Appendix M
Lighting Design Expectations
See following pages
December 12, 2005
Lighting Design Expectations
To help ensure a successful lighting design experience at the University of Oklahoma, I want to provide you with a format of expectation and a timetable in which to work. This has been assembled in order to help you eliminate errors in the design packet, remove any prior misconceptions about design expectations, and strengthen your design process. This is a living document; I will continually update and adjust it to fulfill the design needs of the University Theatre.
I. Design Book
You will create a design book for every assigned design production that you do at the University of Oklahoma. This book will be a three ring binder that will contain your script; all design notes, design calendar, research material, script analysis and design paperwork. You will bring this book to all meetings, design discussions and rehearsals. At the final post production review you will present your book.
II. Design Discussions
It is vitally important with any design to fully analyze and research the property before you start making design decisions. For this reason I require you to schedule three in-depth discussions with me during the design process. The first discussion will be about your initial thoughts and ideas about what you have been assigned. This discussion should involve the overall thematic idea, the overall significance, and your overall thoughts on the property. This meeting will take place prior to your initial discussion with the director or other designers. This discussion will help act as a primer for those future meetings. The second in-depth discussion will take place after your initial discussion with the other designers and your first design meeting. This discussion will focus on your analysis of the script and how it aligns with the directors overall production concept and approach. In this discussion we will investigate the dramatic intent and how you plan on using light. You should be prepared to discuss areas involvement and how the lighting design will interact with them. This discussion will prepare you for your second design meeting in which you will be reacting to what you have gleaned from the director and the other designers. The third discussion will be based on your design research and how you plan to employ it in the lighting design. For this discussion you will bring visual support materials that you will use to aid in your design creation. This discussion is aimed at answering the design questions of how you are going to create the atmosphere of the assigned design. This discussion will also prepare you for the start of production meetings and the implementation of your lighting design. All notes from these meetings will be kept in your design book.
III. Production Meetings
The University Theatre has established that most every production will have 4-6 scheduled production meetings; these meetings are for the purpose of keeping the entire production team updated and apprised of how the work is progressing. These meetings are scheduled for 30 minutes; therefore a brief summary of the lighting design is all that is required. Your attendance at these scheduled meetings is required. If you have a class conflict please inform me prior to the start of the production meeting process.
IV. Design Process Paperwork
A good lighting design is created through a good process, and part of that process is the initial rough plots, section and shop orders. It is imperative that you proceed through the design process from solid fundamentals. This includes the creation of section drawings; to determine beam angles, fields of coverage and sightlines problems. This series of drawings is extremely important for you to understand how the light is determining your area of focus and your plan for controlling them. This is a fundamental step in deciding channel control and console layout. This step is critical in the design development process. After the sections and area layout drawings have been completed and discussed with me, it is time to move to the rough plot phase in design development. It is in this step that you determine equipment location, cabling requirements, dimmer possibilities, and color and pattern choices. At this point you will explain why and how each unit will be used in the design. It is important to remember that this is an editable design at this time and expect changes to occur. After the rough plot has been discussed, a shop order will be submitted to the Master Electrician. This order will include all foreseeable items that will have to be purchased to realize the design. You will take into account all stock patterns, color and other standard design materials. After the shop order has been submitted and an order placed, any additional supplies added to the design will be at my discretion only.
V. Light plot
All lightplots will be submitted drawn in Vectorworks Spotlight, the University Theatre standard. The standard and acceptable scale of the lightplots are; ½”=1’ in the Weitzenhoffer Theatre, and ¼”=1’ in the Rupel Jones Theatre. Drawings of other sizes will not be accepted. All lightplots will contain the following information for every instrument; area of focus, Inst. #, color #, channel #, dimmer #. Any plot submitted without this information will be unacceptable. Additionally, all lightplots will have areas of focus indicated, as well as boom placement, ladder positions, rovers and practicals noted. If additional plates are needed to provide lighting details, they should follow standard scale for the theatre that the production is in. All twofers, colorscrollers, gobo rotators, irises, patterns, sidearms and any other lighting accessory should be clearly indicated on the lightplot. The lightplot will also contain instrument and data keys, following USITT graphic standards for equipment and notation. The lightplot will be updated after the hang and cabling is completed, all changes should be made to accurately reflect the final lightplot.
VI. Lighting Paperwork Packet
When the lightplot is submitted for hanging, all standard lighting paperwork will accompany it. This includes; Instrument Schedule, Channel List, Dimmer List, Color List, Submaster Schedule and Group Schedule. All paperwork will be submitted in either Vectorworks or Lightwrite files. The paperwork will be updated after the hang and cabling is completed, all changes should be made to accurately reflect the final lightplot. This paperwork is to be maintained in your design book.
VII. Cue Building Paperwork Packet
When starting to create the true lighting design, the work with the light in the venue, it is very important to have all the necessary paperwork available when you start. This starts with the lighting magic sheet. Without this important document you will waste many hours during programming and tech week. You will provide a copy of the magic sheet to the Production Electrician prior to the start of the focus session. The magic sheet will be created either on Vectorworks or Excel. Prior to building the lighting cues you will have a paper tech in which all lighting cues will be discussed with the director and stage manager. This meeting will happen in the early part of the week leading to crew view and tech week. At this meeting you will discuss, what each cue should look like and where it should be called. After this meeting you will discuss with me the number and types of cues needed in the design. Next you will create a cue list of all the lighting moments of the design, this will be the basis for programming the lighting console. You will also create a spotlight cue list is one is called for within the design. This will list light number, size, color and target. All lighting cues will be programmed into the lighting console prior to the start of dry tech. You should attempt to program the design in 8 hours; in some cases this will not be possible but only on special occasions. So therefore plan ahead.
IIX. Tech Week Procedure
You will be expected to attend every rehearsal from crew view to final dress. After each rehearsal all designers, the director, stage manager and advisors will have a production meeting to discuss needs and concerns from that rehearsal, this meeting take priority over any other discussion that occurs at the end of the rehearsal. After each rehearsal we will meet to discuss what needs to be accomplished prior to the next rehearsal and how to accomplish it. Also be advised that during the tech week process you will have input on the design from the director, the scenic and the costume designers, the producers, technical director and myself. This input is an important aspect of the design collaboration and learning process. You will be expected to take notes during these meetings. Before the next lighting work call you will be expected to provide a list of notes for the lighting crew, if any exist. This should be an organized, detailed list. The list should be prioritized from most to least important for that day. The note list could include, color changes, minor focus clean up, pattern installation, units not working, and additional units needed. You will also provide programming notes that the lighting programmer can address, i.e. cue times, hot scrolls, added effects, or other detailed notes. You should also have a list of cue notes that you will need to address yourself. You might need the programmers help so plan accordingly. These notes will most likely be light level changes and creative adjustments. It is important that you as the designer check in with the master electrician daily during each week, this will keep the flow of information going and allow for our changes to be made efficiently. Prior to the opening night you will provide the stage manager with a copy of the magic sheet and have a copy of all paperwork available in the control booth for channel check.
IX. Post Production Review
This is an important discussion that you have with me a week after the production is struck. This meeting is to give you constructive feedback, review of your design process and discuss artistic outcomes. At this meeting you will provide a copy of the finished lightplot, all paper work, magic sheets and if possible production photos. This meeting will provide a finalization to the design process and help you keep your portfolio updated. You will present your design book at this meeting.
Lighting Design Production Process List/Dates Form