Week 2: Music and Color

A couple of weeks ago, I drove in LA traffic for two hours to watch one of my favorite hometown bands perform at the Troubador. I would never willingly sit in traffic, but when it involves artists from Claremont, I’m all in. While I truly enjoyed the music, I found myself spending a lot of time focused on the lights. Because the concert took place in a music venue, the intention of the lighting design was much different than what one would see in theatrical design. I noticed that most of the lighting instruments were utilized on the spot, with little planning and little rehearsal process in regards to the focus of the instruments (they weren’t completely focused on the musicians, but rather on various hot spots around the perimeter o f the stage). My guess is that they pre-focused lights to cover a majority of the stage. As I had mentioned previously, I felt that the intention of the design was to magnify the message, mood, or ideas that are summoned as a result of the music. This was especially apparent in regards to the color choices used, in which burnt orange, reds, soft pinks, and greens (as seen in the picture below) magnified the band’s concept of seasons (of fall specifically), and warmth. I really appreciate this picture because I would have never thought to use green to communicate warmth and fall, but feel that it very much compliments the reds, oranges, and soft pinks of the big LED lights. Upon reflection, I feel that it might be important in design to use “contrasting” colors, where using a balance of warm and cool colors allows for a designer to delicately communicate an idea without being too forward, too intense, etc.  I want to think about this in my future processes of choosing color, where at times it is acceptable to intensely and dramatically communicate an emotion or feeling, and at other times, it is important to play with opposing color ideas to communicate subtly.  Especially in this picture, I feel that there is a richness that is presented because of the use of the green, which allows for the stage to look bigger and “layered” (for lack of a better word), or textured. I hope to think about these concepts in regards to theatrical lighting design for my future projects.