One of the least discussed elements of lighting design is the use of templates (also known as gobos or patterns). When it comes to colors or angles or instrumentation, there are extensive resources to go to but not so for these things. As such I find there is more misuse of templates, more poorly focused gobos, more waste of patterns, than there need be.
Over the next few weeks I will be writing a series on template basics, similar in scope to my series on color theory. I hope you will find this informative and useful. Please join in the discussion in comments as better lighting can only come about through dialogue and the exchange of ideas.
The main way in which templates are misused has to do with focus. Unlike video or slide projections, templates, particularly steel templates, are, with very few exceptions, not designed to be used in a sharp focus. One of my favorite leaf patterns, R77774, looks terrible when used in sharp focus. However, when pointed at a proper angle, with an appropriate degree of softness, the template becomes a powerful and versatile tool in my palette when designing a show.
Over the next few weeks I will look at specific uses and approaches to templates. However, before we can get into specifics, we need to look at what templates there are and what they can do.
At a basic level there are two kinds of templates, steel and glass. Steel templates provide, through the use of shadow, an image cut out of a single piece of steel to project shapes and shadows on scenery, people, architecture and so on. Glass gobos on the other hand provide colorized shapes and textures and, with the exception of some recent developments, tend to be more on the abstract end of the spectrum.
Both glass and steel templates can be used for naturalistic effects like clouds or leaves. The options range from cartoonish to the very naturalistic, particularly with cloud options. Mesh and grey tone glass cloud templates can render amazingly realistic cloud effects. At the same time, a proper focus of traditional steel templates can bring about amazing three dimensional effects almost indistinguishable from video and slide projection. The key, once again, is in the focus. Focus and layering.
In addition to naturalistic effects, templates can be used to provide abstract patterns on floors or in atmospherically treated air. Used on floors, a standard paint job, or even colored floor, can be given a high dynamic range throughout a production thus allowing for many different visual landscapes upon which performers might traverse. In large musicals with minimal scenery, for example, the use of patterns and textures can be a powerful tool to lend a dynamic quality to an otherwise static space.
Combining the ideas of geometric textures with naturalistic uses, we see that time, space, and location can be defined through the use of templates. Perhaps geometry reigns in one scene while nature prevails in the other. A large musical like Wizard of Oz might have different styles of leaf and tree templates depending upon which part of the forest the characters are in. And Oz may well be filled with deco inspired abstract geometry thus providing a counterpoint to the nature we see along the yellow brick road.
We use templates to provide texture to scenery and bodies. This can be used to enhance a scenic designer’s idea by drawing out the mottled paint through variation of light and shadow. But it can also be used to cover up flaws, making poorly constructed seams disappear to the audience’s eye. Dappled light on a performer, aside from being inherently beautiful, can make their movement through space draw the eye in a way that solid, unbroken light does not.
Templates provide movement which further enhances the dynamism of a scene. Be they rotating patterns, scrolling film loops, or moving lights dancing the can-can, a pattern moving through the air gives shape and texture to a scene in a way that static lights can not. By using atmospheric haze and fog, the effects of these beams of light are enhanced and brought to further prominence.
Using templates as backlights, either from above or from below, the effects are magnified. The beam of a light is noticed by a viewer more strongly the more that beam comes from the opposite angle of viewing. By using templates as backlight, the viewer is made well aware of the architectural quality of the lights and thus any movement, color, or changes of intensity are magnified accordingly. Combined with the atmospherics mentioned above, the effects can be very powerful indeed.
The risk of templates is that they can read as cheesy and gratuitous when used improperly. While a musical like Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat may well call for spinning stars of David which dance along with the performers, an opera like The Tender Land demands very soft focused realistic patterns which provide texture to the air but do not call attention to themselves.
The power and efficacy of templates comes not from what they are, but from how they are used. While many designers look down on templates as cheesy little cheap tricks, the truth is that they are powerful tools when used correctly. The real trick is using them in an appropriate manner.
