Enlighten me about stage lighting

May 20, 2018 6:16 PM

An old-fashioned, single-screen movie theater is set to host a political forum with three participants, who will be seated on stools in front of the screen. We're seeking advice on the best way to set up lighting, so that the audience can see the panel members.

The movie theater is not really optimized to host live events. The current lighting is fairly minimal. There are some dim lights recessed in the ceiling, and a set of not-very-good spotlights mounted to the upper-right of the screen. You can see some photos here. Note that the camera settings make the theater look brighter than it actually is. There are about 280 seats.

We anticipate holding similar events (and maybe live music) in the future, so I'm looking for a permanent solution. I have a handyman who can climb up a ladder and attach stuff to the wall, but he and I are both clueless about what kind of lights to get, and where to position them.

Also, cost is a big factor here, since the theater is struggling financially.

posted by JD Sockinger to Grab Bag (4 answers total)

Best answer: You want lights above and to the front of the speakers. Ideally you would also have some side and bottom front fill lights as well. If this turns into a long term thing, what you want is a truss with lighting on it hanging from the ceiling/support beams.

You/the theatre should never fly truss or add instruments to it unless you know what you're doing and have insurance and specifically covers doing rigging. If things fall, be it the instrument or the entire truss, people can die.

The cheaper and temporary way to go is a light stand with four lights each on each side, probably on the audience side of the doors with the exit signs (e.g. away from the stage). Be careful not to block the legally required egress routes Budget allowing, you might also want two or three high power lights in the back row to provide front lighting.

If you call a place that does video production or stage production that is used to working with video, they should be able to give you some rental options. If it's notable enough to attact the attention of local news, they would probably have enough lighting for the first one, if they're willing to help you out and commit to staying for the entire event.
posted by Candleman at 7:45 PM on May 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

Best answer: In that space I think I would mount pipes on the wall above the 1st row of seating as high as possible. Direct front light tends to washout people and flatten out their faces. Sidelight makes people look more interesting. Depending on how big an area you're looking to cover you could probably get away with 1 light from each side.
I would get LED profiles like the ETC Colorsource Spot (Bottom of the page on mobile). You'll also need something to control the lighting. This is going to run you somewhere north of $3000. If you want to do one permanent install LEDs are the way to go. Incandescent fixtures require replacing lamps regularly. Also if you're serious about music LEDs give a large amount of freedom with colors. LEDs also use a lot less power. An incandescent spotlight starts at 575 watts and goes up from there. So if you dont have a lot of power in the room you can run into problems quickly. I dont know where you are but try to find a theatrical lighting vendor to consult with.
posted by Uncle at 7:53 PM on May 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Seconding the notion to talk to a local stage lighting place. The folks there have a good line on packages of gear, and they can show you how it works and make sure you get all the right parts. If you find a place that does rentals, you might opt to rent a small package for the first event to try out a few types and positions of lights.

Lighting gets expensive fast. If I were lighting the theater in your pictures on the hyper cheap, I might recommend a few PAR 56 cans and lamps, hung on tripod stands. Perhaps 2 stands, one on each side of the stage area, with 3-4 lights per stand.

A sheet of colored gel for each side (different colors from each direction give a nice contrast.)

If you keep it simple, the lights can be plugged into the wall with an (appropriately rated) power cable, and used with a power splitter.

If you want to get fancy later, you can add in hanging dimmer packs wired to a control board. Fancy boards cost a ton, but simple 8 channel controllers are reasonably cheap.

Power is a concern with lighting. Stage lights use a lot of power. PAR 56's go from 300-500 watts each. A typical wall plug breaker handles 1800-2400 watts (15 amp-20 amp circuits.) If you secretly have tons of power, you could go up for PAR 64s for more light.
posted by Wulfhere at 7:58 PM on May 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: The other reason I recommend profiles is the beam is much more controllable so you can keep the light off the screen incase you're lighting people while images are on the screen. It's a hard problem because movie screens are designed to reflect light. So if you can keep the stage lights off the screen your projector won't have to fight them.
posted by Uncle at 8:16 PM on May 20, 2018 [1 favorite]