Lighting Design I
Faculty: Greg McPhereson
Lighting I Final Project
The final project for the Lighting I class consisted of designing a light plot for the musical “Love and Real Estate.” The students read the play in class, each student taking a line in sequence until the script was finished. We then discussed the show in the context of lighting. We decided the designs would be created for Open Space.
The students were asked to develop a Magic Sheet with color, direction and channel information. We discussed their Magic Sheets in person in class and from there they created a Hookup incorporating the information from their Magic Sheet and at that point we went on our early spring break. We came back to Zoom meetings.
Going forward the students revised their Magic Sheets and Hookups while using Beam Angle Templates that they created to get a visual sense of what each type of light would do in the space. They were provided with two drawings, a ground plan that they could use for their final Light Plot and a compilation of ground plan, section, and elevation that would allow them to use their Beam Angle Templates in conjunction with their Magic Sheets to select appropriate light fixtures.
They were asked to utilize fixtures that they were familiar with from the department’s inventory and were allowed to add other fixtures that they had researched. We looked at manufacturers’ data sheets so they would be familiar with how to research fixtures that were new to them. Over the period of the 2nd half of the semester they worked on creating a final Magic Sheet, a Light Plot, a Channel Hookup, a shop order and optionally a partial cueing script.
One challenge they had to meet was to make an effective Light Plot with just a pencil and a ground plan, since they have not yet begun to use Vectorworks in their class.
These are their final projects. The criteria for success was judged on whether a professional theater electrician could successfully hang their designs. I think they all did well in meeting the criteria and I was very pleased with their efforts.
- Greg MacPherson Lighting Design I
Project Pdfs: