Guides · Guide 04
Lighting plot symbols explained
There is no single standard set of film lighting symbols. What matters is that a crew can tell one unit from another at a glance. Here is what each common fixture is, and what to look for in a symbol that represents it.
Why there is no standard
Theatre has published symbol sets. Film mostly does not. Every gaffer has seen a dozen styles, and the plot that works is the one with a key in the corner explaining its own shapes. So the goal is not to memorise a standard. It is to draw each unit so its shape suggests what it is, and to label it.
The fixtures, one at a time
These are the thirteen symbols ShotPlots offers. They are a good checklist for any plot, drawn by hand or in software.
| Symbol | What it is | What to show on the plot |
|---|---|---|
| Fresnel | A tungsten or LED unit with a stepped lens. Focuses from a tight spot to a wide flood. | A clear direction. It throws hard, so the aim matters. |
| Open face | A bare-bulb tungsten head with no lens. Bright, simple, a little less controllable. | Direction and distance. It spills more than a fresnel. |
| PAR | A sealed reflector lamp, or a head built around one. Punchy, with a narrow, fairly even beam. | Direction, and a note of the lens if it matters. |
| Profile | A unit with shutters and a lens barrel, so it can shape the beam and hold a pattern. | Direction and where the edge of the beam falls. |
| Panel | A flat LED panel. Soft, and usually adjustable in colour. | Direction, and how close it sits to the actors. |
| Tube | A long fluorescent or LED tube. A line source that wraps around a face. | Its real length. A four-foot tube should look four feet long. |
| Softbox | A light inside a fabric box with a diffusion front. Soft and directional. | The face of the box, and which way it points. |
| China ball | A paper lantern with a bulb inside. Soft, and it falls off in every direction. | Its position and height. There is no aim to show. |
| Space light | A large soft source hung overhead to fill a whole set with ambient light. | Its position and its height above the floor. |
| Ring light | A ring of LEDs around the lens, for flat, shadowless light on a face. | Its position on the camera line. |
| Practical | A lamp that is part of the set and visible in shot. A table lamp, a bar sign, a fridge door. | Where it is, and that it is in the picture. |
| Sun | Not a unit, but it decides everything outdoors and through windows. | The direction it comes from. |
| Generic | A placeholder for "a light goes here" before you decide what. | Use it early and replace it later. |
What a good symbol does
It suggests the shape of the real unit
A four-foot tube drawn as a four-foot line reads instantly. The same tube drawn as a circle does not, and someone will bring the wrong stand. A fresnel is round with a direction. A panel is a flat rectangle. If the symbol looks like the unit seen from above, half the legend is already done.
It shows which way the light goes
For hard sources, the aim is the whole point. A cone or throw drawn out from the unit tells a spark what is being lit without a word. For soft overhead sources like a China ball or a space light, there is no aim, and the symbol should say so by not having one.
It carries a name, not just a shape
L1, L2, L3 are what gets written on tape and shouted across a room. Put the name beside the symbol and keep it short. The name outlives the symbol, so change the symbol freely but not the name. In ShotPlots a light keeps its label even if you change its type, for that reason.
Putting the make and the height on it
The symbol says what kind of unit. The make and model say which one: "ARRI M18" or "Aputure 600d" gets the right case pulled from the truck. Add the height next to it, because a unit at 2.4 m and a unit on the floor are two different jobs. In ShotPlots the make goes in the Model box and the height prints in the schedule.
Colour and the key
Colour is useful, but never let it carry meaning alone, because plots get printed in black and white and photocopied on location. Whatever you colour, make sure the label says the same thing in grey. Put a key in the corner that lists every symbol used on that page.
ShotPlots draws each of the thirteen from above at roughly real size, and prints a legend with the page. Draw one free, no account, nothing to install, or see a finished sheet and its PDF.
Related
How to draw a lighting plot, and What a gaffer needs on a lighting plot.