On Tuesday 10th November 2nd year Theatre Design students at Nottingham Trent University had a session with professional freelance lighting designer Alex Stafford-Marshall. She has 20 years of professional experience worked in lighting design in theatres like Nottingham Playhouse, Derby Theatre and New Vic Theatre.
Alex talked about the role of a professional lighting designer and the collaborative nature of the role within the creative team of a theatre show. She went through the different types of lights that are used in theatrical productions and the different beams they can create from profiles - which create beams with quite hard edges, to LEDs which can be set electronically to change colour but produce beams with much softer edges. We looked at how coloured gels and Gobos can add colour and create different shaped shadows in tungsten lights. She also talked about the importance of the dimensions of the lights - where they are placed, the type of light and the angle the light is placed at, and the importance of how the performers are lit (human or puppet).
We also spent some time with Alex experimenting with 5 different lights, a Fresnell, a Par Can light an LED Par Can and a baby LED Par Can and a Profile light, creating shadows and analysing the different beams.
We then created puppets and a building, using paper, newspaper cardboard and other pieces of recyclable material and began experimenting with shadow and lights. It was fascinating to see some of the different shapes and effects that could be created through different lights (including an overhead projector) and materials.
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