[SML] Scrollers

[June Abernathy]

> On Oct 6, 2015, at 9:12 AM, John Taylor <jt at techie.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> Real close Michael, Stanley if I remember correctly did not use the 
> terms key and fill (those being more photography terns and uses) but was 
> big on the warm and cool concept at 45 deg angles. A couple of years ago 
> I had a guy who was a photographer who wanted to learn about theatre 
> lighting with a community theatre group I do a lot of work with. He 
> still wants to call all front lights a key or fill lights. It is a 
> constant battle with him and a couple of the other designers who keep 
> asking me what he is talking
> about.
> 
> JT

Many Lighting Designers of my acquaintance use the terms Key and Fill. That "3 point” system that uses those terms is used a lot in TV and Film as well as photography, but the system (and/or the terminology) is definitely used in the theater too. Often, designers using basically a McCandless system will designate one of their two 45s (usually the warm) as the “Key” and the other as the “Fill”, or refer to their Front Lights as Keys and their side, top, and back lights as “Fill”. McCandless would have distinguished them as “Area” lights and “Toning and Blending” lights, I think. Still, I would be surprised to hear a Lighting Designer say that they don’t understand what is meant by Key and Fill. 


Lister Mick Alderson has an excellent overview of the common types of Theatrical Lighting design systems here:

www.uwosh.edu/faculty_staff/alderson/lighting/systems.htm



June Abernathy
IATSE #321 (Tampa, FL)
FOH Electrician
The Lion King National Tour