Different Light Fixtures: Part 3 of 3

This continues my series about the different light fixtures used in production and theater. Previously, we talked about spots, hotsticks, floods, and fresnel. Today we will talk about movers, and accent lighting.

Movers making accent lighting

A mover is a light placed on a moving stand or arm. This allows the lighting engineer to aim the light wherever they want and move it during songs. Moving the lights during songs is great because it allows you to add or remove energy without large changes. In other words, it allows you to shift the song's feel without majorly changing the lights. Movers come in many different shapes, sizes, and prices. The larger movers have multiple lights in a row that can each independently move and are all mounted to a bar that spins. This allows you to make some cool moves and scenes. It also allows you to put moving patterns in the audience or on the walls and ceiling. The lighting engineer has much more creative freedom when they have movers. Having them allows them to cast patterns, shapes, and change the colors to suit their needs. Movers can also be attached to spotlights to allow them to follow the lead in a play or band. This highlights the lead even more and allows the audience to tell who to look at easily. All these reasons are why movers are very important to any stage setup.

Chauvet Rogue R1 FX-B

Accent lighting is relatively new to the lighting scene and is mostly used in concerts or churches. This background lighting adds little to no light on the band, only making the stage look much better or adding depth. At Journey Church, we have LED mountains in the background of the stage. The lighting station in the tech booth can control the color of the mountains. They can also add effects to add movement to the scene. These mountains in the background have made the stage look much better and the church much livelier.

The Stars and Mountains are examples of accent lighting

Over the course of the last three posts, we went over spotlights, hotsticks, floodlights, fresnels, movers, and accent lighting. I hope you learned something while reading these posts and will have a new appreciation for the lighting at your next event!

Movers scanning the crowd