Every TV show, movie, or stage play uses lighting to help provide focus and add to the mood or tone of any scene. Sometimes the lighting is simple and natural-looking while other times, designs are more dramatic and colorful. Someone very familiar with the lighting design process is Colin Skip Wilson, a lighting designer and current student at Utah Valley University.
Where do you pull inspiration from when you are designing?
Most of my inspiration comes from just observing the world around me. I’m always trying to look at how light interacts with everything that I come into contact with. Another place I go to for inspiration… is in photography, mainly cityscapes and nature photography.
How do you create a design concept?
First I start off by reading the script and start to note the major themes in the show. The director will then usually present their concept for the show, and then I take the themes I found, along with the director’s concept and come up with my own concept. A lot of the time, my concept helps emphasize the director’s concept and the themes found in the play.
Once you have a concept, what’s your first step in creating designs/renderings?
Once I have a concept finalized, I go back to the script and read it again. This time it’s usually through the lens of my concept now. And I jot down ANYTHING and I mean anything that comes to mind. No idea or thought is too dumb, or too stupid. I just brainstorm all these different ideas and thoughts and then I’ll go through them and see how/if they relate to my concept and start to flush out my ideas.
What tools do you use to make your renderings?
I do all of my renderings digitally. I use a rendering software called Capture. It allows me to 3D render the set and lighting so I can see what it will look like as if I was actually in the theatre.
How does your design become actualized from a rendering?
Once I have my renderings in Capture, I am able to draft a lighting plot in a program called Vectorworks. Once I have the lighting plot drafted, I then send it to the lighting shop and they hang all the lights in preparation for the production. Once all the lights are hung, we then have a focus call. Focusing the lights basically means pointing the lights onstage to where they need to go. Once all the lights are focused, we begin technical rehearsals and I program the lighting console and then my design is realized.
What design process has been your favorite and why?
That is such a hard question! I don’t know if I have a favorite, because they all have been wonderful. It’s like asking a parent who their favorite child is. I will say through, the shows where you get to collaborate a lot with the other designers are usually the most fun to work on.
Want to try your hand at lighting design? Try one, or more, of the activities below:
- Take pictures of lights in nature that you think are cool, such as sunlight through a tree, a sunset, etc.
- Color and cut out patterns in pieces of paper and shine a flashlight through the design(s).
- Think about your favorite story, TV show, or movie and draw a picture of your favorite moment. Then color the picture to depict a specific emotion.