If You Can’t See a Light From a Set Surface, That Surface Can’t Be Lit

This is one of the simplest principles in lighting. Light can’t pass through opaque objects. If a set piece is located in close proximity to another solid object, it’s going to be hard to light. This was less of a problem in the good old days when most set pieces were more or less flat. Nowadays many designers prefer the more organic look of complex curves. The problem is that when a set piece is curved in such a way that its upper part overhangs its lower part a shadow is going to be created somewhere on its surface. This particularly problematic when it is placed just upstage of another set piece. The overhang coupled with the shadow created by the downstage piece leaves little or no angle to light it from above. The remaining option is floor lighting, but since these set pieces are often concealing the wings or located at another stage access point, this may be an option of limited viability. The more overhanging and ridiculously closely spaced set elements there are, the more unlightable nooks and crannies there will be.

Horizontal Surfaces Must Be Uplit

For some reason, some set designers have begun incorporating horizontal suspended elements to many set designs. What I am referring to are the large overarching set pieces that are hung just below the lighting rig and more closely than not to parallel to the stage floor. While these things look dramatic in a wide shot, they create more problems than they’re worth. For starters, since you can’t shoot light through them, they create a large no-man’s land in your lighting plot. One set designer who shall remain nameless often designs these things so that they actually cover the better part of six to eight electric pipes downstage. This creates a real problem when trying to find angles to light flanking stage elements such as host positions. There’s a reason it’s dark on the inside of a box or under an awning. Also, these things have to be uplit, because they are basically facing downward with a slight upward tilt on their downstage end. This means they have to be illuminated by floor lights downstage of the set. On an award show, this is no mean feat. The lights have to be located such that they are not in the audience, the sources are not visible to camera (which means not on stage), and they are not at such an angle that persons taking the stage from the audience (such as award recipients) will walk through their beams. All these problems can be and routinely are overcome, but the effort required is not commensurate with the visual appeal of the element, and in fact other set elements are often less than optimally lit because of the problems these monstrosities cause.

Neon Sucks

Okay, neon doesn’t suck, but using it in set pieces often does. As most of you know, neon is not meant to be dimmed. That’s not to say it can’t be dimmed, but it isn’t designed to be dimmed as incandescents are. Given the normal exposure of television cameras, most neon is much too bright when run at its designed voltage. When dialed down to acceptable levels for camera, most neon will flicker. The apparent flicker is actually the result of the voltage applied to the tube no longer being able to sustain constant conductivity through the gas medium. The pulse of plasma arcing through the gas as voltage builds and then arcs will eventually burn out a power supply. Every television special that uses neon goes through the same drama of trying to adjust levels for camera, finding that the neon flickers when lowered to the acceptable level, then ending up deciding that having it too bright is preferable to dealing with the flicker. But there’s a simple solution. If you’re a set designer and you find you just can’t live without incorporating neon into your creation, try putting it behind smoked Plexiglas. In addition to solving the intensity issue, you gain the added bonus of drastically reducing the risk of the delicate tubes being broken. If smoked plexi is too much trouble, at least use standard plexi and install it in such a way that the electric crew can throw some neutral density gel in there. That way the tubes don’t flicker, the power supply doesn’t burn out, and the video operator doesn’t have to scream about how that damned neon is blowing the cameras out.

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