Another Mod's View on The Gafftaper Method Part 1
You'll see a lot of Posters, Moderators and Senior Team Members posting about The Method here at CB. For those of you unfamiliar with it go take a look at the Collaborative Article on the subject , its cool I'll wait.
While the tenants and principles of this method make a lot of sense, especially for people who have limited budgets and/or limited experience in lighting, I overall am not a proponent of it.
Before you read this further know these things:
1. This is my personal opinion. That doesn't make it right or wrong for your situation. It is merely me opining and critiquing based on my perspective.
2. I have a large amount of respect for Gafftaper and the other Mod/Senior Team here. If I didn't I would have left CB a long time ago and never would have become a Mod myself. My critique is of The Method not of the individuals.
3. The Method is primarily aimed at schools and community theatre. While I understand the budget limitations of both, I think it’s necessary to always strive towards the best possible situation in a theatre regardless of size. Dream big first, deal with budget second and cut back where you have too. Monetarily you might not have the budget for full scale moving lights. So don’t get tied up in them. This is a principal of The Method that I agree with most. But the world isn’t black and white. If you find yourself in the position too buy 5 MAC700s or 20 Seachangers, 2 gobo rotators, 2 Infinity Effects, 4 Right Arms, 4 I-Cues, and 2 DMX Irises then you need to choose for yourself which is going to be most useful for how you design in the long run.
4. First and foremost I'm a Lighting Designer. I work as an electrician, a programmer and as a Technical Director to pay the bills. But when it all comes down to it I'm a Designer first and last.
Why do I say these things? Well I've been around the interwebs enough to know that people will flame bait and say stupid crap and misinterpret anything they so wish. What can I say I play a lot of video games.
On to the matter at hand.
When I have the opportunity to use "intelligent" fixtures I'm a rather picky person. I find myself longing for features that what I have hung in the air doesn’t have. It drives me crazy. I've hung backlight washes of Studio Color's and halfway through the Q'ing process wished they were Studio Spots because dang a backlight gobo wash would make this scene better. I've hung Mac 500's as "refocus able specials" and kicked myself for not hanging something with CMY because honestly the Mac500 stock colors suck and we just didn't have the budget for new colors in the wheel. It’s just never enough to sate my creative palette. Yes I plan out moments and what I want the movers to do before I sit down at the board, but danged if my best flashes of inspiration don't happen during the Q'ing process. And if the light doesn't have the feature, then that idea is out the window.
Looking through The Method CA you'll notice them using the Mac700 as a reference point for features. I'm going to stick to this standard, look at their critique and add my rebuttal. (We're looking at the profile unit not the wash unit. I’m going to group some of them together out of order as my thoughts on several features overlap.
* 700 W short arc discharge lamp... Bright and higher color temperature than the rest of your lamps. But this also means it will not blend well with the rest of your lighting rig. How much do these lamps cost compared to an HPL?
Color temperature is not something to be afraid of but something to embrace. Something I always find lacking is a little extra pop in the color temperature of my lights. HPL’s run in the range of 3200k (that’s Kelvin not short hand for thousand) movers run in the range of 5000-6000k, the sun itself runs in the 5000-7000k range. Despite the fact that most of us spend our time under artificial lighting our eyes are most attuned to the suns light by way of thousands of years of exposure to it.
Get to the point Grog.
The point is this, our theatrical lamps by design lack something that the human eye craves . The CT of movers helps give our conventional that boost, especially for outdoor scenes. When balancing with your conventional for an indoor scene a good chunk of movers have variable color correction. The Mac700 profile adheres to The Method as it doesn’t have either variable color correction or a color correction wheel.
While we’re on the subject another way around this problem is to hang a down blue wash or a front blue boost. Granted this eats up conventional and dimmers, and is also a topic for another blog.
* CMY color mixing system... buy a Seachanger
Technically a Seachanger is CMYG, but that’s for another blog. Seachangers are relativity easy to install with a little know how. Granted afterwards, if you’ve made it a permanent change, you’re stuck storing the rear housing assemblies that are left over. Also this eats into your conventional inventory. And while CMY on conventional is nice I find myself missing the punch from a discharge lamp for the saturated colors. Also if you have a fine inventory but no S4’s….well better luck next time.
* 8 position color wheel plus open... buy a Seachanger or color mixer or color scroller
You’ve already read my thoughts on Seachangers ect. You also know I’m not the largest fan of Color wheels by now. Honestly I find them limiting. Color scrollers suffer from the same limitations as color wheels in that you’re stuck with a finite number of colors. Custom Scrolls also get expensive, and changing them out is a hassle as well if you don’t know what you’re doing. There’s also the age old battle of making sure 20% is really Color #3 and not Color #3 with a bit of #4 because the scroller isn’t aligned properly. Time is money friends. One of my all time favorite things is mixing color live onstage, with CMY fixtures, with RGB cycs. Sometimes the gel manufactures just don’t have what I want. Or I don’t have what I want in stock and the time to go pick it up.
* Motorized zoom and focus... okay, we can't do the zoom... but City Theatrical makes a remote focus device and a DMX Iris
* Motorized iris... City Theatrical DMX Iris
Another feature that I love. I’m a gobo fanatic, love changing the size and focus of them. There’s also another issue they didn’t talk about…automated shutters or shapers, but alas it’s hard to find a light with everything. You usually dump the iris or the zoom for automated shutters and honestly I’d rather fuzz the light out then use a shaper to get it off the set.
* Mechanical dimming... no problem it's called a dimmer
True…but if I can have a light that runs off of constant power that can CMY, refocus with out an electrician, change gobos ect. AND have a spare dimmer so I don’t have too 2-fer my sidelight wash, I’m a happy guy. Lighting Designers, much like Chefs, are all about control. The more individual control I have over lights the better. So to get full washes/area lights ect on to their own dimmer is a big plus in my book.
Also I like having as many paint brushes in my bag as I can get. So having the conventional wash with a mover that can bend to my hearts desire helps me to make my directors and other designers happy.
Part 2
While the tenants and principles of this method make a lot of sense, especially for people who have limited budgets and/or limited experience in lighting, I overall am not a proponent of it.
Before you read this further know these things:
1. This is my personal opinion. That doesn't make it right or wrong for your situation. It is merely me opining and critiquing based on my perspective.
2. I have a large amount of respect for Gafftaper and the other Mod/Senior Team here. If I didn't I would have left CB a long time ago and never would have become a Mod myself. My critique is of The Method not of the individuals.
3. The Method is primarily aimed at schools and community theatre. While I understand the budget limitations of both, I think it’s necessary to always strive towards the best possible situation in a theatre regardless of size. Dream big first, deal with budget second and cut back where you have too. Monetarily you might not have the budget for full scale moving lights. So don’t get tied up in them. This is a principal of The Method that I agree with most. But the world isn’t black and white. If you find yourself in the position too buy 5 MAC700s or 20 Seachangers, 2 gobo rotators, 2 Infinity Effects, 4 Right Arms, 4 I-Cues, and 2 DMX Irises then you need to choose for yourself which is going to be most useful for how you design in the long run.
4. First and foremost I'm a Lighting Designer. I work as an electrician, a programmer and as a Technical Director to pay the bills. But when it all comes down to it I'm a Designer first and last.
Why do I say these things? Well I've been around the interwebs enough to know that people will flame bait and say stupid crap and misinterpret anything they so wish. What can I say I play a lot of video games.
On to the matter at hand.
When I have the opportunity to use "intelligent" fixtures I'm a rather picky person. I find myself longing for features that what I have hung in the air doesn’t have. It drives me crazy. I've hung backlight washes of Studio Color's and halfway through the Q'ing process wished they were Studio Spots because dang a backlight gobo wash would make this scene better. I've hung Mac 500's as "refocus able specials" and kicked myself for not hanging something with CMY because honestly the Mac500 stock colors suck and we just didn't have the budget for new colors in the wheel. It’s just never enough to sate my creative palette. Yes I plan out moments and what I want the movers to do before I sit down at the board, but danged if my best flashes of inspiration don't happen during the Q'ing process. And if the light doesn't have the feature, then that idea is out the window.
Looking through The Method CA you'll notice them using the Mac700 as a reference point for features. I'm going to stick to this standard, look at their critique and add my rebuttal. (We're looking at the profile unit not the wash unit. I’m going to group some of them together out of order as my thoughts on several features overlap.
* 700 W short arc discharge lamp... Bright and higher color temperature than the rest of your lamps. But this also means it will not blend well with the rest of your lighting rig. How much do these lamps cost compared to an HPL?
Color temperature is not something to be afraid of but something to embrace. Something I always find lacking is a little extra pop in the color temperature of my lights. HPL’s run in the range of 3200k (that’s Kelvin not short hand for thousand) movers run in the range of 5000-6000k, the sun itself runs in the 5000-7000k range. Despite the fact that most of us spend our time under artificial lighting our eyes are most attuned to the suns light by way of thousands of years of exposure to it.
Get to the point Grog.
The point is this, our theatrical lamps by design lack something that the human eye craves . The CT of movers helps give our conventional that boost, especially for outdoor scenes. When balancing with your conventional for an indoor scene a good chunk of movers have variable color correction. The Mac700 profile adheres to The Method as it doesn’t have either variable color correction or a color correction wheel.
While we’re on the subject another way around this problem is to hang a down blue wash or a front blue boost. Granted this eats up conventional and dimmers, and is also a topic for another blog.
* CMY color mixing system... buy a Seachanger
Technically a Seachanger is CMYG, but that’s for another blog. Seachangers are relativity easy to install with a little know how. Granted afterwards, if you’ve made it a permanent change, you’re stuck storing the rear housing assemblies that are left over. Also this eats into your conventional inventory. And while CMY on conventional is nice I find myself missing the punch from a discharge lamp for the saturated colors. Also if you have a fine inventory but no S4’s….well better luck next time.
* 8 position color wheel plus open... buy a Seachanger or color mixer or color scroller
You’ve already read my thoughts on Seachangers ect. You also know I’m not the largest fan of Color wheels by now. Honestly I find them limiting. Color scrollers suffer from the same limitations as color wheels in that you’re stuck with a finite number of colors. Custom Scrolls also get expensive, and changing them out is a hassle as well if you don’t know what you’re doing. There’s also the age old battle of making sure 20% is really Color #3 and not Color #3 with a bit of #4 because the scroller isn’t aligned properly. Time is money friends. One of my all time favorite things is mixing color live onstage, with CMY fixtures, with RGB cycs. Sometimes the gel manufactures just don’t have what I want. Or I don’t have what I want in stock and the time to go pick it up.
* Motorized zoom and focus... okay, we can't do the zoom... but City Theatrical makes a remote focus device and a DMX Iris
* Motorized iris... City Theatrical DMX Iris
Another feature that I love. I’m a gobo fanatic, love changing the size and focus of them. There’s also another issue they didn’t talk about…automated shutters or shapers, but alas it’s hard to find a light with everything. You usually dump the iris or the zoom for automated shutters and honestly I’d rather fuzz the light out then use a shaper to get it off the set.
* Mechanical dimming... no problem it's called a dimmer
True…but if I can have a light that runs off of constant power that can CMY, refocus with out an electrician, change gobos ect. AND have a spare dimmer so I don’t have too 2-fer my sidelight wash, I’m a happy guy. Lighting Designers, much like Chefs, are all about control. The more individual control I have over lights the better. So to get full washes/area lights ect on to their own dimmer is a big plus in my book.
Also I like having as many paint brushes in my bag as I can get. So having the conventional wash with a mover that can bend to my hearts desire helps me to make my directors and other designers happy.
Part 2
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