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Lighting a Jazz Themed Gala
I’ve been lurking here a bit and decided to finally post because I need some suggestions.
I’ve been hired to provide accent lighting for a jazz / swing dance themed gala. The room has poor overhead flourescent lighting so I plan to not use the overheads and instead uplight the walls with pars mounted on floor bases. I am used to lighting rock and roll themed parties but have never done a jazz /swing theme.
Can you suggest lighting filters that would be fitting for a jazz theme?
I was thinking lavender or pinks but I dont want the room to be too bright. I have access to Gamcolor, Rosco and Lee filters so feel free to suggest exact filter #’s. Your suggestions appreciated!
Joel
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7 Replies
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I’ve done some live Jazz shows in the past for multi cam setups. For me what comes to mind is deep purples, reds, and blues kicking into some velvet like material hung or drapped around. Very plush and loungy. Don’t know if that helps at all but thought I’d chime in.
Hunter Mossman
Director of Photography
http://www.huntermossman.com -
The use, and choice, of color is a powerful thing. There is no one color for Jazz AND Swing as that involves thousands and thousands of songs — and there’s an equal number of different opinions on cueing and color combinations.
A Lighting Designer lets the music inspire him, and lead him to the answers.
That being said I would also never turn off the overhead lights, choosing instead to use them to enhance the mood of the room.
Since you have access to various color manufacturers you should be wrapping the fluoros in colors (with an extremely low co-efficient of transmission obviously)inspired by the music.
I would probably alternate Rosco #85 and Rosco #59 ….. if there’s too much light I might remove half the tubes.DS
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I must be learning to think like Dennis; I was going to suggest much the same thing. Use the overhead flos to make pools of dim mood lighting, alternating colors. Then use dedicated instruments to light the band. The background has a dedicated setof lights just for itself. Then apropriate keys for the featured/solo players, and maybe colored fills for them that can change as tempo and mood indicate.
You can get away with dimmer lighting for human eyes at the show than you can for cameras. Decide what’s most important first.
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thanks for all of your suggestions and responses. The overhead florescents are at 30′ in the ceiling and not accessible which is why I plan to turn them off and uplight the walls with pars.
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Then you can also have fun with the PARs and attach some simple cookies to them, and use the shadows they throw to add more texture to the walls than just a colored wash.
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You could have even more fun and use lekos and PARs washing your walls/ceiling.
Then you could not only alternate colors but also beams spreads.
Put templates in each leko to add texture to your walls to really push the fun envelope — and if you want to just go crazy with excitement, add gobo rotators.
You could even add color scrollers if you can stand to have THAT much fun.DS
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Great thread!
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