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ShowbizU: The Poetry of Lighting Design- Brian MacDevitt

Name: ShowbizU: The Poetry of Lighting Design- Brian MacDevitt
Uploaded: 2013-10-15T07:00:00+00:00
Duration: 1 min 20 s
Channel: Tim Kashani
Description: In this excerpt, lighting designer Brian MacDevitt critiques the tendency of students to focus on technical equipment rather than the emotional core of a…

15 Oct 2013 · 1 min

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1:20

In this excerpt, lighting designer Brian MacDevitt critiques the tendency of students to focus on technical equipment rather than the emotional core of a production. Using the example of "A Streetcar Named Desire," he argues that designers should first explore their personal feelings toward characters and the story, fostering empathy and artistic insight. MacDevitt traces the historical shift of the lighting designer’s role from a subordinate, gaffer‑like position dictated by others to a director of photography (DP)–like role with a distinct visual storytelling voice. He urges designers and students to enter collaborative meetings with their own interpretive perspective rather than merely reacting to set, direction, or costume cues.

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I was taught much more about the poetry of light and not about the technical. I think that when you ask a student to say, if you're doing Streetcar Named Desire and you ask them to talk about it, they would much prefer to talk about the gear they want to use because they can hide their heart and soul behind a lot of jargon and a lot of like, you know, I'm going to do this, you know, backlight, I'm going to use this lamp, you're going to do this. It's like, no, no, no, but how do you feel about the play? Like, how does it— how do you feel about Blanche? Do you have empathy for her? Do you have— which characters do you love? Which characters do you hate? What is the passion that you have for that piece? Because in lighting design, the history was always someone else told the lighting designer what to do. It used to be more of like a gaffer position, and now it's emerged as more like a DP position where you have a real say and you have a real story to tell visually. So instead of being quiet at the table and responding to the set designer, the director, and the costume designer and finding your way in, you know, surreptitiously, I feel like I want my designers, my students, and myself to come to that first meeting with something real to say about the piece and not just responding to other people.