Automated Fixtures - How to do this?

[Les]

Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction

I'm not sure if anyone would remember this show, but it came on SciFi seemingly irregularly several years back.

The coolest part of the show (other than the ghost stories) was the lighting sequences between each segment. One programming trick that I've been wanting to figure out is in this clip.

Beyond Belief 2x6 part 6

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Fast forward to 6:44. You will see this eerie sweep of moving heads or scanners in blue but strobing in white. How is this done? I know you can get pretty much any moving light to strobe in any color, but how would one get it to snap to white (and back to blue) so fast? Is it possible that the colorwheel of the instrument has blue and white right next to each other and they do a blue-to-white-to-blue cue in a zero or one count?

I have no console or moving lights to try this out on right now, but I'd like everyone's hypothesis on how this could be done. I'm sure it's simple, but I only have that one theory.

[ScaredOfHeightsLD]

I was actually just thinking about this today, but under a different circumstance. I think that you are probably right about the color wheel. Another option would be, depending on what the fixture is, that it's CMY and the flags are just dropping in and out very quickly. If I get a chance, I will try and swing by the lab in the next few days and try it out. I am relatively sure we have a CMY fixture or two and definitely some with color wheels.

[soundman]

I don't know of any fixtures that can whip CMY wheels or flags around that quickly to go from that ultra saturated blue to open white. My money is on a color wheel with adjacent blue and white, for added effect dim the fixture down when it is in blue and when you pop to white you will get even more punch.

[Wolf]

It could also be as simple as they have several fixtures some with blue color and then others bumping/strobing in open white.

[Pie4Weebl]

Judging by the gobo earlier on in the clip, I'm going to say its a color wheel with blue next to N/C. VL3000's have something similar with red and congo being on either side of the open slot...

[Les]

Originally Posted by Wolf

It could also be as simple as they have several fixtures some with blue color and then others bumping/strobing in open white.

Sounds plausible but it appears that the blue and white are coming from the same fixture. That clip wasn't the best I've seen on the show but it was the best I could find of that particular effect. Some show the circular gobo and strobe. Pie4Weebl, I've actually seen on the show where one randomly strobed in red also. The VL's are possible these fixtures in the clip. How long has that fixture been out?

[soundman]

The Vl 3500 have been out since 2004 according to this press release. News - Vari-Lite - Express Yourself. The 3Ks were out before that I think. Just because the color wheel lines up with it dosn't mean much. Changing the color wheel around is a pretty simple task, and most lights come stock with super saturated colors on either side of open to allow quick bumps. If I had to spec a light for fast bumps it would be the VL6 hands down.

[gafftaper]

I would say there's some sort of strobe feature involved. That's just too fast for any typical equipment. Is there a mover with a strobe feature?

[derekleffew]

Originally Posted by gafftaper

... Is there a mover with a strobe feature?

ALL movers using discharge lamps have a strobe feature, using either a lobsterscope or a metal flag to interrupt the light beam. I agree that it's a color wheel effect, with blue next to the open slot. Set the wheel to "snap" and use a sine-wave modulator.

Fixtures at 4:43 look like Intellabeams (rectangular mirror).

[soundman]

Originally Posted by gafftaper

I would say there's some sort of strobe feature involved. That's just too fast for any typical equipment. Is there a mover with a strobe feature?

This might be one downside to the "gafftaper" method of building moving lights, you miss out on little extras like a strobe function. Some lights use the same flags that they use to dim as the strobe function, when entering into strobe mode they will snap really fast.