Conventional Fixtures - question about proscenium lighting

[stayfree12]

so i'm working on Hello Dolly and my director wants to line the proscenium arch with lights and possibly chase them around. ive been racking my brain and cant come up with a solution. can anyone provide a suggestion about what type of fixture i should use? im at a loss, to say the least.

[gafftaper]

I'm assuming you are in a high school?

It's going to be expensive no matter what you do. The easiest solution would probably be to use a rope light that can do a chase. It would be a bit pricey but very easy for you to install.

Next option, cheaper, easy to install, but not as cool because it won't look great and probably won't chase would be Christmas lights.

The pro option would be to build a false proscenium. Essentially a giant flat that sits in front of the entire proscenium. Then you would install a LOT of light sockets into it. Then you've got to wire them. That's where it's going to get really expensive. You will need a control unit to make it chase. You've got a lot of light bulbs to consider the price of. Is there a parent who is an electrician? Wiring up this many lights safely is a complicated task that a student crew is just not skilled enough to take on. It definitely should have a certified electrician do it for many reasons.

Cost? You are looking at least $400 in wood and paint depending on the size and how fancy you make it. If you are talking a typical proscenium about 17' high and 40' wide and you put a light every 6"... that's 148 lights and another $800-$1000 in sockets, lamps, and wire. Then there's the controller I don't know how much they cost but I know they aren't cheap. Total cost for the full on pro Marquis look would easily run over $1500 IF you can get an electrician to volunteer the time to wire it. If you have to hire and electrician the price doubles.

My vote is to go for the rope light. Don't go try to find the short chunks they sell at Christmas or in the garden department and string them together this is a known fire hazard problem and I don't think you can get them to chase that far anyway. You can get a higher quality 150' continuous sections of rope light that can run a chase. A quick internet search revealed 150' of rope light and a chase controller for about $200 (I'm not sure how good the quality is on that), it's a lot less than the other project and still will look very nice. Plus, it'll be easy to install. Contact your local theater dealer or if you don't have one send a private message to CB member BillESC. I believe he sells the long chasing rope lights.

Anybody else know a source for the good rope lights? Anyone know a good brands of controllers and lights to look for?

[Grog12]

Another option is to weave 3 strands of twinkle lights (xmas lights whatever) together. You can create a chase by giving each strand a circuit then creating the chase on your board. I've used this effect numerous times and it looks excellent. But it takes some time to put together.

[gafftaper]

Cool idea Grog! Thanks I had never thought of that.

I've used Christmas lights to run a chase up and down a giant set of stairs. Each step had a set of lights just under the lip all the way across. Each step was on a separate circuit. Hook them up to your dimmers and you can dim them and chase them a million different ways. Really cool trick and cheap and easy for that big showstopping dance number.

[derekleffew]

Many lighting rental houses carry http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/g...er-strips.html. If you have three or four dimmers available AND your console has chase of effects capability, you won't need a controller, only adapters.

See also these threads: http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/l...ggestions.html, http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/l...um-border.html, http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/l...ng-lights.html.

[gafftaper]

Chaser strips are a great idea. You would still have to build some sort of a false proscenium to install them. But It would be safer, easier, and probably a lot cheaper than wiring your own full scale chase system.

[Footer]

Played this game before. Its kind of a pain, but its doable. I did this proscenium a few years back. I used C7 lamps on christmas light strands. Don't forget to drop a separate circuit to each strand, do not daisy chain them or you are asking for trouble. I did not wire this one to chase, we only had 48 dimmers in the house so we could not afford to waste 3 on the portal. Would not have been that hard though. Also, if you are looking to do the chase thing, I highly suggest you go with a 4 circuit chase, not a 3. 4's tend to look better.

[dramatech]

We do this all of the time, and Kyle is correct in that 4 circuit chases are the minimum, if you want the lights to really look like they are going smoothly in one direction. We Buy premade strings of c7 and c9 sockets in thousand foot reels, then all that is required, is to put a connector on the end of each run. We use the fast mount connectors. If I remember correctly, the c9 stings come with a connector every 30" and the c7 every 12. You can lay 4 runs of the c9 side by side, and tie them every so often with short pieces of wire such as the individual strands from cat5. We buy them from a place on the web call Specialty lighting. We also purchase the lamps in boxes of 25 from the same people. We have purchased about ten different styles of lamps over the last five years, and always put them back in the original boxes when not in use. We also use the$69.95 toolbox dimmers from Bulbamerica.com to drive the chases.
All in all, It can be done for not a lot of money. It is a little time consuming putting the strings together, and mounting them in the arches or portals. We have discovered that it can be done in a few hours if you set up an assembly line with a four or five people. It makes it much faster and less troublesome when handling such long runs and so many lamps.

[dramatech]

oops,!!! I just noticed after posting, that I said a connector every 30". I meant to say socket every 30"

sorry for the double post, With my age, the mind is slipping away.

[NevilleLighting]

I agree with Kyle. His solution is fairly inexpensive and it's true that 4 circuit chases look better than 3, although you can get away with 3 in a pinch. You might also Google "belt lighting". The wiring comes built for 4 circuit, cheaper than individual bases, but you still have to buy all the bulbs. Cheaper still, slap the director on the back of the head and tell them to go away.

P.S.: My lawyer tells me that the above statement does not endorse violence against directors no matter how much they may need it. My advice, work up the costs, take it to whomever controls the money and let them decide. Then they get to whack the director.