For every production this Lighting Design Paperwork must be created by the designer:
- Light Plot
- Channel Hookup
- Instrument Schedule
- Color Schedule
- Section Drawing
- Magic Sheet
- Lighting Cue List
- Follow Spot Cue Sheets
Once created, these documents will be sent to the Master Electrician or Production Manager to be implemented. There may also be paperwork from design meetings you will create, but I’ve left that separate for simplicity.
Light Plot (or Lighting Plot)
The lighting plot is a document that shows the position of each light with its channel, Gel/color, and instrument information. The light plot and the information on it will be used to create the Channel Hookup, Instrument Schedule, and other paperwork, which will go to the electrics team so they are able to hang the plot. You will use the plot to create the other documents, so create this first. Because this is the most important part of designing a show, make sure your decisions will serve the production well.
Example Plot for the 2nd Electric on a production:
Here is and example Symbol Key which you must include on the Plot:
Before you begin, you will need to decide how you plan to draft your plot, whether by hand or by computer. If you are able to use the program Vectorworks, I highly recommend it as the easiest way to create a plot once you are familiar with it. (I’m not sponsored, it has become the industry standard for a reason.) Students can get a free educational version, so don’t let the price scare you away if you are a student.
Steps to Create a Light Plot
You will come up with your own process over time, but this list should give you a good baseline. Here are the basic steps to take:
- Decide on basic design vision with director and other departments
- Create Focus points based off scenic draftings
- Review equipment inventory (if using stock instruments) and number of dimmers
- Decide on basic color ideas for each system (Ex: Do you want one or two front light colors? Top light colors? Side light?)
- Decide which lights to use in which systems (Ex: Fresnels for top light)
- Decide where to hang lights on the plot (look up the best lighting angles if needed)
- Add practicals
- Double check dimmer counts to make sure you have enough circuits for every light. Remember that moving lights and LED’s need power too, though often many lights can be daisy chained for power. If you have questions about power, check in with the Master Electrician of the space for clarification.
- Two-fer where necessary and label instrument channels
- Decide on final gel color choices
- Ensure the fixture key/legend is accurate, so the electricians can hang the correct lights
These steps should bring you through creating your first lighting plot, but each space will have its own challenges. Rely on your Master Electrician and get their input prior to creating the plot to avoid problems early.
Channel Hookup
The Channel Hookup is a list of every lighting fixture in a production sorted by channel number. This should look something like this:
The columns in this hookup represent:
| Label | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Channel | Channel number assigned by the Designer, used to group lights of similar purpose together (1= First front light, 2= Second Front light, Etc.) |
| Position | Which pipe this fixture is attached to, could also be which area of the stage (Ex: Foot lights might say “Apron” here) |
| U# | Unit Number: Position on the pipe in relation to other units on the same pipe (This will make more sense on the instrument schedule) |
| Inst Type & Access & Load | Instrument type, Accessories, and Load: Instrument type is the kind of light fixture, Accessories could include an Iris, Top Hat, or other similar, and Load represents the Wattage of the lamp used in the light |
| Purp | Purpose: What the intended use of the fixture is. Often abbreviated, each designer abbreviates differently. In this example, F/L means Front Light |
| Color & Gobo | Color: Lighting Gel Code, can be multiple gels in one light Gobo: A metal pattern which can be projected through profile lights to break up the beam, or |
| Dm | Dimmer: Typically used by the ME, the dimmer is the hardware between the light board and the light fixture responsible for actually controlling power output to the connected light |
| Adr | Address: The label of the outlet the light is plugged into. In modern theaters, this is usually 1-to-1 with the dimmer number, but in older theaters there would typically be less dimmers than places to plug lights in, so you could patch any dimmer into any outlet to use only the ones you needed |
This Channel Hookup was created with the program LightWright, which can connect to Vectorworks and auto-populate information. This feature is one of the main reasons Vectorworks and LightWright have become the standard. Their ability to communicate back and forth can save a designer literally hours of work on each production.
Instrument Schedule
The instrument schedule is very similar to the channel hookup, with the main difference being the organization scheme. The instrument schedule is organized by hanging position rather than channel number, with each electric on its own page, and lights sorted by unit number. Find the unit number by numbering the lights on each electric starting on Stage Left. Look back to the plot example to view the unit numbers.
If for example the crew is looking to hang all the lights on a pipe at once, they can look at the instrument schedule for each electric and set lights in order of hanging position. Then to hang them, they go down the line of lights already set out to hang them all in order. This is also useful when looking at lights in the air. If you want to know the channel number of a light on the fourth electric, count in from the side to get the unit number, then reference the fourth electric page in the instrument schedule to find the unit number you need.
Color Schedule
The color schedule is yet another view of all lights in a plot, this time organized with all lights with each gel color one one page. This is useful for fidgeting a count of how many of each color you will need. This is a less common view to use, but is still useful when provided.
Section Drawing
A section drawing is a view of the theatre or space as if it was cut down the middle and viewed from the side. This is useful for viewing trim height of pipes, any lighting ladders or pipes hanging down, etc. Adding this extra view lets everyone be on the same page in terms of vertical space. Here is an example:
Magic Sheet
A magic sheet (or lighting cheat sheet) is used by the designer as a simplified view of which lights hit each focus area. These can be either digitally implemented on the light board or a hard copy on paper. Each designer sets their magic sheet up differently, but this is a pretty common design for hard copies:
Lighting Cue List (Cue Sheet)
You will start the cue list during preproduction, and flesh it out during the designer run-through of the show. Most designers will mark cues initially in a copy of the script as they watch, jotting notes as they go. After the run, you can transfer those notes into the cue list so you have one document to refer to for programming cues. Include preliminary cue numbers, cue time, the cue line or action for calling the cue, and basic notes for yourself on what the cue should accomplish. Once completed, provide the cue list to the Stage Manager, so they are able to write cues in before tech begins.
Here is an example cue list from The Lion King on broadway, made available from The Lighting Archive‘s website:
For more information on how many cues should be in a production, read my article on How many cues should be in different types of productions.
Follow Spot Cue Lists
Similar to the main cue sheet, this document will be given to Follow Spot Operators so they know which cues are coming up. This should be a separate cue list from the main list, but is often helpful to integrate the regular cue numbers into the sheet in some way so they are able to listen to these cue numbers as the SM calls them and get a sense of where they are at in their cues.
Other Documents That Might Be Helpful
After creating Color Palettes, Focus Palettes, Beam Palettes, and some basic lighting looks, create a cheat sheet with each of these laid out. Having cheat sheets for these different presets, you can recall them when needed instead of programming from scratch. You can add this info to the Magic Sheet, or a separate sheet depending on your preferences. I tend to leave them separate since they aren’t lights, but rather presets to pull from.
For More Information
If you are interested in seeing real world examples, reach out to contact@everythingbackstage.com. I would love to share examples, but will do so only on request to protect the design work of others involved on projects.
