Grimm Chapters

The Designing and Programming

For Grimm Chapters my role was to be a lighting designer, programmer and operator. This show was about the Grimm brothers and putting a modern and dark twist on the story of Little Red Riding Hood and Pinocchio.

For my design I used a lot of generic lighting for the Pinocchio scenes as it made the costumes and makeup look better as it gave them a wood effect. As Little Red Riding Hood was more modern I uses more movers such as Mac 250s and Mac 350s. I used these mainly to give Little Red Riding Hoods bedroom some more colour as she is a young girl and I did not want her to have a plain room.

I also used back lighting to create a silhouette effect on a white tab. The silhouette gave the audience a sense of what was happening without making it difficult for the actors, for instance the scene where Pinocchio turns Lucy into a doll also when Little Red Riding Hood is raped by the wolf.

For this show I used the GrandMA2 as I found this desk easy to use and quick to program as you could set different things (i.e.colours, positions, groups and effects) into different pages and were easy to access. As this was my first time programming a show on this desk I needed a some help to speed up the process, as Lewis Beard was in college that day and had a lot of experience on the desk, he offered to help me program the show.

The Show

After a couple of rehearsals and fixing some cues it was time for the show. Both shows went well and I was happy with the outcome.

After the first show I had been given some notes back of things to improve for next time I design or if it was small something I could do during the break in between shows. After spending my dinner break fixing, adjusting and adding cues it was time for the second show.

I could see the difference in the changes I had made as they made the lighting look much better and in some scenes made it easier to see the actors.

As this was my first time designing I thought it went very well and I also learned new, easier and better skills for next time I design.