Original LXSeries Forum

I am never quite sure what is the best way to focus booms in LxBeams. I am not clear on what the "Setboomfocus" script does and how best to use it. How do we focus a shin that is cut off the floor and still see it to manipulate the focus in the plot? Is it possible one day that we could manipulate the beam in section view? Could you do a Jing file showing the official "Heintz" approach to this? Thanks.

All that the set boom focus script does is to provide a starting place for side light. The script is an example of several script functions and should be customized for a designer's individual preferences. The script demonstrates getting a list of lights that match a certain parameter. It also demonstrates setting a one light parameter based on the value of another.

The script in its current form sets the focus of lights whose position includes the word "Boom" and whose channel number is less than 51. It sets the focus of those lights to the center line, parallel with the light's location. Specifically, it sets the Focus X to zero (center); it sets the Focus Y equal to the y of the light's location; it sets the Focus Height to 5'-0" (1.5m).

The actual decisions an LD might make on how booms should be focused are more complex.

In dance lighting, the sidelight is the primary illumination. The ideal is to create a field of light that separates the dancer's figure from the floor and travels evenly from leg to leg with the minimum of distracting shadows. The separation from the floor serves two purposes one is selective visibility where the dancer always is lit brighter in contrast to the surrounding space. The other is aesthetic, by visually detaching the dancer their movements appear to defy gravity and become more magical. As movement is primary to the dancer's expression, the movement of shadows distracts and competes for the viewer's attention.

So, one given is that the lowest sidelight should be cut off the floor. Another is that it should fill (as much as possible) the space between the legs at the near edge of the stage so there are a minimum of voids that the dancer moves through at the near edge of the stage. At the far edge of the stage, it should overlap with sidelight from adjoining wings to help fill in and thus reduce shadows on the far legs. The upper cut is tricky and depends on the aspect of the stage. Ideally, it is set so that there is no light on the upper borders above where they meet the legs. In a wide, low aspect space, the lowest sidelight might have to be in pairs so that a dancer's upper body is not cut off at the near edge of the stage. Or, some light might have to be allowed to spill on the border.

Upper sidelight must, by necessity, hit the floor if it is to hit the dancer's body. Choices about how this is focussed depend on the configuration of the auditorium and how much of the audience looks down on the stage as opposed to up or level with it.

All of the above are choices that are probably too complicated to encode in a script. However, individual designers probably have their preferences of how to set standard sidelights. So, the boom focus script might actually be modified so that the focus of lights with the word "Shin" in their use field are set one way while lights whose use contains "Head" be set another. The purpose of the script as it is included is simply to provide a starting point, not to dictate an "official" method of focussing beams. In fact, the script might be used as an example for setting focus parameters for some other purpose than sidelight.