Lighting terminology 

Your ability to write using the correct terminology will not only show the examiner that you understand Lighting, but it will save you time and allow you to write more in the LIMITED TIME. 

Lighting/light is often similar to liquid – therefore these terms are used: 

Flood lights (lights that literally ‘flood’ all areas without being focused into a specific area.

YOU WRITE: “ I would flood the stage with blue light because…”

General wash – Covering a large part of the stage 

YOU WRITE: “ I would use a general wash of pink to indicate that this is a ‘rosy’ memory.”

Light locations: 

• Front 
• Floor  
• Side 
• Top 
• Back 

YOU WRITE: “ I would use up lighting from down stage to create grotesque shadows on the character’s faces because…”

Intensity:  dim, full, bright,  

Duration: 

Snap (a sudden change), fade over ? seconds

YOU WRITE: “I would fade up the spotlight to full over 10 seconds and once X has stopped speaking I would snap the light off…” 

Each lighting effect is called a state.

YOU WRITE: “the lighting state for this point in the extract would be ….” 

Operation: 

Fade up, fade down, Cross-fade, fade to black (out), fade up from black (out) 

YOU WRITE: “I would X fade the 2 states to from memory to reality to …”

Colours 

Open white (no colour) 

Warm (eg: straw / yellow )

Cool (eg: blues) 

Colour symbolism:

Usually you want to avoid changing the colour of the lights JUST to indicate an emotional change.

However, this is an expressionistic play where the rules of NATURALISM don’t always apply. [Dreams/ Nightmares/ Memories / Story-telling moments.

You can say, “I would use a blood red wash to symbolise Mr Samsa’s anger…” BUT your JUSTIFICATION needs to be something like, “This symbolic use of colour is justified as it is an expressionistic play / moment / happening in a dream/ nightmare…”

Avoid weak colour claims: e.g. “Gregor will be lit in blue to accentuate his transformation and emotional distress.”

Types of lights 

Flood lights (no ability to shape or change the beam) All you can do is colour them with a gel. 

Small/Soft profile (sometimes called a FRESNEL – pronounced ‘fre-nel’ You can modify the beam slightly, shape them with barn doors and colour them with gels 

Spotlights/Profiles: The most versatile light. You can change the beam from a wide, soft edged beam to a sharp, narrow beam. You can shape the beam with barn doors or internal shutters, they are good for gobos and you can colour them with gels. 

Follow -spot (a spotlight on a stand at the back of the theatre operated by a person – follows anyone and places them in a pool of light. 

The ACTIVITIES below need to be in your Journals and ready for next week’s lesson.

ACTIVITY 1 = Begin a MIND-MAP in your Journal

1. What does sound do for /bring to a theater production?
2. What ways are there to create ‘sound’? (think Live or Recorded)
3. How does the audience ‘hear’ sound?

TIPS= How to write about Sound: (vocabulary)

Think about when the sound:

• starts/stops,
• its intensity,
• sound effects applied live or to a recorded sound
• speakers, microphones

Read this for an understanding of 2 key terms when discussing SOUND!

The clue is ‘originating for the film’s/ play’s world’

LIGHTING ‘METAMORPHOSIS’ -Deconstructing an answer

QUESTION: As a designer, outline your ideas for lighting this extract. Explain and justify how these would help to create an appropriate mood and atmosphere at this point in the play

 Cut ‘n’ Paste this into a word doc and then Highlight/Underline

• RED = references technical vocab,
• GREEN for any pearls of wisdom (LINKS TO Social/Historic/Cultural)
• BLUE = references to MOOD /KEY WORDS from the Question and/or Designer’s Intentions /Aims
• Put a Q in the margin for quotes- count them! (Be aware of how they are used to justify or focus.)

The mood when Mr Samsa starts hurling apples at Gregor is violent and extreme. It’s as if all Mr Samsa’s pent up frustration comes out. As a lighting designer, I would cover the stage in a blood red wash on the line “Apple for you Gregor!”This would symbolise the anger being demonstrated by Mr Samsa. Being an expressionistic play, this symbolistic use of colour is justified. At the point when the apple hits Gregor (It’s sunk in”) I would follow Berkoff’s stage directions and have a strobe light flash on and off quickly- ‘strokes of lightning’. This would catch the family and Gregor in different poses: father triumphant, Mother and Greta distraught, Gregor in agony. It would also have the jumpy, jerky, non-naturalistic feel of a silent movie which would support the 1900s period I feel.

In the next scene, Berkoff puts ‘lights up on the FAMILY.’ In this scene, we see Greta practicing French and father sleeping. As a lighting designer, I would want to convey a more naturalistic mood by using a dim top light in warm yellow to indicate the gas light that would have been used in the 1910s. [See diagram]. I would focus a small profile at ground level onto the down stage right stool and have a flickering red fire effect created by a motorised gobo to create the illusion of a fire. This would link to Berkoff’s idea of total theatre where the audience is using their imagination without the need of an elaborate set. This naturalistic lighting would create an evening mood and a calmer atmosphere several days after the apple throwing.

In this part of the scene, Gregor is absent from the dialogue but there are still references to him when Mrs Samsa asks Greta ‘What’s he doing?’ Berkoff says in his Introduction ‘Gregor is always watching’so I would keep a dim pin spot on Gregor’s room. This would pulse larger then smaller several at the times when the family mentions him and keep reminding the audience of his presence in the scene.

In the last part of this scene, Gregor’s dream, I would want to emphasise the surreal mood that is present. Berkoff describes the family ‘as if under water’ and ‘twisting ‘around in their sleep’. I would use dim footlights coloured blue, which would up-light the facial expressions that the family have. This would have the effect of making facial shadows increase and emphasise the ‘horrified’ expressions Mrs S. is pulling, ‘Father – do something’. Gregor would be lit from the front by a tightly focused spotlight of white light which would gently pulse when he is not speaking. Its low angle also cast large shadows onto the cyclorama upstage – making the actor’s gestures and limbs look larger and more grotesque making this scene quite nightmarish in atmosphere.

What band is this and what number out of 10.

Name 2 things this example does that you didn’t do.