Production lighting and production set design have been inextricably linked since the earliest days of indoor theatre. Indeed, for much of its history production lighting was merely an extension of set design. Since the advent of film and television, the demands for creating an acceptable image for camera have resulted in lighting increasingly becoming a separate discipline, to the extent that set and lighting design for modern television productions are now almost always handled by separate companies and designers. Sets are designed by one firm, then, with a little luck, the set blueprints are sent to the firm handling the lighting design in time for an appropriate lighting plot to be drawn up based on those drawings. Even so, many elements (such as color and texture) of the set design remain a mystery to the lighting team until the set is assembled for the production.

Because the two inter-related elements of set and lighting design are not handled under a single roof, elaborate sets are often created with little or no thought as to how they will be lit. Indeed, some sets are virtually unlightable. Sadly, many of the same mistakes are made over and over again. Perhaps this is the inevitable consequence of differentiation of labor and of avoidance of turf wars, but then again, maybe some gentle guidance as to how to avoid those mistakes would serve to make everyone’s lives a little easier. It is in this spirit that I reveal seven of the most egregious sins of set design.

It’s Hard to Color a Color

An ideal set takes color well. This enables the lighting designer to work with the set designer and the director to create many appealing variations of a single set. For obvious reasons, neutral colors work best. Conversely, saturated complementary colors should be avoided, particularly side-by-side. Similarly, bright colors and bright white should be avoided next to dark or saturated colors. The reasons for this are best illustrated with an actual example that I personally was faced with.

A few years back I was lighting a television special in Las Vegas. The set consisted of a false proscenium painted in an orange and purple harlequin pattern. The inside of the proscenium arch was trimmed in bright blue. There were flanking elements painted in a black and white checkerboard. All these elements were in such close proximity that they could not be isolated and lit separately. Here’s what I faced: If the set was lit with red, orange, or amber light, the purple and the blue turned to mud. If it was lit with blue the orange turned to mud. Green turned both the orange and purple to mud. We tried open white, but the white paint of the checkerboard pattern was blinding if there was enough light for the colors, and the colors were drastically underlit if the checkerboard was brought to an acceptable level. Fortunately, the orange ended up having enough of a dayglow effect to it that it actually was readable with lavender, congo blue, and a couple of saturated magentas, all of which worked with the blue and purple surfaces. The flare issue with the black and white checkerboard was not entirely eliminated, but was minimized so long as the colors used were fairly saturated. The end result was a not-very appealing set that allowed almost no color variation. There were unpleasant hot spots on the white of the checkerboard. Most set elements that looked acceptably lit in close-up were quite down in most wide shots, and there was little that could be done about it.

Related Story