Selecting fixtures. Programming automated fixtures begins with selecting a light that is appropriate to each task. Moving instruments basically fall into two categories: wash lights and hard-edged or 'spot' lights. Wash lights are great for area lighting and usually have great color mixing abilities. Most hard-edged fixtures can be taken out of focus to perform some of the tasks of wash lights, but wash instruments simply cannot duplicate some of the features of a hard-edged light--especially gobos and shape effects. So programming has to begin with putting fixtures where they will do the most good.

Wash instruments are especially effective as back- or key-light and down-light, giving a broad and even field of color where needed. I've also used them as front light--again to give a broad field of even light to an area. Wash instruments also do great to light set objects and drops.

Hard-edged fixtures are all about effects. They make a great front-light because they can give a very focused and narrow spot--but that's not using much of the capabilities of the instrument. They can put patterns of light on sets or drops, and back-light with gobos gives a great effect--sometimes called "painting smoke" as broken beams of illumination in the air look spectacular.

Lighting designers for any professional production spend a great deal of time selecting just the right instrument for the need. The feature-rich fixture is not necessarily going to serve your show. Think carefully about what the program is trying to achieve before selecting your moving fixtures. The overall look of your show lighting-wise will be locked-in once your fixtures are selected. There will be no way to change your show to a broad-lit color-wash feel if you have all hard-edged instruments. Your programming will come directly from this overall look--let that be the first programming decision you make.

Pre-plan based on range of motion. When hanging moving fixtures, be especially aware of their range of motion. Moving-mirror instruments are generally limited to a 120-180 degree field of movement, while moving-yoke fixtures have a much broader range of motion. If you have a limited size stage, a much less expensive moving-mirror fixture may work in place of a more expensive moving-yoke fixture.

Once the lights are hung, don't jump into programming right away. First, begin exploring what each instrument can hit. Having to move the light itself once programming has begun is a major chore--you'll lose your position presets. Move the lights around on the stage, set pieces, drops--wherever. Make sure you can touch all the locations you need to before you lock in your hanging positions. It's much easier to move the lights now, before you begin setting cues.

Pay attention to how the lights move. This is not so important with moving-mirror fixtures. They pretty much move from one position to another in a straight line. They're very predictable.

Moving-yoke fixtures, on the other hand, are not predictable at all. Since the whole instrument is turning on two axes, movement from one position to another is more of a curve than a straight line. And getting a moving-yoke fixture to hit a specific spot is sometimes difficult. We can think in the simple X-Y coordinates of a moving-mirror light quite easily--left, right, up, down.

The yoke lights take some getting used to. Left is not quite left--more like left and up a little. Right is right and down a little. Aiming them is a lot of nudging control knobs until they hit the right spot. When I first used them in a production, my reaction to their movement from one cue to the next was often, "Oh, so that's how they'll move."

One thing about moving-yoke lights to realize is that their movement from one place to the next can change drastically based on how the light is mounted. The movement is not nearly as fast as moving-mirror lights, and can be slowed significantly if the light is at an odd angle and has to carry its own weight in a way it was not designed to. Moving-yoke lights work best when mounted either hanging straight down from a truss or pipe, or sitting straight up on the floor. Any other orientation will significantly affect the light's movement and programming of positions. I've mounted them sideways before, but that puts a lot of stress on the motor that moves the yoke around because the center of gravity of the light is shifting drastically as it moves.

Moving-yoke fixtures can also move to the same spot two different ways. This gets interesting when you program four lights to move from one position to another, and two go one way while two go another to get there. Before you do a lot of programming, experiment with moving-yoke fixtures to make sure their movement is what you want. You may need to set some up to pan-invert or tilt-invert their movement. This can usually be done on your lighting console, but if not, the instrument itself will have this feature built in as an option that you can turn on and off.

Layer effects sparingly. A temptation with automated fixtures is to use every effect they are capable of. This usually leads to a jumbled mess. Some of the newer hard-edged fixtures have two gobo wheels and an effects wheel, plus color, plus rotation, plus strobe. Too much of a good thing is just too much. Limit yourself to one or two effects per cue, only adding more after careful consideration. If you have a dozen lights that are changing color and moving, that's a lot going on during a cue--especially with people on stage. Add more effect to that and the show gets busy. Keep it simple--less is more.

Keep movements slow. Anyone can do a "bump and chase" show, where moving lights are bouncing all over the place. Most shows can benefit from a more sparing and methodical use of movement. There's a time for loud bally-hoos, but they are few and far between for most shows. The real beauty and power of moving fixtures is in controlling their movement in a subtle manner. Slow, almost ballet-like movement is where the emotional power of moving lights resides. Small moves in concert with a key change or musical crescendo make the lights work in support of the show and not the other way around.

One thing that looks really cool for musical programs is very slow, random movement--lights that wander around the stage a bit. Some consoles have an effects feature built in that makes this kind of movement very easy to achieve. It can add a lot of kinetic energy to a stage without being overpowering.

Gobo moves also look great when they are slow. They look especially good when they are way out of focus, giving a soft ebb and flow to the quality of light--almost like flickering but not quite. Remember with moving lights, slow is almost always more interesting than fast.

Think about transitions ahead of time. Smooth transitions for moving instruments are sometimes difficult to make. A jerky move from one position to the next, or a gobo that flashes at the wrong moment can be is distraction. In programming moving fixtures, always think at least one or two cues ahead. When programming cue 1, you need to think about cue 2 and how you will get from the previous cue to the next. This approach will radically affect how you program moving instruments.

With conventional fixtures, we usually cross-fade between cues--one light fades in as the other fades out. With moving fixtures the temptation is to have all of them up all of the time, so usually there is less cross-fading. The smoothest transitions occur when you reserve some moving lights from scene to scene to cross-fade between them.

In a church environment, where budgets are extremely tight and you may only have a very few moving lights, they are often called on to perform in nearly every cue. In this situation you'll want to think carefully about color changes, gobo changes and other distracting transitions--moving lights have a way of jumping from one look to the next very quickly. Think about performing a quick fade-out and fade-in with a moving instrument to hide color and gobo changes. A one- or two-second fade to black allows you to make a host of changes and then quickly fade back in to the beginning of the next cue. Most computerized consoles allow you to make this fade-out and -in using a series of cues that will execute automatically one after the next. Very smooth.

I'd have to say that transitions are what separate the moving light champions from the wanna-be's. Getting the transitions between cues right takes time, but it make the show look much more polished and professional.

Avoiding distractions. The versatility of moving lights can add so much to a church service or production. Remember in programming that the moving instruments must serve the show and the message. When you have dozens of options, a static look becomes boring. And since most programming is done in an empty room, that look is boring at the time you set up the cue. But add a stage full of worship leaders and that static look becomes much more. It's a powerful backdrop to a song or drama. Don't allow moving lights to make your show look busy or cluttered.

About the Author. Eugene L. Mason has more than two decades of experience in ministry communications and technologies. More...