Concert Lighting

[Chris Cooke]

I began my cinematography career with lighting talking head tv shows and then short films and music videos. I'm still in love with dramatic filmmaking but I've found a second love... concert lighting. I've been doing a lot of studying how to light concerts and theatre lately and a week ago, I got to do my first large venue concert. It was an experience to say the least and I'll be doing more in the near future. I would recommend this for any cinematographer who wants to improve his/her skills.

Here are some pics.

[Phil Jackson]

I began my cinematography career with lighting talking head tv shows and then short films and music videos. I'm still in love with dramatic filmmaking but I've found a second love... concert lighting. I've been doing a lot of studying how to light concerts and theatre lately and a week ago, I got to do my first large venue concert. It was an experience to say the least and I'll be doing more in the near future. I would recommend this for any cinematographer who wants to improve his/her skills.

Here are some pics.

 

 

A great person to study for this genre besides the great concert designers like Peter Morse...is Bob Dickinson who is a master of his craft and a former cinematographer. He's lit the Olympics, the Grammy Awards and the Oscars countless times and considered to be one of the top lighting minds in the world, great at blending theatrical design with photographic aesthetic. Allen Branton is another great designer in this field.

[Kevin Zanit]

I agree, I started getting interested in lighting through theatrical lighting design. One of my first sort-of mentors was Bill Klages, he told me that a job called a cinematographer exists and gets to mix both my love of lighting and photography (I was probably only 8 or 9 years old at the time). He sent me a bunch of these ASC anniversary books that had tons of great pictures from older movies and such, I still have them somewhere.

[Jonathan Bowerbank]

Pink Floyd's live shows played a huge roll in my admiration for lighting.

 

Well done, I especially like the photos with the wide beams of hot white light, very nice.

 

Storaro took a few years off to do theatrical lighting, so basically, ANY kind of lighting works towards your experience as a DP, I believe :)

[Chris Cooke]

One of my greatest challenges right now with concert and theatre lighting is to make hard light look soft. Unfortunately, I can't have a 6'x6' of diffusion just outside the frame because the frame becomes the whole venue. Good looking trusses are almost as important as a good looking stage.

[edward read]

One of my greatest challenges right now with concert and theatre lighting is to make hard light look soft. Unfortunately, I can't have a 6'x6' of diffusion just outside the frame because the frame becomes the whole venue. Good looking trusses are almost as important as a good looking stage.

 

 

One of the techniques that I use for this is to use multiple sources close together - essentialling making a 6x4 source with S4 lekos. Using pars for this would work but the lekos are more controllable. Throw a little 119 or hampshire in them and mount them 24" or 36" apart. 6 lekos double hung from truss and focused properly can be very soft. Remember since you have 6 units equaling one the level on each unit can be run at 20 or 30% - consequently you can save on CTO as well (;D)

 

This is the formula I use for one acting area. If you are trying for a whole stage or scene then expand the number of units to fit the area . 6 leko's can be soft for an area about the size of a single units throw.

Edited June 13, 2007 by edward read

[Phil Rhodes]

This is effectively where I come from - I (mis)spent most of my teenage years involved with theatrical and concert technical stuff, both on lighting and video. It would have been very easy for me to end up working in theatre.

 

Unfortunately, doing the same thing every day, night after night, week after week is about as interesting as it sounds.

 

Phil