Design Issues and Solutions -

[Mandolomo]

1. I'm doing a design for a talent show. Most of the acts are rock bands, but there are some dances and solo singers too. Anyway, I have 3 striplights DS for footlight, and I've hung 18 par-cans in a row behind the performers. This is my first time working with any kind of footlight (usually the strips are in the air as cyc lights) so I have no idea what color(s) they should have. The strips have 12 lamps each, 3 circuits, and currently have RGB roundels installed. I found a box of extra blue and red roundels, and also some clear and amber. I haven't counted how many, but certainly not enough to have one color across all 36 lamps. So given 3 circuits, and your choice of RGBAW roundels, what would you do?
2. Also, I'm not sure what gel (if any) I should use for the row of par-cans. I'm planning on using them as blinders for the rock stuff, and also as pixels for some cool chases. (I'll be recording effects to subs on an Element 40). I could do N/C, or 2 color, or 3, and I could do any number of patterns. Symmetrical or not? I'm obviously clueless about this, so... help?
3. Last question, I found 2 altman sky cyc units in the graveyard, and they still work, so I'm using those for the cyc. I've masked it to the point where there is only 15-20 feet of cyc to cover. because there are only 2 units (6 cells) the colors don't mix properly at all. I'm not going to need any amber or yellow cyc for this show, so what if I did:

[BLUE-RED-BLUE] [BLUE-RED-BLUE]

That would give me the range of blue/lav/magenta/red, right? And would the colors mix ok in this arrangement? Ok, that's my spew. Sorry for any stupid questions, and thanks for your help!

[NickVon]

I think that personally I would keep your foot/strip lights as RGB. Maybe RBA if you have enough amber or clear or gels to make amber for one of the circuits.
How man Pars circuits do you have . If you have at least 4 I think i would go with a NC as actual blinder focus. and use a Blue, Fusia and Orange for stage wash. If you have more circuits for the pars a Green and a Yellow perhaps or a pink if you need something a little lighter to light the band.

I am a big fan of Asymmetrical for bands, mostly because band stage setups are inherently asymmetrical with anything more then 4 people or less then 3.

I think your FarCyc units would work, though if you have 2 triple fixtures why not use 3 colors. If you decide two through 3 colors in them I'd try something like [User color-Blue-Red] [Blue - Red - User color] particularly if your third color is a little lighter then Primary Blue/Red silk.

It seems that you are well on your way to a great looking show. And the questions you are asking are really just personal preference as you'll get many varying answers here i'm sure :-).

So you know I come from lighting community and small professional plays/musicals and hence i love the RBA strips on cycs. And i like DARK! I love Deep saturated colors.

[KCW]

For the footlights, you can use RGB of course, though i agree might be more interesting to try RBA, if you have enough amber.

Not sure what your gel inventory is, but you could do a true blinder (maybe 4 out of your 12) in Rosco 3204 (Half Blue), which dials back the incandescent look just a bit. Cools it off, makes it a bit more brittle.

You can't really go wrong with a three color idea, and I agree about saturated colors! If you're trying to satisfy dance and rock/pop, you way want to look in the jewel tones. R21 (Golden Amber), R39 (Skelton Exotic Sangria) and R74 (Night Bluse) are some favorites of mine.

I also agree about the cycs, use the three colors. I really like the idea of blocking them, instead of making them try to blend over such as all area.

Have fun with the show - and take pictures!

[bishopthomas]

Green sucks, go with amber. The only good G will give you is mixing ability, otherwise you'll just be creating the illusion of "sick." You don't need ALL of those pars for blinders. Go with 4 or 6, maybe put some diffusion in them, maybe mount them on top of the truss (or pipe or whatever) and splay them out for maximum coverage. Then you can keep an even spacing below for color wash on the stage. Most importantly, keep the performers lit and have fun!

[Mandolomo]

Looks like there's only 5 amber roundels, so I'm going to do amber in the center strip and disconnect the green circuit from the other two fixtures. For the pars, I'm going to fan the outer 3 fixtures on either side for N/C blinders, and then do a of 3 color backlight with the other 12. Those jewel tones look good, but I'll have to see what I've got in the gel drawers. As for the cyc, I'm still thinking. Thanks for your help everybody!

[BobHealey]

If you have sufficient clear roundells, you could put an amber gel behind the clear roundell to be able to use all 3 strips.