CROWNS: Lighting Department and Audio Visual Department.

All Lighting Designs have been designed by Andy Aisbett, Cassandra Ng, Callie Roebuck and Brady Aulich.

The lighting department develops a lighting plan with all of their creative ideas for their given production and presents it to their director. This document showcases everything from their refined ideas of the lighting they will want to using, as well as incorporating a cue synopsis's for the stage managers to use throughout the show.

Without lighting in theatre, the stage wouldn't be half what it can be. Lighting has the ability to be the mood enhancer of of any aesthetic concept or idea, it is an enhancement of light, mood, and overall feeling in a theatre.

Over the rehearsal process of CROWNS the lighting team have gathered ideas from aspects of the show such as; character motifs and intentions, character’s relationships, what’s being expressed within each scene, the overall mood and a specific setting to determine which gel colours and types of lights to use. We took into consideration certain set items and use of combining to then gather an understanding of which lights would look best and which ones wouldn't. Costuming have decided to have each actor wearing basic whites, in collaboration with makeup having us all painted in white including white hair, so because of the over-use of white we decided to incorporate UV lights in the production as they will illuminate white over any other colour on stage; giving us a creepy and dark effect which a majority of the production is. Our lighting design has reflected back on the industrial theme being reflected within other technical departments, so we have decided to rig our lighting design on a metal truss, meaning the industrial metal of the truss and the lights themselves will be highly visible to the audience. This will create a sense of realism to the audience and therefore compliment our overall naturalistic play.

Ultra Violet Lighting being tested by the Lighting designers.

A lighting meeting.

Initial lighting design drafts and processes of developing the full cue synopsis sheets.

The three above images are drafts of what a lighting que synopsis sheet should look like before a production. These drafts are thereafter approved by the stage manager, and the director. Then submitted into the final script for the stage manager to use as a calling document for the final performance, and throughout the production's season.

Audio Visual is a mixture of Sound and the visual aspects (both still image and moving film). It can enhance the show through it's use of an extra psychical element. Depending on the show it can be very useful to establish a set backdrop and therefore this department can sometimes work with set. Everything they develop needs to be approved by the artistic director as well as the overall director of the show.

All A/V designs have been designed by Nelson Blake.

Nelson's first idea for A/V was to have quick and snappy film footage of animals in the wild appear at very specific moments in dialogue. An image that conveyed the crux of what was happening in either an abstract or specific way.

He then found that his idea was very similar to a film device used in the movie Lucy. He went home and rented the film. It was true: the movie uses the animal footage almost identically to the way I would have done it. Because of this his idea has now progressed. Throughout the rehearsal process of crowns Robert Lewis has indicated a desire for texture and layers. Whether this is sound layering, vocal textures or movements, Nelson has applied this concept to the Audio Visual element.

The mission of the A/V department is to emphasise location, mood, tone and texture. Furthermore, A/V seeks to create an atmosphere and aid in the visual realization of the story.

A/V images will be based on themes of greed, power, and ambition presented through decay, rust, industrial aspects, insects, animals, and nature.

Some images that convey the AV direction are attached.