Hi, it’s me, Brian, the Lighting Design Intern!

From Well, Duh

I haven’t blogged in a while because I’ve been very busy with my internship! What’s great about this internship is that I have a chance to work on projects outside of the Rep productions… not that there is much time outside of the Rep productions… but there is time.

I am about to go into tech for Betrayal directed by Braden Abraham. I’m extremely lucky to be assisting L.B. Morse on the lighting. This production will be artistically exciting and fun to be a part of… surprises behind every corner!

Outside of the Rep this month, I will be designing lighting for a production of The Altruists directed by Morgan Aldrich. The production is going to be in the Theatre Puget Sound, Theatre 4 space in Center House, Seattle Center. http://www.twohourstraffic.org/ for more information.

Now on to talk about the love of my life – Vectorworks! We have just received our copy of Vectorworks 2009 and I have had a chance to experiment with the program. I must say, VW09 has some fantastic updates and is much more elegant. I have placed the entire Theatre Puget Sound space into 3-dimensional Vectorworks. What’s so great about 3D drafting is that the user can actually walk through and take virtual photographs of the space. Using VW Spotlight, the user can hang lights on pipes, turn on the light and see the beam, and even change the position of the beam’s focus. Every day I keep learning more and more about the program. It is a powerful tool.

Seattle is lucky to have such a wonderful public library system! Many days of my internship have been spent in the art stacks looking at various images for visual research. I have looked at literally thousands of paintings, photographs, and graphics, and I always find something really interesting. Not to mention that the Seattle Central Library has a very fascinating architectural structure… definitely worth researching. The building is loosely based on the structure of the human body. Every visit to the library reveals the genius behind the design.

I am also an expert on mercury vapor street lamps. I had to research these units for our production of The Seafarer next month. Apparently, the government is phasing out the usage of these instruments because other lamps are more efficient, like sodium vapor lamps. We got lucky and found an old-fashioned street lamp for our production… I wonder how many years until such a search would turn up fruitless.

Another fun fact about mercury vapor lamps: I saw some wonderful images of cities at night taken by astronauts in space. Most of central Tokyo and other Asian cities still have mercury vapor street lights, so they glow a green-blue. Most American cities appear orange from sodium vapor lamps, but still some old neighborhoods in East Coast cities glow a mercury blue-green. The images were beautiful and I might not have stumbled on them if it weren’t for my work on this show.

‘Til Next Time,
Brian (Design Intern 08-09)