The old lighting designer has retired, and you just got that well deserved promotion. It’s your show now and you and going to right some lighting design wrongs.
You just installed that new console and moving light package. You want to push your MA or Hog or EOS to the edge and back again. You have built all your position palettes and are ready to rock out. It will be spectacular.
Or will it?
Too much of a good thing
How many times have you gone to a concert and watched the lights and ignored the artist? Sure, you were aware of the band onstage, but do you remember what they were wearing? Most likely not. In all fairness, I will be the first to agree that we go to a concert to see the music. If we wanted to have a great sonic experience, we would buy the album and put on those $1,000 headsets.
When does an immersive lighting experience get in the way? When do we get a little lost in the whole movement and flash of the show and lose track of what is going on? It happens when the movement becomes predictable. Do not let yourself get caught up in a movement effect that has been used over and over again.
During the worship service, the audience will sooner or later need an opportunity to catch their breath. Good lighting design is like a good roller-coaster ride. It builds, there are fast drops, and twists and turns to energize the audience. But good lighting also gives time for us to recover and prepare for the next great look.
So, do moving lights need to constantly be on the move? Better still can we call it a moving light if it does not move? Or, is the moving covering for a poorly thought out design? What do we gain from movement?
Story time
Movement can serve a storytelling function.
Movement directs our eye around the stage. It demands that the audience look where designers want them to look. Just like television, we have a close up shot. It is that color wash on stage of six pools of light that merge onto the singer and morph into a brilliant white backlight. Likewise, we have medium and wide shots. We can do drops and fly-a-ways over the audience to engage and include them in the performance. Movement wakes us up and gets the blood going at a live production. No one would disagree that movement equals energy.
Movement informs us that something special is happening. Movement can announce an entrance, highlight a solo or just reinforce the beat of the music. This all sounds good.
However, movement can also get in the way. Humans are predators and, as such, have pretty good eyesight. We have the ability to detect even the smallest of movements. When was the last time you caught a shadow of a branch moving in your peripheral vision?
So, movement can be also be a distraction. Don’t even get me started about a few dozen lights moving in black at an awkward moment.
Where does that leave us as lighting designers? We want the worship service to make a strong impression. But before we start cueing, we need to set a few priorities first.
So remember, ask yourself, are you helping those on the worship platform tell a story?
Does your design support or distract? Let me be clear, no one is saying the mover should never move--just mix it up a bit.
Be mindful to rein in excessive movement and exploit static looks in music. Be sure to consider where movement can be useful and where it should be controlled.
Transitions can rock
Consider the lowly transition, easily overlooked and underrated.
*Transitions offer great opportunities for movement.
*Transitions can be the backbone of the story you are telling.
*Transitions offer us the chance to do something spectacular.
The transition can then morph into a static look. This will permit the audience to focus on the artist, take a breath and listen. A static look can provide subtle energy and can contribute to the overall design.
But how can we give a static look energy without movement? It starts with a solid lighting design and not, as they say, “the same old, same old.”
Start by going old-school with good, solid, color work and stop using the same colors production after production. Build groups that mimic ACL banks. Build a few different shutter palettes to change up the shape of the beams. The architecture created by the lights can often be more powerful than random movement. Find new places to mount fixtures that give you the ability to sculpt the performer.
Finally, change out that factory gobo wheel every now and then to keep your texture looking fresh and unexpected. And let’s face it, who does not enjoy a good fan chase. Just because the light can move does not mean it must move all the time. A side benefit from not moving the lights will be a bit of silence. With many movers, those pan and tilt motors cause noise.
Last words
So, do moving lights need to move? That is a complicated question. There is no simple answer, but if you support those on the worship platform with your design and keep attendees engaged, you are on the right track.
Sometimes good design is invisible and just works. Remember when lighting a performance to “keep the main thing, the main thing.”
Steve Woods is head of stage design at the Meadows School of the Arts located on the campus of Southern Methodist University in University Park, Texas, as well as co-host of the weekly podcast Light Talk.
