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LIVE THEATRE lighting for black and white effect


Matyas Erdely

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Hello everyone,

I'm looking for help to find a solution to light live theater to get a black and white look.

There are techniques to use different color(?) gels in order to achieve this but I need as much info as possible.

Anyone any suggestions?

Thank you,

Matyas Erdely

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Hello everyone,

I'm looking for help to find a solution to light live theater to get a black and white look.

There are techniques to use different color(?) gels in order to achieve this but I need as much info as possible.

Anyone any suggestions?

Thank you,

Matyas Erdely

 

Do you want to change between color and B&W or do you want to stage a whole play in B&W? There isn't a purely lighting solution to magically get black and white in live theater. There are two real options I can think of, each with their own pros and cons:

 

1. Costume, set design, and makeup that are all black and white. The problem with this is slow turnaround to swap sets and get everyone changed and made up if you want to change between color and black and white worlds. If you only want B&W, this is your best solution.

 

2. Costume, sets, and makeup that are predominantly one color or tone, such as "warm." Then you light it with the opposite color ("cool" in this case) and the result should be pretty monochromatic if you tune the strength of gels well. This would be pretty cool if you want to be able to change between color and black and white worlds. The drawback is that your sets, costumes, and makeup have to be kind of monochromatic to make it work and the more monochromatic and less saturated they are, the better it will work. You can also light to slightly lower levels; our eyes see color worse as the light levels get lower.

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