Showquest
This info will come in handy when you start to think about lighting for your live Showquest performance!
As the saying goes, less is more! As your school is relying on you to make their performance look great, it’s important to get the basics right, such as timing, positions and colours. The quicker we can program the basics into the cue stack, the more time we have to run through, make sure it’s all working and add the razzle-dazzle!
Depending on the theme and mood of your performance, our experience shows that 8-14 cues are the magic number. Good lighting adds huge value to the performance, so think about what’s happening on stage and how you can convey the mood and feeling.
We’re still finalising the design, and while we’ll do our best - there may be some variation between venues. We’re planning for the following fixtures:
If you’re new to lighting, check out some quick YouTube videos of the fixtures provided within the Showquest lighting rig, and aim to become familiar with the lighting terms below to ensure you maximise your rehearsal time with our Lighting Director.
Backlight – the illumination of a subject from behind, causing a separation of the subject from the background, often creating a fringe of light around the subject.
Blackout – to remove all light or most light from the stage, often done suddenly.
Colour – describe the colour you want the lights to be.
Colour Temperature – Warm or cold, happy or dark etc.
Cross Fade – a relatively slow change from one control console setting to another.
Cross Lighting – Lighting up a source from two angles.
Cue – The signal given to the lighting director to move into the next control setting.
Cue Stack – When programming the lighting desk, all the cues go into a “stack”. Each performance gets a stack dedicated to them. When the final performance happens, all we do is hit GO on the cue stack, and then the lighting student tells us when to hit GO for the next cue. This way the show is always exactly the same as what was designed during the programming time.
Dim – To change the intensity of light.
Fade – To gradually increase or decrease the intensity of the light.
Fill – To create lighting needed to reduce shadows, preventing subjects from appearing black.
Flood – The position of the light on a spot that produces the widest field angle.
Focus – To aim and adjust the light to give the beam its desired size (spot or flood), edge (soft or hard), field (even or peak), and/or shape (round, patterned or cut).
Front Light – Lighting from the front truss above the audience.
Gobo – A pattern on a moving light.
Hard Light – Lighting that has a hard edge and produces sharply defined shadows. Often this light is very intense.
House Lights – general lighting provided for the audience area.
Pan – to rotate from side to side around a vertical axis.
Soft Light – lighting that produces shadows with a soft edge.
Spot Light – lighting that is capable of emitting a beam pattern that is round.
Strobe – to cause an intense light source to turn on and off repeatedly at a relatively fast pace, creating a flickering slow-motion effect.
Wash – an even, overall illumination over a large area.
Good positions to know:
Downstage – stage area nearest the audience.
UpStage – stage area farthest away from the audience.
Off-Stage – out of sight from the audience.
On-Stage – insight of the audience.
Stage Left – the left side of stage when facing an audience.
Stage Right – the right side of stage when facing an audience.
Registrations close:
Showquest - March 12 • Toi - April 9• OnScreen - July 30
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