{"id":13889,"date":"2020-10-28T10:21:46","date_gmt":"2020-10-28T14:21:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/?p=13889"},"modified":"2024-09-17T15:11:00","modified_gmt":"2024-09-17T19:11:00","slug":"lighting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/lighting\/","title":{"rendered":"Kits Allow Lighting Students to Shine on"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9\"><iframe title='video' class='embed-responsive-item' title=\"Light Lab Kit | What&#039;s in the Box?\" \"640\" \"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sNvH-ZzQmpU?feature=oembed\" \"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>After assembling, shipping and delivering several large kits, Kalamazoo College Theatre Arts Professor Lanny Potts can say, \u201cLet there be light.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Normally, Potts\u2019 lighting design course, conducted each fall, would use a light lab filled with hundreds of lights and pieces of lighting equipment to guide his students. This term, though, required some quick thinking for their three projects when classes were moved online.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe couldn&#8217;t bring the students to the light lab, so we were going to bring the light lab to the students,\u201d Potts said.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_13893\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13893\" style=\"width: 584px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-13893\" src=\"\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/10\/Lighting-video-600x337.jpg\" alt=\"Two students assemble lighting kits with a blue filter\" width=\"584\" height=\"328\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/10\/Lighting-video-600x337.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/10\/Lighting-video-150x84.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/10\/Lighting-video-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/10\/Lighting-video-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/10\/Lighting-video.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-13893\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Student workers helped Theatre Arts Professor Lanny Potts assemble 15 kits for his lighting design class this fall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It took four weeks and many assistants to pack all the materials, yet he sent 15 kits containing items including seven lightbulbs, several feet of wiring, dimmers and a professional mannequin head. You can watch a video of Potts and\u00a0 student workers assembling the materials through YouTube. FedEx delivered one kit to Texas and five throughout the Midwest. He personally delivered the other nine to students living locally.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLighting design is very unique,\u201d Potts said. \u201cIt\u2019s an ephemeral art form. It\u2019s there and when the light changes, it\u2019s gone. That\u2019s a challenging thing to learn in isolation.\u201d However, it\u2019s beneficial for students to study lighting regardless of their major and where they\u2019re doing it from, especially in the liberal arts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLighting is always about problem solving,\u201d Potts said. \u201cI can\u2019t think of a better thing to engage in than doing live event production or lighting design. I always end up doing something I\u2019ve never tried before. Sometimes you ask, \u2018What are the tools you have in your tool box?\u2019 You then try some things and see what works.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the first project, students find an image of a painting and reproduce it at the size of a postcard. The second project involves taking 30 to 60 seconds of music without lyrics and making a video that includes light cues to that music. Finally, students use their lights to help them re-create a scene from a play through a lighting plot, similar to an architectural blueprint. In all these projects, the intensity, color, angle and distribution of light are important.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been fun,\u201d Potts said. \u201cI do know that by receiving these lighting kits, the students will be able to do everything we do here. They won\u2019t have access to the hundreds of lights we have, but they will all be able to show all the things a light does.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Potts, a professional lighting designer and consultant, has worked in international lighting and production design; national tour designs for opera and dance; and regional designs for opera, modern dance, ballet, drama and corporate events. He also earned his third Best in Lighting Design <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/lighting-design-award\/\">Wilde Award<\/a> from <a href=\"http:\/\/EncoreMichigan.com\">EncoreMichigan.com<\/a> in 2019 for his work in a 2018 Farmers Alley Theatre production of <em>Bridges of Madison County<\/em> in Kalamazoo.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI absolutely love light,\u201d he said. \u201cHow lucky am I to do something I love to do? Most of my students aren\u2019t going to be professional lighting designers. But I feel when you learn a lot about light, it teaches you to be a keen, critical observer. And being a great observer of things around you, that\u2019s a great life skill.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; After assembling, shipping and delivering several large kits, Kalamazoo College Theatre Arts Professor Lanny Potts can say, \u201cLet there be light.\u201d Normally, Potts\u2019 lighting design course, conducted each fall, would use a light lab filled with hundreds of lights and pieces of lighting equipment to guide his students. This term, though, required some quick [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":147,"featured_media":13893,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[233,231],"tags":[39,58],"post_formats":[],"class_list":["post-13889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-staff","category-students","tag-faculty","tag-theatre"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>Lighting Students Shine on Thanks to Professor&#039;s Kits - News and Events<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Lanny Potts 15 kits containing items including lightbulbs, some wiring, dimmers and a professional mannequin head to his lighting design students.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/lighting\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lighting Students Shine on Thanks to Professor&#039;s Kits - News and Events\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lanny Potts 15 kits containing items including lightbulbs, some wiring, dimmers and a professional mannequin head to his lighting design students.\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/lighting\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News and Events\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/KalamazooCollege\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-10-28T14:21:46+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-09-17T19:11:00+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/10\/Lighting-video.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"674\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andy Brown\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@kcollege\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@kcollege\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Andy Brown\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/lighting\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/lighting\/\",\"name\":\"Lighting Students Shine on Thanks to Professor's Kits - 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This term, though, required some quick thinking for their three projects when classes were moved online.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe couldn&#8217;t bring the students to the light lab, so we were going to bring the light lab to the students,\u201d Potts said.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_13893\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13893\" style=\"width: 584px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-13893\" src=\"\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/10\/Lighting-video-600x337.jpg\" alt=\"Two students assemble lighting kits with a blue filter\" width=\"584\" height=\"328\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-13893\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Student workers helped Theatre Arts Professor Lanny Potts assemble 15 kits for his lighting design class this fall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It took four weeks and many assistants to pack all the materials, yet he sent 15 kits containing items including seven lightbulbs, several feet of wiring, dimmers and a professional mannequin head. You can watch a video of Potts and\u00a0 student workers assembling the materials through YouTube. FedEx delivered one kit to Texas and five throughout the Midwest. He personally delivered the other nine to students living locally.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLighting design is very unique,\u201d Potts said. \u201cIt\u2019s an ephemeral art form. It\u2019s there and when the light changes, it\u2019s gone. That\u2019s a challenging thing to learn in isolation.\u201d However, it\u2019s beneficial for students to study lighting regardless of their major and where they\u2019re doing it from, especially in the liberal arts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLighting is always about problem solving,\u201d Potts said. \u201cI can\u2019t think of a better thing to engage in than doing live event production or lighting design. I always end up doing something I\u2019ve never tried before. Sometimes you ask, \u2018What are the tools you have in your tool box?\u2019 You then try some things and see what works.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the first project, students find an image of a painting and reproduce it at the size of a postcard. The second project involves taking 30 to 60 seconds of music without lyrics and making a video that includes light cues to that music. Finally, students use their lights to help them re-create a scene from a play through a lighting plot, similar to an architectural blueprint. In all these projects, the intensity, color, angle and distribution of light are important.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been fun,\u201d Potts said. \u201cI do know that by receiving these lighting kits, the students will be able to do everything we do here. They won\u2019t have access to the hundreds of lights we have, but they will all be able to show all the things a light does.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Potts, a professional lighting designer and consultant, has worked in international lighting and production design; national tour designs for opera and dance; and regional designs for opera, modern dance, ballet, drama and corporate events. He also earned his third Best in Lighting Design <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/lighting-design-award\/\">Wilde Award<\/a> from <a href=\"http:\/\/EncoreMichigan.com\">EncoreMichigan.com<\/a> in 2019 for his work in a 2018 Farmers Alley Theatre production of <em>Bridges of Madison County<\/em> in Kalamazoo.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI absolutely love light,\u201d he said. \u201cHow lucky am I to do something I love to do? Most of my students aren\u2019t going to be professional lighting designers. But I feel when you learn a lot about light, it teaches you to be a keen, critical observer. And being a great observer of things around you, that\u2019s a great life skill.\u201d<\/p>\n","comment_info":"No Comments","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/147"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13889"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23165,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13889\/revisions\/23165"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13889"},{"taxonomy":"post_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_formats?post=13889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}