Angles and Positions

Overview

Angles and Positions

When developing the lighting for a production, the lighting designer must help establish what is referred to as “The World of the Play”.

Characters need to look as if they belong in what has been established as their world – whether that be in the underwater world of Atlantis, a post-nuclear New York City or by a mountain range on the planet Jupiter.

A few conventions have been established in order to achieve “normal lighting” – systems, if you will, that will supply reasonable visibility (so that we can see performers’ lips move, the expression on their faces, and most of their movement/body language) as well as give the characters dimension (also called “plasticity”).

In nature, we primarily have light coming from a high source; the sun. Thanks to refraction and reflection of the sun in our atmosphere and our surroundings, we can usually see most of the features of what we are looking at (the shadows are filled with this indirect light).

Photo of Jupiter courtesy of NASA

Architects have followed this example, and so we are most used to having light come from overhead even when we are inside. Angled downlight, with enough light to “fill” in shadows, is what drives most of what we consider to be “normal” lighting.

"Speech and Debate" production photo by designer Kade Mendelowitz

When people say they don’t look like their drivers’ license photo; they’re right! We are used to seeing people lit from primarily overhead. When a flash is used at close range, all of the “normal” shadows are filled in, and people look odd.

People regularly have shadows under their eyes, nose, and chin. When a flash fills those areas in, the result is considered unflattering. A straight on front light (the position of the flash) also makes people appear “flat”, almost like cardboard cut-outs. Because of this effect, although “balcony rail” positions, which are good for visibility, are not used much in modern theatre.

Amanda -model photo by Kade Mendelowitz

Although the sun is a single light source and typically interior lighting is from above, we rarely use just one lighting angle / position when designing for the theatre. The fact that we tend to make spaces / sets “larger than life”, thereby moving the lights further from the actor (typically at least 20’ away), move the walls away (with at least one missing), and use much more focused lighting equipment, one light is usually simply inappropriate.

Anna -model photo by Kade Mendelowitz

How to read a "Key":

Similar to a simple groundplan.
Keys are "looking down" (birdseye view) on an actor.
A simple nose indicates which way the actor is facing.
Any light in use would be indicated by an arrow pointing to the actor in it's relative position. More examples below.
If a color is in use, that would be indicated near the arrow.
Downlights (as in this example) have this kind-or underline/arrow down symbol to indicate the light is pointing straight down from above.

9 Standard Lighting Positions

There are, primarily, 9 lighting positions that are standard in the theatre. Next, we’ll go through each of those areas, one at a time, and note two characteristics of each position: visibility (our ability to see character details) and plasticity (our ability to see the form / 3-dimensionality of our subject).

Each of the lighting positions for this example is at a 45-degree axis above eye level (except for the straight downlight), and are at 45-degree increments surrounding the model.



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