A Practical Guide to Stage Lighting, 2nd Edition

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A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO STAGE LIGHTING

of the aspects of the design. In addition to all of the

data, the lighting package for any production physi-

cally exists in space; graphic documents are needed

to show its relationships with all the other technical

elements, and additional drawings are often needed

to illustrate how tasks are performed.

Yes, it could be said there are a lot of documents.

Because of that, while the primary goal of any paper-

work package is to legibly communicate information,

a secondary goal is to present the information for all

relevant parties in the most compact possible form.

Tidy record keeping practices aside, the potential

amount of paperwork required to accurately chron-

icle the paper trail of a production can be heavy.

Fewer documents mean less stuff to carry, and less

strain on the back.

Deciding which documents are needed for

any production is best done on a show-by-show

basis, and this can change during the course of a

tech period. Documents may need to be added or

divided, in order to provide more information, or

they may need to be organized in a better way. One

exercise used to help determine document numbers

for a show is to pose the question, “What infor-

mation needs to be seen by whom, and when?” It

may be possible to combine information from two

documents into one. If that seems feasible, it should

be considered; the fewer documents constructed,

the fewer to update. And any time documents

are updated, human error can occur; if the same

updated information isn’t corrected on all the docu-

ments, the now-conflicting information can cause

problems.

Brilliantly designed paperwork is useless, if the

people assigned to use it can’t understand it. In many

cases, the lighting designer initially constructs the lay-

out of a document so that he or she can read it. After

that document is distributed, however, the lighting

designer may rarely refer to it again. If the document

is the reference source for other people, the lighting

designer needs to ignore his or her personal instinct

or tastes. Discuss the layout and content of the paper-

work with the people who will use it, and tailor the

document’s design to their preferences so they can

read it.

In the ideal world, a complete lighting paperwork

package is assembled and distributed (or published)

long before the load-in. This means that as a complete

package, all of the documents can be compared to

one another at one time, all the better to spot anoma-

lies. The sooner the package is published, the more

time there is available for all involved to recognize,

analyze, and address potential problems before the

load-in starts. Documents may have to be updated

and redistributed, but the sooner the updating cycle

starts, the greater the number of problems that can be

solved before the load-in begins.

For public documents, many designers insist that

some amount of “title block” information is included

on every kind of document. This title block infor-

mation often remains in the same spatial location

on each page—for example, the title block on every

graphic drawing in a series, placed in the lower right-

hand corner. For database documents, the title block

information translates into consistent header and

footer information, with only the document’s name

changing for each document. Fill-in forms may adopt

that same header and footer layout design, or adapt it

to include different reference information.

Title Block Information

Regardless of document type or layout, the basic title

block information should include:

• Thenameoftheshow.

• Thecreationorrevisiondate,ortheversion

number.

• Thepurposeortitleofthedocument.

• Thisdocument’spagenumber,andthetotal

number in this group: “Page X of Y.”

Other logistical information may include:

• Thelightingdesignerand/orproduction

electrician’s name.

• Contactinformation:phone,email.

• Nameoftheperformancefacilityorproducing

entity.

• Referenceinformationspecifictothisdocument:

console, channel and dimming configuration,

for example.

When lighting designers consider what reference

information might be relevant to a specific docu-

ment’s title block, many pretend to analyze a sin-

gle page from the middle of that stack, separating it

from the “herd” (the rest of the paperwork package.)

Next they consider viewing the document as if they

were completely disassociated from the production,

the proverbial “Man from Mars.” Is there enough

information in this orphan’s title block to understand

where it came from, what it was for, and how to use

it? Is enough information included in the title block,

without searching for additional information in other

documents? Finally, they take it one step further,

and imagine viewing the document as an orphaned

archive document twenty years from now. Does the

title block still contain enough necessary informa-

tion for the document to be identified and used as an