Week 5- Ari Pulido- Cat Movement

 Cat Movement

The inspiration for this was my cat Kea who loves to lay on top of me.  I chose to take a picture of her because she was giving me a cold stare.  Speaking of cold, this picture was taken at 5:45 pm today which gave the cool natural light coming from the window.  The blues in the picture also help keep the photo in that cool range.  Kea's eyes are warm in the photo which makes them pop on the blue background.  I enjoyed the movement that was done by Kea in this photo.

Week 5 - Waves - Maggie

 

         This picture was taken at Laguna Beach on a sunny day. It was badly taken but I think it could still reflect the movement of the sea waves. They just kept going and going, nonstop. The picture, however, only captures a fraction of that moment, but our eyes can interpret the main object to be continuing its movement. Imagination, or maybe the knowledge that we learned and are accustomed to (we know the waves can't stop), makes our perception very smart and agile, so we can see movement in a still picture. 

         I'm reminded of the posters for New Slate, where the dance movements also seem to move within the picture, because we understand momentum and the intention that are shown in the picture. So the eyes really do a lot in our perception of the world and ourselves, by instilling a lot of information into what seems like a simple image in front of our eyes. 

Week 5 - danny - frozen movement

 I took this picture while on my way home from school 

As always I was on  a hurry trying to leave as fast as possible and was trapped by a stop light, I looked to my left and I was fascinated by the color pallet outside my window. I usually leave school when it's fully dark outside, and because of my tired eyes and dirty windshield I don't pay much attention to the lights outside other than to say "there's a car right there" but this time I saw the cars with their lights, usually so bright that they hurt my eyes, this time those lights seemed so dimmed compared to the magnificent sun already almost out. I noticed the greens and browns of the trees that still remain and the orange and yellow slowly darkening. I tried my best to take out my phone and take as many pictures as I could before the next green light. This was my favorite 

Week 5 - Yinqi - Candle Light - Movement

I filmed this short clip when I observed the candle light in my apartment during daytime. The flame sways softly. The light around it also shifts with its own rhythm. The wax, melted around the candle, provides another surface to reflect light. The color of the jar is dark brown and its surface is frosted. The light is held within the. It is concentrated in this small space and creates a gentle and warm ambiance. I can feel how the light occupied the space and thickened the air. With heat being generated from the candle, the air becomes so juicy.

The “movement” of the flame is so delicate that I wish I could dance in that way. At the center of the jar, the flame looks like a real dancer. In terms of concert performance, the body of the dancer usually receives lights from other sources. What if the body of the dancer becomes the source of light? I had an idea to experiment for my new slate choreography (it is denied because of technical issue...): putting iridescent glitters on dancers' bodies. When they dance in the dark with flowing movement on the ground, they could look like dim lights from afar.

Week 5- Reflection in Shadows- Emily

 I was working on my laptop with my back to a window when I saw the reflection of my screen lighting up the wall next to me. When I waved my hand in front of it, I noticed that two shadows appeared: my actual hand and the reflection of my hand in the screen. This was an interesting phenomenon and something that could also be used in a performance space. With a reflective material you could create interesting images using multiple shadows. It would be cool to choreograph the shadows as opposed to the bodies dancing and might be a fun way to collaborate with a lighting designer and set designer in the process. 

Week 3 - Julian Xiong - TV LED Lights

 Recently I've been using this blue LED light during the night. I think I'm just attracted to cool lights. I don't even turn on my ceiling lights because it's a warm light and it gives off too much strong energy especially during night time even if I dim it. Cool lights feels relaxing and calming to me after finishing a productive day. I personally like how this blue light brings out the shadow and silhouette of the everything around it. In the past, I've changed it to purple and sometime green and I enjoy it a lot more than if I were to turn it to red or yellow. As we learn more about warm and cool lights, each color makes me understand more of the energies it gives off in the space.

Weel #3: AP - Pubbing it out

I chose to us this photo of the UCI pub around the hours of 4-5 pm this past Wednesday.  The day wasn't completely overcast, but the weather was finally starting to cool down this past week.  I enjoyed the combination of warm tone, cool tone, natural, and saturated colors that came to play.  In the background you can see the cool tone colors come into play from the window shining in with the natural day light, creating a cool toned atmosphere.  The saturated cool tone colors come from the neon blueish purple light in the lefthand side.  There is also a hint of saturated green popping out on the right side of Julians face and about Dannys glass.  But for the most part the warm tone colors really come into play with the hanging lights, dark yellow walls, and the color of the drinks.  The front  left hand side of the image was dark, which made all of the lights from all angles really pop out.  I also really enjoyed the redness of Dannys hand that was lit by the buzzing sound of the monitor beeping that our food was ready.  This really shows the aspects of combining lighting tones and moods to create a fun and vibrant atmosphere.
 

Week 3- Emily- Playing with Shadow

 In this picture, there were two main sources of light creating this look: An outdoor flood light from the apartment building behind the camera, and a Blue Light Emergency Call Box to the left of where I was standing. Both sources of light were hitting this tree, but the brighter and warmer flood light was washing away any blue that might have been visible on the trunk of the tree or the wall behind. However, where the shadows fall, we can see the vibrant and saturated blue/violet very clearly. If the tree were our dancer on stage, this might be an interesting way to bring color and vibrance onto the floor of the stage, particularly in studio 1100 with a gray floor. It could present as a more full and energetic setting.

Week 3 - Yinqi - Morning Dew - Inspiration

 Week 3 - Yinqi - Morning Dew - Inspiration 

The picture was taken on my way to the Ballet class in the morning at 7:30 am. The morning dew rests on the leaf like crystal balls. The rustiness of the dry leaf contrasts with the smooth surface of the dew, making the latter “floating” on the former. The glimmery sunlights, vaguely portraying the inner side of the dew, seems to be liquefied by it. At the center of the frame, one of the biggest dew upholds the sunlight and casts reflections in the shaded area on the leaf. It is interesting to observe how the dew functions as a convex lens that changes the pathway of lights. The dew, with its bluish gray color, nicely contains the warm yellow glow of the sun. The transparency of the dew and the brightness of the sunbeams complement each other and create this harmonious and inspiring picture. 

Week 3 - DM - Inspiration on the Floor

I took this picture the first night I started working on my piece for new slate. I have been a fan of LED lights for YEARS but my knowledge and understanding of them was limited to taping a light strip and choosing one of 7 colors to set a mood for my room. Usually blue for alone time, red for when I have company. During this particular night I set the color to red because for the first time in a while I felt like I was collaborating rather than ordering. I get to work with amazing dancers, in nice clean studios and will have a chance to bring costumes and lighting as part of the piece and not just an after thought. 

The notebook I've had for a little over a year. All of 2021 I wrote ideas, frustrations, schedules, inspiration and choreography on that notebook. But during 2022 I had to focus on working a 9-5 (more like a 6-5) and I saw each week a little more dust on the notebook. Now is time to clean up the dust, grab the pen and say hello to knew ideas, new lights and new dances.

There is red LEDs coming from the left of the screen and a ring light coming from the right, the pen also has a glow coming out of it and bouncing into the white wall
 

Week 3 - Maggie Liang - Inspiration from Car Wash

 

This is taken inside a friend's car when we were going through the car wash. Growing up in China we never had anything like an automatic car wash where the driver and passengers could actually be inside the car to experience the splash of water, the foam, the rolling scrub brush...

It's amazing to see the beautiful pattern created by the water and the red neon light behind it. And frankly I feel like there are not many places where we get to see from "under the water" so up-close. There's so much momentum and natural release from the ebb and flow of the foamy water. And I just remember that in the instant projects we did so far, how the lighting designers convey an "under water" feeling was to use some shade of blue, because it's nearly impossible to use patterns/shadows of water. This picture reminds me of the gobo that we played with in class. I guess with the right gobo, we can get a similar pattern on the wall, but is it possible to make it move like flowing water? Just a strange thought...

Week 1- Emily Chapman- Shadow in Foreground

 

This is a photo I took of the Claire Trevor School of the Arts sign. I didn't notice until later that the shadows in the foreground allow for the signage to be highlighted in the full sunlight. This reminded me of our discussion about making a choice with negative space while choosing to highlight one area of the stage. While the patterns that the foliage create and the green hues in the plants are interesting, because they are not as bright, they don't distract from the main focus. They only serve to create a more complex setting to frame the sign.

Week 1 - Julian Xiong - Speedometer

Every night I usually get home late whether it's from school or work. Some days I even go to my car late at night to play my guitar. I really like the glow from the speedometer on my car. It has this dark but bright color that radiates through each of the walls, crevices and wheel. I never really notice it until I took this picture. It's almost as if the light in the middle is spotlighting the top part of the speedometer showcasing the circular hole. Because of this middle light, you can see the outline and shape of each circles on the side .

Week 1 - Maggie Liang - Tree Shadow

 

This tree is tucked away behind the Drama department, parallel to the crowded path leading up to the studios. It was a sunny day at noon, and the shadow of the tree was casted down on the tiled plaza. The trunk and the branches are particularly beautiful, even more than the actual flesh of the tree, because of the softened edges and the monotonous color. It evokes a very tranquil, ambivalent, or even sentimental feeling.

Looking more closely at the shadow, the trunk's outline is sharper than that of the tip of the branches and the leaves, probably because the sun is at a very sharp angle. It also reminds me of "pinhole imaging", that no matter what shape of the gap between the leaves, it acts as a pinhole camera, so the light that shines through the gap constitutes the sun's shape, a circle. So there are many many mini sun's "shadows" on the ground! 

Week 1- Ari Pulido - Hallway

 I was walking down the stairs of my dorm building and passed by the first floor hall way and decided to snap a shot of the light coming through. I was intrigued because this was outdoors around noon, giving a warm tone feel. The covered hallway gave a dark setting for the natural light to come in. All of the head lights are turned off so all light captured from the picture is light from outside beaming through the open courtyards. Due to the depth and shape of the hallway, light hits differently looking through where you can see the light transition from bright, to dark, then get light to the right, to pitch dark, to light. The hallway with the warm afternoon light demonstrates how the natural light can affect how we see depth.