Reflection

     My Capstone project was to learn about theater and its lighting aspects.  For each aspect of my project I used skills like, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity.  While writing my research paper I thought carefully about what I was writing and tried to be as original as I could, along with asking others for help when needed.  When working with my mentor I had to make sure I was on point and not doing anything stupid because others where relying on me.  During my physical project, working stage crew for Skyline's musical, I had to communicate with other s and collaborate with them, so that we could get our jobs done in an orderly and efficient way.  

     My project really help me learn about what I want to do after high school.  I loved doing lights for SSFHS and after working at Skyline for my project, I know that this is what I want my career to be.  One unexpected thing I gained from this project was friends.  While working the show I met so many cool people and developed some great friendships.  Hopefully I will see them next semester over at Skyline.  The most important things I learned from the project where the little pieces of information and tips about lighting.  They may not seem like much but they help to make a show easier and looking better than ever.

     I faced many challenges during my project.  The first being the fact that it took me forever to find a mentor.  Luckily one of my best friends is in the theater group at Skyline and was able to tell me about his teacher, Allan Ceccarelli.  Another challenge was all the late hours.  I was able to complete all the hours for this project in three days because I was working with them from basically dawn to dusk.  But it was worth it, so I just made sure I got as much sleep as possible.  The last challenge I faced was "learning the ropes" and this didn't just include the fry rail.  Getting used to how Skyline theater performances run was difficult at first, because it is nothing like SSFHS, but after some hard work and help from my new friends I got through it and did a good job.

     The Capstone Project was a fun experience.  I used all my skills to complete it to the best of my ability and helped put on a great performance.  Along the way I learned many thing that I will defiantly use now and later in life.  I couldn't have gotten through this if it weren't for my new friends and I thank them for it. 

Hour 25

Hour 25 was the start of our first show.  I was nervous because I didn't know how well we would do with our set changes, but at the same time a was sure we could get this done.  As the show started we made the scene changes as they came and things went pretty smoothly.  We did make a couple mistakes, for one while setting up for the Hot Box, while I plunging it in the back drop for this scene didn't come down and then on top of that the lights came up while I was still back there.  The audience still couldn't see me but the the scene was still not fully set up.  Other than that the musical went very smoothly and I found it as a great experience.  

Hour 24

Hour 24 consisted of fixing and perfecting the set pieces.  One set piece we worked on was a building the was cut in half, this way you could see in side.  but this being done, meant that you could see the supports underneath the floor of the building.  So to fix this we cut luan into strips and drilled it on over the bottom, to act as a cover.  Next we cut some luan into frames and painted them yellow.  While they were drying we cut plexiglass,  one into a rectangle and one with a rounded top.  These would later act as windows during the Havana scene.  To set us the windows we first drill some luan, that was shaped like the frame, into the set pieces.  Then We painted inside the fame black and once the black had dried we added some highlights to give it depth.  We all the paint was dried we drilled on the plexiglass and then the actual frame.  This gave the effect of a glass window with a warm light inside.   

Hour 23

Hour 23 rolled in and we were still hard at work in the theater. After finding the correct lens we had to focus some lights.  For the Havana scene we used the cyc, which is a big white curtain in the back of the stage that you can project colors and images onto.  During this scene we added colors and gobos of moons and palm trees.  To get this set up I had to go up on the lift to put in the gobos.  Once I was up there and had put the gobos in the right lights, I focused then so that the image was clear and look right.

Hour 22

During Hour 22 we did some last minute work to get ready for the up coming shows.  We had to focus a couple of lights, but first we had to find the correct lens.  I learned while doing this that all lights can be used with different size lens that help focus them for different distances and sizes.  This was a lot of trial and error because we had to one, figure out what lens we would use and two, actually find them all.  This got pretty annoying because we would haul out lights that had the lens on them and either not use them or just use the lens.  So either way we had to haul them back.

Hour 21

Hour 21 came and we were starting he second half of the show in our run through.  I was still working back stage working the rails and making set changes.  Workin the rails though, was mu favorite part because it was sonething totally new to me.  At SSFHS we dint have a fly rail so working with it was a great experience.  The second half of the show was a lot easier to work than the first half.  It was not only a little shorter, but the set changes involved were the easiest.  These scenes were easy because one we had more time to set up and second they were all the scenes that either used the same set pieces or had few to move.  By the end of the hour we had basically finished our run through.

Hour 20

During Hour 20 we started a run through of the musical.  Working back stage is a lot of things, its fun, stressful, boring and more.  As the show progressed we practiced the scene changes.  These could be really stressful because of timing, actors not knowing what to do, and much more.  In between scene changes can be just as bad.  When your not running around or doin anything, your sitting down back stage as quitely as possible.  One of the hardest scen changes in the show was the "Hot Box" scene, which was basically a night club.  This scene was difficult because the main set piece was really big and heavy.  Then to add onto that we had to fly out one set of side curtains, then fly them back in, along with another curtain.  While tht is all going on I had to make sure that the Hot Box got pluged in because it was lined with light bulbs, to add an old school night club feel.  If you thought that was hard enough, this entire set change happened during another scene.