Lighting States

Lighting Basics

As part of my production role for 'Electra' Myself and Cherkanah have taken on the production role of Lighting. To start this I have looked at general lighting basics and lighting states and colour basics 


General Cover- To not have any gaps - black spots in the lighting - meaning all the stage is to look the same.

3 angles to bleach and get rid of shadows- Ways to avoid unwanted shadows light in every area from 3 points around each area to bleach shadows.

Hot Spot- This is like a spotlight but over the top of a general cover. 

Example of down lighting 

Down Lighting- Is a vertical light which is good for scary, intense isolated moods in a scene. This lighting creates shadows on the face such as blacking out the eyes, highlighting the nose which would then shadow the mouth. 








Up Lighting (floor lighting)- Highlights wrong parts of the face. Unusual parts lit up. Another scary effect that could be effective to use for a scary intense mood in a scene. 

Side lighting- For a 2 tone effect.

Back Lighting- Useful to not show definitions in the face - blanches the face, however highlights hair to give halo effect. - This lighting would be ideal to use for scene with Jaffery and William with the shadows on the sheet cloth.

Frensel- Ridges in lens on light - gives a mellow light.

Profile- Smooth lens- Hard edge shadow gives sharp lighting.

Colour Basics 

GREEN + RED light together makes ORANGE/YELLOW


RED GREEN BLUE - Primary colours in lighting 


YELLOW Jel in light - WARM COLOUR 


BLUE Jel in light - COLD COLOUR

Lighting Colour state basics.

The lighting that we wish to create for our performance of Electra is that we are going to use quite Autumnal colours, meaning greens, browns, yellows and oranges. To do this we can mix coloured jels of light through the colour chart guide above and also do adjustments and add blue jel in light to create a cold colour which can create the more eerie feel to the scenes when Electra is talking to her 'friends' as it gives the idea of being in her imagination and reflects the eeriness of Electra's friends.  Also we can use the red and yellow colours to create either orange or red colours to represent blood and anguish and would be fitting at the end of the play when Clytemnestra and Aegistus are killed by Orestes.


http://www.stagelightingguide.co.uk = this website shows more examples of lighting and also gives pictures of positioning of actors on stage and positioning of lights and how to create the correct light.