Design meetings are your opportunity to develop the approach for the play with your collaborators- especially the director, but also with the set designer, costume designer, and other people who will create the environment for the production. Later in the process, these meetings will usually morph into wider conversations that include the production departments who will ultimately execute the designs in the shop and the theatre.
Each organization will have a different way of arranging these meetings. Some groups, especially in academic settings, may begin weekly or bi-weekly meetings as many as six months ahead of tech. For other productions, designers might only have occasional individual phone or zoom calls with the director, and the whole design team may not have a conversation until the process is nearly finished. There is no correct way to have these conversations, except for the one that gets the work done in a satisfying way. It is important to have a method of coming to a design that works for you, and equally important to be able to adapt that method to the people who are working with you- remember, all of them have their own process which they are adapting to you!
In the best situations, you're on board and involved in the discussions from the beginning of the design process. Unfortunately, in many situations the lighting designer is sometimes brought in late to the process. Scenery and Costume designs may already be well on the way to completion, requiring you to play catch-up. Again, being adaptable is key.
Each organization will have a different way of arranging these meetings. Some groups, especially in academic settings, may begin weekly or bi-weekly meetings as many as six months ahead of tech. For other productions, designers might only have occasional individual phone or zoom calls with the director, and the whole design team may not have a conversation until the process is nearly finished. There is no correct way to have these conversations, except for the one that gets the work done in a satisfying way. It is important to have a method of coming to a design that works for you, and equally important to be able to adapt that method to the people who are working with you- remember, all of them have their own process which they are adapting to you!
In the best situations, you're on board and involved in the discussions from the beginning of the design process. Unfortunately, in many situations the lighting designer is sometimes brought in late to the process. Scenery and Costume designs may already be well on the way to completion, requiring you to play catch-up. Again, being adaptable is key.
Preparing for the first meeting
There are a few things that you should do before the first design meeting:
- READ THE PLAY! Three times, if possible as described on Reading the Script. This is your best preparation.
- If there is a playwright's note in the script, be sure to read through that as well. In some cases the playwright has written more about the play than they did in the actual play (I'm looking at you, George Bernard Shaw). You might also do a little research on the playwright- it's often enlightening to have an idea of who the playwright is, so that you can better understand where the play comes from.
- Do a little research to familiarize yourself with the setting, society, or situations involved. Wikipedia is actually great for this (with all the regular Wikipedia-related cautions, of course). If you are doing The Crucible, you should definitely read the Wikipedia articles about both the Salem Witch Trials and the McCarthy Unamerican Committee hearings. I usually allow the Wikipedia rabbit hole to pull me to other related articles which may or may not turn out to have some bearing on the design process.
- I usually try to find a couple of images that will help me to express my thoughts in the first meeting. There will be lots more detail later in Research and Visual Inspiration, but for now one or two good images that help you talk about the Functions of Light will be sufficient. For realistic plays, this might manifest in pictures of different skies. If it is a scary play, maybe you have an image from a Film Noir movie that shows how you might use shadow. If the play is very abstract, maybe you show some contemporary to help you talk about a visual approach that you might take with the design.
The first design meeting
Hopefully you have had the chance to read the play three times, These readings, and your notes, will serve you well, as this meeting is usually mostly a discussion about the play. The most important thing for you to do at this meeting is to listen! The director will describe their approach to the script. Some basic items will likely be defined at this point:
In my experience as a lighting designer, most of my thoughts at this point are in regards to how presentational or representational I think the lighting design should be. Another way to put this might be to ask how 'noticeable' the lights will be in the production? Does the play lend itself to lots of moving lights doing ballyhoos? Is the color palette very saturated? Do we use hard-edged follow spots for the featured actors? Conversely, does a play require a more representational lighting approach for which the lighting mostly illuminates, sets given circumstances, and otherwise stays out of the way of the performances and other design areas? These are the designs in which you have succeeded as a designer if nobody notices the lighting.
Another way that I frame my conversation at this point in the process is whether my choices in creating the lighting design will be Active or Reactive. In a Reactive lighting design, I will mostly wait until the scenic environment and costume designs are defined before 'painting' light in overtop of these elements. Later in the process, I am reacting to where the actor are on stage, what the style of movement is, and other such physical elements developed by the director and actors.
In an Active lighting design, I know that I am more responsible for pitching visual ideas for the overall look right from the get-go. Sometimes in these cases, the scenery and costumes may follow the framework of the lighting as they make their visual choices. In others, the overall environment evolves in a highly collaborative manner.
The patterns here parallel the previous suggestion of presentational or representational designs somewhat, but is is not a religious correlation in all cases. For example, there may be representational settings in which your lighting design goes mostly unnoticed by an audience, but requires very specific lighting choices (perhaps due to time of day or some other particular given circumstance), which then causes you to take a more Active approach to the design process.
- If the production will be set in a particular period, either as described in the script, or in contrast with a 'traditional' reading;
- If the director has any specific thoughts about setting. MacBeth can be performed in a Scottish Castle or in the halls of Congress equally effectively.
- The level of realism or abstraction in the production;
- What the transitions from moment to moment, or scene to scene may look like.
- Particular moments in the play that are important to the director - these key moments help to define what is important about this production.
- Other people's thoughts regarding the 'why this play, for this audience, at this time?' question. If everybody around the table has a sense of what everyone else wants to 'say' with the play, it is easier to create a cohesive production that helps to communicate those ideas to an audience.
In my experience as a lighting designer, most of my thoughts at this point are in regards to how presentational or representational I think the lighting design should be. Another way to put this might be to ask how 'noticeable' the lights will be in the production? Does the play lend itself to lots of moving lights doing ballyhoos? Is the color palette very saturated? Do we use hard-edged follow spots for the featured actors? Conversely, does a play require a more representational lighting approach for which the lighting mostly illuminates, sets given circumstances, and otherwise stays out of the way of the performances and other design areas? These are the designs in which you have succeeded as a designer if nobody notices the lighting.
Another way that I frame my conversation at this point in the process is whether my choices in creating the lighting design will be Active or Reactive. In a Reactive lighting design, I will mostly wait until the scenic environment and costume designs are defined before 'painting' light in overtop of these elements. Later in the process, I am reacting to where the actor are on stage, what the style of movement is, and other such physical elements developed by the director and actors.
In an Active lighting design, I know that I am more responsible for pitching visual ideas for the overall look right from the get-go. Sometimes in these cases, the scenery and costumes may follow the framework of the lighting as they make their visual choices. In others, the overall environment evolves in a highly collaborative manner.
The patterns here parallel the previous suggestion of presentational or representational designs somewhat, but is is not a religious correlation in all cases. For example, there may be representational settings in which your lighting design goes mostly unnoticed by an audience, but requires very specific lighting choices (perhaps due to time of day or some other particular given circumstance), which then causes you to take a more Active approach to the design process.
Subsequent design and production meetings
As the production process moves forward, you will likely continue to meet with larger and larger groups of people. At the beginning of the process, you might be meeting individually with the director, or in a small group with other designers and perhaps the stage manager. Eventually, the meetings will shift their focus from design to production, and additional personnel, such as a lighting supervisor or head electrician, will begin to be part of the conversation.
Each production and company will operate slightly differently, but in all cases it is important for you to understand what progress needs to be made on the design materials at each step. Expectations on deadlines for production materials that the shop needs should be set early on in the process (and are likely specified in your contract). These deadlines are extremely important to meet- when you miss a deadline as a designer, it begins a scheduling domino effect in the shops that could affect many more areas than are even apparent to you. A couple thoughts here:
Each production and company will operate slightly differently, but in all cases it is important for you to understand what progress needs to be made on the design materials at each step. Expectations on deadlines for production materials that the shop needs should be set early on in the process (and are likely specified in your contract). These deadlines are extremely important to meet- when you miss a deadline as a designer, it begins a scheduling domino effect in the shops that could affect many more areas than are even apparent to you. A couple thoughts here:
- If you're unsure of when your plot is due to the shop, ask! There's nothing worse than two people each assuming that the other knows when something is needed, and those assumed dates being different!
- The production will likely define dates for the plot and paperwork to be submitted, but there are lots of other design steps that you need to take in order to make the plot happen. Always be mindful of the things you need to do that are not on the production schedule.
- The production meetings are 'check-in' points, but remember that lots of stuff is happening in between those meetings. The other designs are evolving, everybody is reading the script, shop logistics and schedules are being developed. You also need to make progress between meetings. Some decisions will be made while sitting around the production meeting table, but lots more happen outside of those times, through emails, phone calls, conversations, etc.
- Keep in touch with the head of the electrics shop. This may be a Head Electrician, Lighting Supervisor, Technical Director, or a person with some other title. It's important to ask questions about production-related elements, so that when you finally turn in the final light plot, it is within the constraints of the budget and the workforce. If you're planning on something unconventional, it's always worth a call, text, or email to the shop to make sure it's going to be possible.