Quick questions on Lighting design explained: O-Level Drama staging

The most basic function of lighting is visibility, ensuring the audience can see what matters. But lighting does far more, and treating it only as illumination wastes one of the most powerful design tools available. Lighting shapes how the audience feels, where they look, what time and place they understand, and what a moment means. A scene lit the same way throughout is flat; a scene whose lighting is designed alongside the action gains atmosphere, focus and meaning.

Lighting performs several functions at once. It provides visibility, lighting what the audience needs to see. It directs focus, drawing attention to one area or figure by lighting them and darkening others. It creates mood and atmosphere, through brightness, colour and shadow.

Lighting is shaped through a set of controllable qualities. Intensity is brightness, from a full bright wash to a dim glow or near darkness. Colour is the hue of the light, with warm colours feeling different from cold ones. Direction is the angle the light comes from, which controls shadow and how faces and bodies are modelled.

Name four functions of stage lighting beyond visibility. [3 marks]

Name the controllable qualities of lighting a designer can adjust. [3 marks]

Explain how intensity, colour and direction can combine to create a threatening atmosphere. [4 marks]