What Lighting Design Support Costs and What Moves the Price

People often ask me for one figure for lighting support, and I understand why. A studio manager has a budget line and wants to fill it. The difficulty is that a lighting plot for a compact newsdesk and a plot for a full entertainment stage are different jobs, even though both are called lighting design support.

What we do is build the plots and presets for a set, then keep them consistent from one show to the next. The first part is a piece of design work with a start and an end. The second is ongoing, and it grows with the number of shows that share the room. Those two parts behave differently on an invoice, so we describe them separately from the start.

Every figure we give is written down in a quotation after an enquiry through the contact page. We do not quote from a rate card on the phone, because a number given too early is usually a number that has to be retracted later.

The largest single driver is the set itself. A newsdesk with one presenter position, a single backdrop and a handful of fixtures needs far fewer decisions than a stage with a band area, an audience block, a reveal and three different looks across one recording.

Each distinct area adds to the plot. Each one needs its own balance of key, fill and background, and each has to sit properly against its neighbours when the camera moves between them. Where the set has moving elements, such as sliding panels or a turntable, we also have to check that the lighting still behaves when they are in their other positions.

So when we price a plot we count areas and looks rather than fixtures. Fixtures follow from the design, not the other way round, and a long equipment list does not by itself mean a long design job.

• Number of separate playing areas on the set
• Number of distinct looks within one show
• Moving scenic elements that change the light

Presets are where the second half of the cost lives. A preset is a stored lighting state that the operator can recall and expect to look the same on Tuesday as it did on Friday. Building ten of them takes noticeably more care than building three, because each must be named clearly and tested against the camera positions it will be used with.

Frequency matters as much as quantity. A studio that runs the same bulletin look every day needs the presets set once and checked occasionally. A studio that reworks its entertainment set each week needs the plots revised each week, and that is repeated work, not a one-off.

If you tell us in the first conversation how often the look is meant to change, the quotation is much closer to what you will actually pay over a season.

The starting condition of the room changes the work more than most clients expect. A studio with a tidy, labelled grid and a recent fixture list lets us move quickly. A studio where nobody is quite sure what is rigged where means we spend the first visit establishing the facts before we can design anything.

That survey time is real, and it is priced as such. It is also, in my experience, never wasted. Most studios come away from it with a clearer picture of their own rig than they had before, and later work is faster and cheaper because of it.

If you can send us the existing plot, even a rough one, a list of fixtures and the control desk model, we can usually shorten this stage a great deal. Photographs of the grid taken from the floor are surprisingly useful as well.

• Whether an up-to-date fixture list exists
• Condition and labelling of the lighting grid
• Any earlier plots or saved desk files we can build on

Time in the studio is the other main variable. Work done on a dark day with the floor to ourselves is quicker than work squeezed into gaps between rehearsals. When access is broken into short windows, setup and handover are repeated each time, and the quotation has to allow for that.

Crew availability also plays a part. If your own lighting operator is present and engaged, we can hand over presets with real understanding and the follow-up is light. If the operator changes from show to show, we write more documentation and spend longer on briefing, because the consistency we are promising depends on it.

Short notice can raise the figure too, since it is harder to plan our own team around. Where a date is fixed, it helps to tell us early rather than late.

A quotation for lighting design support states what is covered: the survey, the plots, the presets and any revision rounds, along with what falls outside them. It also states what could change the figure, so that nothing arrives as a surprise on the invoice.

Ordering is straightforward. You make an enquiry through the contact page, we send a written quotation, and once you confirm it in writing we invoice you. Payment is by bank transfer. Nothing is bought on this website itself.

Cancellations and refunds are handled under the payment and refund policy, which you can read before agreeing to anything. If a quotation seems higher than you expected, ask us which element is responsible. It is nearly always one of the factors above, and sometimes a small change to scope brings it down.

• Written quotation before any work begins
• Invoice paid by bank transfer
• Terms for cancellation set out in the refund policy