DMX help

[Shawncfer]

What do scrims do lol? I know what they are, I'm just curious.
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[TheSwami]

Originally Posted by Shawncfer

I saw two different source four lights and one had like a cylinder at the end of the barell to make the barell longer, what does that do? and the other source for had a mini scoop looking thing attatched to the barell. I know it changes the shape or something of the lights, but what do they both do to the lights?

Just wanted to make sure these two questions didn't slip through the cracks.

The first source four you were looking at probably had a top hat on it. These are essentially aluminum or steel tubes fitted with a plate on one end that slides into the accessory slot or the gel frame slot on the front of a Source Four (or other ERS). They are coated with a matte finish on the inside, either black matte paint or black felt. Top hats serve to reduce flare from lights - when you look at the output end of an energized ERS, you see the illuminated lens/barrel/gel of the instrument even if the instrument isn't pointed directed at you. The top hat masks this illumination, and to some degree helps mitigate spill - stray light outside the primary beam of the instrument.

Alternatively, the instrument may have had a color extender on it. Like a top hat, a color extender fits into the accessory slot on the front of an ERS, but has its own gel slot on the opposite end. This allows delicate (or especially saturated) color media to be placed farther from the lamp of the light, protecting it from heat and preventing it from fading too quickly.

The second source four probably had a half hat on it. Similar to a top hat, but it has only half a cylinder projecting out from the instrument instead of a full one, rather like the "scoop" shape you describe.

Originally Posted by Shawncfer

What do scrims do lol? I know what they are, I'm just curious.

Scrims can be used for many things! The glossary article hits many of them pretty well. When front lit, a scrim is almost opaque; when back lit, it becomes almost transparent. This can be used as a special effect for a "reveal" moment, as a means of hiding part of the stage to affect a scene change, as drop that disappears without needing to fly it, as a means of giving a cyc "depth"... even, as a pinch, as a projection screen! All kinds of good things.

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