Little shop of horrors lighting design

[J Pearce]

The mirror ball was on a slow revolve speed not a fast speed so looked more balled than disco

[730 doors]

I LD'd LSOH When I was at uni, I used a pair of profiles with vine leaf gobos and a light yellow-green gel; one each side of centre focussed on the final incarnation of the plant. They looked very nice against the plant and the dark washed stage, and looked quite menacing when the gobos started rotating slowly in opposite directions with the music when the plant revealed its evil plans.

I also had a few profiles set aside for the houselight with some random small breakup gobos in them projecting little red dots all over the auditorium.

 

I even managed to work in some acls and some "50's" breakup gobos into the audience and cheesy chases for the finale.

 

Those were the days, not a moving light in sight (or budget).

[Tomo]

It looked pretty damn good, Mr Doors! (Even though I focussed it myself...)

 

Remember that you can do one heck of a lot more with a pack of generics than you can with a pair of movers.

 

Be good to catch up with you tomorrow at the tradeshow!

[Nickwoolley]

Hi all,

 

Sorry to pull this one up!

 

I've just heard that at school this year we will be doing Little Shop of Horrors.

 

I know the basic story - however I have never seen it - I was wondering does anyone have any photos I could have a look at to get a "feel"?

 

Any help would be appreciated... ;)

 

Nick

[Mr Steve]

I can send you photos of our production. PM me your email and you can have them.

 

I'd avoid movers too, especially if they are only to be used for the "toy" factor. If you have a load of generics, it's much nice to have fixed specials, split the shop from the strees as mentioned above etc etc, rather than have loads of movers spinning round. You could get away with scrollers, just to tint the backlight for the numbers etc if you don't have many generics, but I'd avoid colour changing during the songs.

[Nickwoolley]

Thanks Mr Steve!

 

You have a PM

 

Cheers,

 

Nick

[Frog Genius]

Lots of Pars Fresnels and Floods - all with red gels - ours looked great, but a bit red for my taste. Also some cold blue for the night scenes makes a nice change from the red and keeps the audience interested, or so I thought at our performance this time last year.Also a yellow Green for the plant and a soft colour(and focus) for the followspots. The bit at the end "and taking over this theatre" still makes me laugh as all the new crew go pale!

[woody74]

I hate the "movers = flashy" mentality! If used well, they can replace a number of conventional fixtures. But using them for the sake of using them, I say no; there has to be a reason.

[dbuckley]

I love this show! I can still hit cues in time with the music, from the myriad times I've done it.

 

I hate you Bryson.

 

I've always wanted to do this show, but never been in the right place at the right time :-( And you get to do it "myriad" times. I'd settle for just once.

 

I still live in hope - In Christchurch there are stored away a full set of plants, really excellent specimens, so I have been told, and I keep my ear open waiting for someone somewhere to pop up...

[Paul_LX]

I would have to agree with not using movers for the sake of it. I LD'd this show about a year ago and used some mac600 wash's as my venue had them instead of generic fresnels, these are the only thing I used them for. Classic lighting for the show is the way to do it, I even used Patt23's and Patt123 for specialls etc

[LeeStoddart]

I have recently helped out with this show (and it is a great show to do) I was essentially the moving light assistant.

 

I agree with the earlier comments - I don't think that moving lights have to move in view.

 

The venue where this production was staged happens to have MAC600s and MAC500s in its rig. The 600s provided all the colour wash for the stage and allowed smooth transition of colour from one mood to another. The 500s provided a number of specials, a series of gobo washes and a very small number of special effects.

 

The only movement the audience were aware of (other than in the final song) was in a couple of scenes where the focus shifted to the largest Audrey, the wash and the gobos swept in to the plant's position. In the heavier pieces of "eating" the 500s went through a series of increasing animation - but purely in terms of rotating gobo (over a fixed gobo) and a rotating prism. Combining this subtle level of increasing animation with the slow movement towards the plant allows the tension to build without the piece looking like a rock show.