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Congratulations, you have survived the design process and now have a professional lighting plot! Now it is time to put your plans into action.
- The first step in set-up is to hang each light on your plot. If your plot is thorough, then this part is easy; just see what type of light you want and bring it to the right location (especially easy if you have your plugs labeled by channel number)
- When you have the proper light at its proper location, you can hang it. Do this by putting the C-Clamp onto the pole where your light will be hung (usually as close to the plug as possible) And tightening the clamp with a Cresent Wrench
- Now it is time to aim the light. Turn on the light from the board and then go adjust the pan and tilt of the light. (I reccomend wearing gloves for this, as the lights can get very hot, very quickly)
- If you need to angle or constrict the size of the light beam, use the shutters or rotate the barrel.
- Repeat steps 1-3 for each light that you have on your plot (Note: If some of your lights are hung on a pulley system, you have my deepest sympathy. This requires an aiming method called "Bounce Focusing" which means guess and check; bring down the pulley, aim the light, bring it up, check it, bring it down, repeat. If you can get acess to some type of lift, it will greatly decrease your aiming time)
- The next step is to add your gels
- Use your plot to figure out how many of each size of gel you need
- Cut each gel down so that it will fit into the proper sized holder (A paper cutter makes this much easier than if you have to use scissors or a utility knife)
- Place each gel/gel stack into the proper holder (A rather frustrating activity) and then place each loaded holder into the proper slot at the front of each light
- Once you have every light hung and gelled, it is time to program your cues. (At this point it is helpful to label the sliders on your board with the focus point and color of the light it controls, use tape and sharpie)
- Using your director's instructions, the script, and your plot for quick reference, begin by making submasters for the basic looks of the show (full light, night time ect)
- Now start creating cues, create a look for each scene or effect and once you think it looks good, program it into your cue stack. (Be sure to include "blank" cues for those ever important black outs)
- If you need to add cues later you can use "point" cues (1.1, 2.4 ect) in between your existing cues
- You can always go back and edit your looks to fit your director's needs* (In fact, I guarantee you will have to make adjustments)
- Once all adjustments have been made to both lights and programming, you are ready to Run the Show.
Running the Show
- A well programmed show is very easy to run, just press "Go" at the right times
- To make things easier, make a spreadsheet that lists all of your cues in order along with whatever event you run each cue on (an actor's lines, entrance, exit, end of scene, ect).
- Some effects are difficult to program, so you may have to run some parts of the show off of submasters or a combination of subs and cues
- If you jump a cue, the "back" button is your friend
- NOTE: I highly recommend disabling your "Blackout" button if you have one (see your console manual for directions) Things can get ugly if you accidentally hit it during the show!
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*Many director's do not know the first thing about Lighting and many will expect you to be able to push a button and add more lights/colors. Be patient and explain that you are not God and need time to make adjustments. Also, if your director asks for more light and you either cannot add more light or feel that the stage is already too bright, try this tactic: Pause, pretend to adjust something on the board, and ask "How does that look?" 9 times out of 10 your director will be very pleased with your "adjustment."
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