I am producing a fashion show and no nothing about lighting cues. Do I leave this up to the stagehands?

Question

I know nothing about how to "direct" the stagehands who will be in control of lighting for a fashion show. Do I just basically tell them what I want and they will know what I am talking about?

Well, I am really the "coordinator". As far as lighting, we really wont have to give direction during the show. I just the lighting techs to know where I want lighting. There is a rehearsal for the Friday, so once we go through the music they should know where and when I want the lights if I tell them then right?

Answer 1

yes, and watch and learn what they do so you can custom-fit for any future shows.

Answer 2

No. Unless you are very lucky, you will need someone to act as stage manager and cue every change which can range from "lights up" at the beginning and "lights out" at the end.
This person should be coordinating everything immediately back stage and on stage with someone who is house manager ("Wait, the big buyer just arrived."). Depending on the mess, there may be one or more assistants (for the other side of the stage) and should be some kind of communications (hand signals if nothing else) to deal with accidents and delays. Ideally, the person doing announcing should have an earphone for communications to hear delays but there again there should be an agreed set of handsignals for "stretch it out", "speed up", "delay back stage."
If there is any variety to the lighting, then change should be on a plot with an assigned number, so the commands can be signaled to go to the next one and perhaps a count down to an exact timed change. In a simple lighting setup, commands might be "Ready pink, on count drop blue raise pink full, 3, 2, 1 now" "Center spot on full, ready,... now" "All lights up full" "ready for blackout, take um down." "Slow fade all lights"

Answer 3

Hmmmm. You're the producer. Are you the director as well?

The producer is the person who comes up with the $$$$. And because of that - they usual have some control over the vision of the show - but not always.

The director creates the show from his/her vision - sometimes with guidelines from the producer.

If you are acting as both director and producer - then you'll need to work closely with your stage hands. Do you have a stage manager? If so - (and you really probably need one) - they will be calling the ques to the lighting people.

The director usually tells a "lighting designer" what to come up with regarding how much light and what color and where. Then - the director works with the stage manager to let them know when and where the lights need to change. And THEN - the stage manager calls the ques to the lighting technicians.

Hope it all works out!