Lighting Terms Flashcards
What is a backlight?
Light coming from upstage, behind scenery or actors, to sculpt and separate from the background.
What is a blackout?
The act of turning off (or fading out) stage lighting.
What is a cross fade?
Bringing another lightning state up to completely replace the current lightning state.
What is a fade?
A fade is an increase, diminishment or change in lighting or sound.
What is a followspot?
Usually, a powerful lantern usually used with an operator so that the light beam can be moved around the stage to follow an actor.
What is a gobo?
A thin metal plate etched with a stencilled design which can be projected by a profile spotlight.
What is a pinspot?
A lantern focused very tightly on a small area (e.g. An actors head) - a pin spot.
What are pyrotechnics?
(Pyro) Chemical explosive or flammable firework effects with a manual detonation. Usually electrically fired with special designed fail - safe equipment.
There are many different variations of pryotechnic such as:
🔹theatrical flash - a flash with a cloud of smoke
🔹maroon - produces a very loud bang
🔹gerb - version of the the Roman Candle
firework, throwing a shower of sparks into the air
What is a smoke machine?
A smoke machine or a fogger is an electrically powered unit which produces clouds of white non - toxic fog.
A haze machine, hazer or diffusion fogger is used to produce an atmospheric haze, rather than cloud of smoke, and is used by many lighting designers to reveal airborne light beams.
What is a strobe light?
Device giving a fast series of very short intense light flashes which can have the effect of making action appear intermittent.
What is a wash?
A lighting to cover over the whole stage in colour. Often used semiotically.
