Its Own Art Form
Proper calling of spotlight cues is an art form. On many stage productions, the stage manager who calls the show’s cues will talk to the spotlight operators during the show. They advance the scenes and preset spotlights with certain gels to set the mood for the next scene. During concerts the LD calls the spot cues. For televised events, it’s quite common to use just one gel configuration that looks good on the camera. The cameras will white balance themselves to the gels the designer has chosen, to give the performer the best skin color possible. Then the spotlights will stay with that color combination the rest of the show. This is 180 degrees from the technique used by many concert designers, who are not necessarily concerned with video images of their performers. In concert lighting, the color of each performer on stage may be the same, or vary at times, depending on the mood of the song and the color of the stage wash at the time.
I am not a big fan of using sheer white light on a performer unless I am looking for a “Goth” type look. I try and balance some flesh colored pink (such as Rosco 33) to give a person some skin color, or with a bastard amber (such as Rosco 02) if I just wish to add a little warmth to the person’s facial color. Honestly, I usually will look at the person’s face on a video wall and decide which color I like best on the character. However, the rest of the lights on stage play a big part in colors as well. Again, a lot depends on whether you are concerned about lighting for a video screen (or TV show) or a live audience. Then something called color temperature comes into play, but that’s a whole science of its own.
Bumping and Fading
Cueing spotlight operators, as mentioned, is usually done verbally through a headset. Typically, the stage manager or LD calling the show will warn the spot ops (correct theatrical term for operator) of an upcoming cue. They will instruct the operator on who they will pick up with their light, what gel frame of color they will use and how much time to take in fading in. If the director wants an operator to turn on their light in zero time, they call it “Bumping on.” The exact opposite of that is a “black out” cue, where the operator extinguishes his light as fast as he can when the director says “GO.” Otherwise, a spot op might be instructed to take a 3- second fadeout on a certain player on stage. Spotlights generally have a lever or a handle that the spot op twists physically to open and shut the douser on a spotlight. With a minimum of practice, an experienced operator can get the feel of the light and execute timed fadeouts effortlessly.
When it comes to rock ‘n’ roll, I need spotlights, or my band members will be left in the dark half the night. Even with a hundred moving lights on stage, the performers will constantly find a blackened zone somewhere. Currently I require a minimum of six spots from the front of house to shed front light on the band members who stroll about the stage. This consists of two guitarists, a bass player, a sax and a lead vocalist. None of them stay in one place very long. The other four members of the band are trapped behind things like drum sets and are not mobile. I have a moving light on a front truss designated for each person in the band. I use them as key lights and, at times, just zoom them out for a nice even front wash of color. Each of my spot operators has what we call a “home base.” That’s the one person who is the main guy on stage that they are responsible for. Usually, the spots in a venue are not well maintained and are not the same brightness. So it’s not unusual for me to double up and ask two or three spot ops to hit one player at the same time. This ensures that this player is the brightest and most obvious focal point on stage. At the end of the solo, I will tell all the operators to go back to their home base and get off the soloist, evening out the light on stage.
Spot Colors
While I do use light colors for faces of the principal musicians on stage, I will often use primary colors at opportune times. In a quick drop of tempo during a song, I may bump a blue color into the front light for a quick dramatic effect. If I am playing a fire-based video clip behind the performer, I may choose a blood red spotlight on a performer to make him appear devilish. Whenever a performer goes into a solo during a song, I will most likely turn all the spotlights off except for the one on the soloist to make him stand out. If I am lighting an individual who tends to run all over the stage a lot, I will double up and keep two spots on him at all times. This is to ensure that the person never runs out of both of the light beams into a dreaded dark hole.
Nothing gets my goat more than a spot op who doesn’t pay attention or take his job seriously. If everyone bumps to a frame 5 simultaneously, it can be quite dramatic. But if one operator cannot execute the correct frame drop as his fellows, it fails miserably. I have cues where I will black out all my stage lights and leave one lone spot as the only light on stage. If this operator blows the cue, we all look bad. Believe it or not, I still get stagehands at times that cannot tell stage left from right. I will tell them in advance to watch a player’s whereabouts for a few seconds because I am about to darken the stage before calling them in on cue. If they come on and are illuminating the wrong side of the stage, they will be embarrassed by their own lack of professionalism, and they will hear the wrath of Nook, shaming them unmercifully in front of their peers.
Tight “Spots”
Of course there are ballroom jobs and events where there is just no way possible to put a spotlight in the house. In such cases, I will mount one moving wash light in the center of the downstage truss and utilize three faders on my console. The middle fader turns the light on and shines it straight ahead ad downstage center. On the faders on either side, I use an override (or temp) cue that does nothing but aim the light downstage left or right. So the center fader lights the artist and I use the outside faders to follow him left to right. It may be the ghetto way, but it certainly works.
