in order to even get back on the path towards being the best, I have to learn. I must be a student. I must approach light with the Beginner’s Mind.

Being a student means asking questions. It means constant improvement. It means having fun with what you are doing. It means every day choosing to learn because of the joy of knowledge and improvement. Learning, it seems, is better than being the best.

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From the Archives: Lighting the Body in Space (Part 1)

Friday, March 26th, 2010

Note: This post first appeared in October 2006. I thought it was a nice compliment to my post last Monday

Something I have not spoken of in this forum, at least not much, is the relationship of light to the performer. Concept, space, time and story are all here, but what of the performer? First, before anything, we are lighting the performer. Be they dancer, singer, actor or DJ. The performer and their body.

But what is that body? In dance it is Body as kinetic sculpture. In theatre it is Body as language made form. In opera it is Body in the world. On the dance floor it is Body as extended psychic presence. How do we see these bodies? What are they and what do they mean? Do we see them differently?

Body. Literally it is a physical composition of living cells. It is organic matter. And it reacts to light in a particular and unique way because of that nature. One of the primary qualities of light that can assist us in doing this is color. Through the use and manipulation of color one can make the body appear dead or alive. Real or artificial. The control of and transformation of the skin tone of the performer is a vital and necessary aspect of the lighting designers job.

cabaret_pasties

In 1986, John Gleason wrote a series of articles for Lighting Dimensions magazine titled “What is the Color of White Light?” In it he explored the myriad variety and variation that commonly comes under the title ‘white light.’ This light refers to both the cold dead green of fluorescent lighting and the vital red warmth of a candle. White light is not a single thing, rather it is a variously aspected dynamic transformative entity.

Transforming skin tone as I mentioned above does not necessitate heavy use of chromatic color, although that too can be effective. Rather the very subtle alteration from a slight green to a slight red can radically alter our entire perception of a body in space. The line between life and death is thin and mutable.

wheel1

Angle too is a key element of this revelation of the body. The low side lighting so common in dance helps to bring out the sculptural nature of the human form. The angle of the light determines, by necessity, the angle of the shadows. Thus one is designing not only the light, but also the shadows on a performers body.

But then this performer exits within some context. They exist in some physical location, but also in a psychological space as well. So the surrounding environment must be lit to show them and their relationship to that context. As each and every element is added to the equation the frame of reference changes and the balance shifts. It is a constant negotiation. An ever shifting lens that must keep a narrow depth of field on the performer. The focus must always be clear. Sometimes that is difficult and sometimes impossible, but it must always be the first intent.

Medea with Chorus

How a body is revealed determines how we interpret their words and actions. Do we trust them or not? Are we looking for comedy or tragedy? Is it ok that we are confused? What is the nature of their soul?

Light does not and can not answer these questions. Light can be a lens through which these questions are asked. Light can make an action seem natural or forced, it can cause our initial impression to be one of trust or mistrust, confusion or clarity. The focus of the composition can in many ways determine the focus of the performance. Light can not hide a bad performance, but it can make a good performance great.

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If this is Socialism then bring on the red flags

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

Health insurance is one of the biggest issues that freelance artists have to contend with. Unless you are in a union, USA829, etc. you are wholly on your own and typically that means lacking health insurance. Here is a list of the immediate changes brought on by the health care bill:

  1. SMALL BUSINESS TAX CREDITS—Offers tax credits to small businesses to make employee coverage more affordable.    Tax credits of up to 35 percent of premiums will be immediately available to firms that choose to offer coverage. Effective beginning for calendar year 2010.    (Beginning in 2014, the small business tax credits will cover 50 percent of premiums.)
  2. BEGINS TO CLOSE THE MEDICARE PART D DONUT HOLE—Provides a $250 rebate to Medicare beneficiaries who hit the donut hole in 2010. Effective for calendar year 2010. (Beginning in 2011, institutes a 50% discount on brand‐name drugs in the donut hole; also completely closes the donut hole by 2020.)
  3. FREE PREVENTIVE CARE UNDER MEDICARE—Eliminates co‐payments for preventive services and exempts preventive services from deductibles under the Medicare program. Effective beginning January 1, 2011.
  4. HELP FOR EARLY RETIREES—Creates a temporary re‐insurance program (until the Exchanges are available) to help offset the costs of expensive health claims for employers that provide health benefits for retirees age 55‐64. Effective 90 days after enactment
  5. ENDS RESCISSIONS—Bans health plans from dropping people from coverage when they get sick. Effective 6 months after enactment.
  6. NO DISCRIMINATON AGAINST CHILDREN WITH PRE‐EXISTING CONDITIONS—Prohibits health plans from denying coverage to children with pre‐existing conditions. Effective 6 months after enactment. (Beginning in 2014, this prohibition would apply to all persons.)
  7. BANS LIFETIME LIMITS ON COVERAGE—Prohibits health plans from placing lifetime caps on coverage. Effective 6 months after enactment.
  8. BANS RESTRICTIVE ANNUAL LIMITS ON COVERAGE—Tightly restricts new plans’ use of annual limits to ensure access to needed care. These tight restrictions will be defined by HHS. Effective 6 months after enactment. (Beginning in 2014, the use of any annual limits would be prohibited for all plans.)
  9. FREE PREVENTIVE CARE UNDER NEW PRIVATE PLANS—Requires new private plans to cover preventive services with no co‐payments and with preventive services being exempt from deductibles. Effective 6 months after enactment.
  10. NEW, INDEPENDENT APPEALS PROCESS—Ensures consumers in new plans have access to an effective internal and external appeals process to appeal decisions by their health insurance plan. Effective 6 months after enactment.
  11. ENSURING VALUE FOR PREMIUM PAYMENTS—Requires plans in the individual and small group market to spend 80 percent of premium dollars on medical services, and plans in the large group market to spend 85 percent. Insurers that do not meet these thresholds must provide rebates to policyholders. Effective on January 1, 2011.
  12. IMMEDIATE HELP FOR THE UNINSURED UNTIL EXCHANGE IS AVAILABLE (INTERIM HIGH‐RISK POOL)— Provides immediate access to insurance for Americans who are uninsured because of a pre‐existing condition ‐ through a temporary high‐risk pool. Effective 90 days after enactment.
  13. EXTENDS COVERAGE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE UP TO 26TH BIRTHDAY THROUGH PARENTS’ INSURANCE – Requires health plans to allow young people up to their 26th birthday to remain on their parents’ insurance policy, at the parents’ choice. Effective 6 months after enactment.
  14. COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTERS—Increases funding for Community Health Centers to allow for nearly a doubling of the number of patients seen by the centers over the next 5 years. Effective beginning in fiscal year 2010.
  15. INCREASING NUMBER OF PRIMARY CARE DOCTORS—Provides new investment in training programs to increase the number of primary care doctors, nurses, and public health professionals. Effective beginning in fiscal year 2010.
  16. PROHIBITING DISCRIMINATION BASED ON SALARY—Prohibits new group health plans from establishing any eligibility rules for health care coverage that have the effect of discriminating in favor of higher wage employees. Effective 6 months after enactment.
  17. HEALTH INSURANCE CONSUMER INFORMATION—Provides aid to states in establishing offices of health insurance consumer assistance in order to help individuals with the filing of complaints and appeals. Effective beginning in FY 2010.
  18. CREATES NEW, VOLUNTARY, PUBLIC LONG‐TERM CARE INSURANCE PROGRAM—Creates a long‐term care insurance program to be financed by voluntary payroll deductions to provide benefits to adults who become functionally disabled. Effective on January 1, 2011.

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An approach to Composition – Lighting the performer

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

One of the most difficult things to talk about with regards to lighting design is composition. Part of this is due to the fact that light is so ephemeral that even with pictures and illustrations the ideas are slippery. As a result, most discussions of composition fall into explorations of lighting angles and their effect on the human figure. While this is necessary information, its utility is limited. Composition is more than knowing what backlight does or what red does. It is knowing what and how these fit together into a larger whole. I approached issues of composition indirectly in my series on color theory but again, this was looking exclusively at color rather than taking an integrated approach and extracting a theory. What I will be looking at in this brief series is a general approach, or orientation, to thinking about composition.

Many of my ideas about composition stem from my earliest artistic endeavors. When I was a child I loved the game Dungeons and Dragons. I played regularly, read over the rule books incessantly, but of import to this post, I painted lead figures with the zeal of a fanatic. By the time I was a teenager I had become good enough at painting these 1″ fantasy figures that I was selling them at the local games shop to fund my painting habit (I was an early entrepreneur). I painted countless hundreds of these figures. Self taught in that realm, I developed a system for approaching their painting which maps almost perfectly to lighting design and has guided my thinking as a designer, in some form or another, since I started.

The figures themselves are made of lead, or some other soft metal. The first step is to prime the metal for the application of paint. Either a grey or black primer would be used, typically black, as it would help to deepen the shadows. Once primed and dry, the first layers of paint would be applied. These would be the broad, general, colors of each main area, perhaps a dark brown for the tunic and leggings, a green for the cape, medium blue for the skin (these are fantasy figures after all), and yellow for the hair. This would be the first phase. It gives a basic outline of the look of the figure.

Phase two deals with shadow and tone. Once the basic colors are dry I would apply a toning wash to the different areas. This would be a similar hue as the base color but often darker and slightly cooler. The paint itself would be greatly watered down, to allow it to concentrate in the valleys and folds of the figure, and have less of an impact on the areas of highlight. The brown for the clothes might have a little black added to it. The green for the cape would get some blue. To the blue of the skin I would add some red. For the yellow hair, orange.

Once all the shadow washes were dry, I would go back over the various areas with the original color using a drybrush technique to bring that color back. I would then go over that with progressively lighter drybrush layers to really make the highlights and shadows have a strong contrast. As I was highlighting, I would use split compliments to heighten the contrast. So if the toning for the green cape added blue, then I would add yellow to the base color for the highlights. This general outline yields strongly contrasting shadows and highlights, and gives the figure a distinctive look.

The final touch would be detail elements like belts and belt buckles, eyes, fingernails, jewelry, and other small items. Once all that was complete, the whole figure would get sprayed with a clear sealant to protect the paint.

Lighting for the stage follows the exact same structure. First, we prime the space by turning off all the lights and creating a darkened stage. Second we turn on our primary visibility lights. Depending on your approach these may be frontlight or they may be sidelight. Or something else entirely. Once we can see our performer, we address the shadows. This is typically done through a low front position, a backlight position, or a high sidelight position. When the shadows are complete, we turn to highlights. These might be low sidelights for example. The result is a composition rich in texture and a figure that is fully dimensional.

Depending on the tone of the show, the treatment of shadows and highlights will vary. In a musical comedy, the visibility light might be diagonal front lights in R53. The shadow/toning lights an L079 from the balcony rail and an L180 backlight. The highlights, a high side in L152 and R302 Head hi booms. In a dark minimalist opera, the visibility light might be clear head his, the shadows darkness, and the highlights L201 shins.

While the specifics of color and angle will vary depending upon the needs of the production, the general approach remains constant. As lighting designers for live performance, we are concerned with visibility, shadow, and highlight. Having a clear framework to approach composition is a powerful tool that allows the designer to clearly and directly approach a work.

In my next post I will continue with part two of this series, Lighting the Scenery.

What did you think of this post? Please let me know in comments.

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From the Archives: Vital Silence

Friday, March 19th, 2010

Note: This post originally appeared here in June of 2006.

The other day I spoke about the quality of the word ‘Deadly’ in Peter Brook’s The Empty Space. The Deadly Theatre is seen not as a place but as a way of being. A kind of incomplete work. Or a superficial treatment of the subject matter. The subject of course being nothing less than the spirit of Life itself. While the ‘deadly’ comes up quite a bit in the book, there are two other words that appear with quite some frequency; silent and vital. I would argue that it is only through a vital life affirming silence that the deadly can be resisted. By listening to that necessary silence we can hear the authentic impulse that denies the deadly for one moment longer.

The artistic impulse comes in many forms and from many directions. For me it is a way of delving deeper into my own understanding of the world. The World. Such a multifaceted place. But as one explores “The World” one finds that it is not a singular place, but rather a complex of relationships and dependencies. Child is dependent upon mother like the tide is dependent on the Moon. The Lover needs the Beloved in order to live completely. Each of these relationships is its own world. Contained within it are differing rules of physics and indeed life. The world of ‘blogs’ has its own constellations, galaxies and black holes. Every actor within that system effects the gravitational pull of every other being. Sure some are more massive than others, but it is all part of an interconnected gravitational dance.

In “The World” we often find these many and various worlds colliding with one another. They crash into each other vying for dominance. Which world or Worldview will win out? What perspective shall carry the day? These constantly shifting paradigms of reality create a great chaotic mass of noise. The cacophony becomes such that it is nearly impossible to let our ears rest. Yet there are moments of silence. Brief moments between the crash and thunder where we might for a minute, a second, an instant know the tranquility is noiseless bliss.

The Vital Silence is not so much a literal silence, just as the Deadly Theatre is not a physical institution. The Vital Silence is that moment when all the noise and chaos of daily life becomes, for an instant, background. The perspective shifts and there standing before you, clear as day, is that essential thing you had lost in the mass of movement. The Vital Silence is a return to that core of self that is so dangerous to inhabit. It is the place we build walls and defenses against every day. For to walk around in that place would be to get caught in a hurricane without any skin, every inch of your body crying out in pain.

The Vital Silence is the space after the final bell rings in Arvo Part’s Cantus in Memorium Benjamin Britten. It is that place where we hold still and watch as the colors of the world become a little richer. Finding this place inside of us, learning to see from that perspective, is a difficult enough task on its own. Bringing it forth into the light of day is something entirely other. When he talks of The Immediate Theatre, Brook is getting at that place. The artist must live in that liminal space between objectivity and authenticity. She must be both authentic in her action and objective in her work at the same time. It is a double calling and one where the more intensely one aspect is carried forth, so much more difficult becomes the other.

And in this way it transforms into a dance of the self. Mind and Heart partnering across the dance floor of life creating the authentic [Heart/Mind] of creative action. The music that fills the dance floor is that silence that is so essential to life, so vital, that we almost become blind to it. The beating of our own hearts we do not notice until it gets out of phase with our activity, not strong enough at the beginning of a run or pounding too hard as we take a rest.

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Den of Thieves – Review

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

It’s only a passing mention. But it is nice to see the design team mentioned in a review.

Director Susi Damilano and her design team — Bill English (sets), Lucas Krech (lights), Lorin King (sound) and Bree Hylkema (costumes) — keep the action moving at a crisp pace while allowing the actors plenty of time to establish dimension.

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Happy Birthday Jean Rosenthal!

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

American lighting designer Jean Rosenthal was born 16 March, 1912. Her work with the Martha Graham company and many other dance companies revolutionized the world of stage lighting through the introduction of standard booms in each wing for dance lighting. In short, contemporary American lighting design would not be what it is today without her innovations and ideas introduced into common use by designers around the globe.

Once called “a bloody electrician with notions” she was influential in raising the status of lighting to a central design element on par with scenery and costumes. While she did not do it alone, the development of the by line for “Lighting Designer” was made a reality in large part because of her work.

Access to some of her original paperwork is now freely available at The Lighting Archive.

Happy Birthday Ms. Rosenthal

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Don Giovanni Pictures

Monday, March 15th, 2010

Below are images from Berkeley Opera’s production of Don Giovanni that I lit in February.

Directed by Mark Streshinsky
Scenery by Mark Streshinsky
Projections by Jeremy Knight
Costumes by Romy Douglass

All photographs courtesy Steve Hughes

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Two Shows Open – One for you, one for the kids

Saturday, March 13th, 2010

Tonight I have two openings.

The first is Den of Thieves at SF Playhouse. More info, including ticketing, can be found here.

The second is Emax and Zurno’s Amazing Circus Humans a circus show for kids created and directed by my old friend Jaron Hollander. More info, and ticketing, can be found here.

I hope you enjoy!

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Don Giovanni Picture

Friday, March 12th, 2010

Here’s a peek at one of my pictures of Don Giovanni I lit last month with Berkeley Opera.

More coming soon.

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