Stained glass window

[mbandgeek]

My HS is putting on the production of Nunsense. We need a stained glass effect.

we have no budget, but we have some gels.

I was wondering if we could make our own multicolored gel using strips of various gels?
How would i go about keeping these gels contained using a standard color frame?
Or, Would a Temporary cardboard/Duct Tape apparatus work?

Thanks,
Kevin Northrup

[Footer]

are you looking to make a stained glass windows with gel or are you trying to make the appearance of light coming through stained glass? I am going to to got the 2nd one right now... Get some scotch tape, chop up your gel, and tape it together using the tape. This however will not give you the cleanest lines that you would expect. To pull this off correctly, a glass gobo is about the only way to go. Play with it a bit, and don't use any duct tape. You will as have to play with the focus of the light a bit to get anything resembling separate colors.

[BrentSmith]

Just about the only way to to project a stained glass image is to have your pattern and colors in the gobo slot where the light is designed to be focused. That would mean colored glass and expensive. Multi color gels rarely work with more than two or maybe three colors. Any more and you'll just get mush. I have seen it work pretty well to build the actual window with gels and gaff tape. Back it with something frosted then hit that from the back with light.
Good luck, Brent

[mbandgeek]

Originally Posted by Footer4321

are you looking to make a stained glass windows with gel or are you trying to make the appearance of light coming through stained glass? I am going to to got the 2nd one right now... Get some scotch tape, chop up your gel, and tape it together using the tape. This however will not give you the cleanest lines that you would expect. To pull this off correctly, a glass gobo is about the only way to go. Play with it a bit, and don't use any duct tape. You will as have to play with the focus of the light a bit to get anything resembling separate colors.

I am trying to give the apperance of light coming through a stained glass window. I will also be attempting to make a gobo, which i have found helpful links on doing that.

[gafftaper]

Yeah what you need is something like a Rosco Colorizer (Apollo makes them too... don't remember what they call them... sorry Keith) placed in the accessory slot with the gobo. This allows you to actually focus on the pieces of color or put them slightly out of focus... which is perfect. They will cost you around $50. If you put multi color gel in the gel frame you can never focus on it and the colors will blend far more than the effect you really want but it's probably the only option you have. I would only do like Red, Orange, and Blue and I would try just using three large strips together. My guess is that if you get the pieces really small they will blend too much.

Another option... Home Depot makes these plastic stickers that can be applied to a piece of glass or plastic to make them look like stained glass. They are not very expensive. You could make a stained glass window and shine light through it.

If you do end up taping gel together. I recommend you go to the store and get some of the scotch tape that I think is called "transparent tape"... it looks like clear plastic on the roll with a hint of yellow to it. Don't use the "invisible tape" kind that looks sort of white and papery but turns clear on paper. You want the kind that looks and feels very plastic-y. It's not as popular and these days and it might me a little harder to find but they will have it. I've tried both types and feel that the this type of tape is easier to work with and holds better.

There have been several threads on do it yourself gobos. You know it's only about $15 for a gobo and it'll look much better than what you can make at home. But if you have to do it yourself. Get an Exacto knife and a cheap pie pan, pizza pan, or anything from the dollar store/2nd hand store designed to go in the oven that you think you can cut with that knife. Go VERY slow for best results.

[BillESC]

You could use this gobo and employ the multi colored gel idea in your gel frame.

[gafftaper]

I know you don't have much money but buying a nice gobo and using the cheap multi-color gel will get you the most bang for your buck and still look good. You can't possibly cut anything that nice yourself. You can do the outline and maybe a little frame but that's about all you'll probably be able to do. If you e-mail Bill I bet he'll get one of those in your mailbox for about $15.

How much is an hour or two of frustration trying to cut a gobo yourself that will never look that good worth?

[JD]

Depending on; 1)how much time you have, 2)if you know any 35mm buffs, and 3)how much light you will be working against, there is always the possibility of using an old slide projector. Not sure who develops film anymore. Again, knowing a film buff would help. I would assume the scene would be in subdued light.

Of course you could always just take apart an old slide and grab some floor cuttings of Roscolux, put them in and glue it back together!

Have Fun!

[Logos]

I've lit Nunsense and Nuncrackers and I did what Bill suggested. I put a church window gobo in the lantern and made up a multicoloured gel using what we in Aus call invisible tape. It sort of sound like what Gafftaper was talking about but our version sounds a bit more plastic. I created a square of colour made up of six triangles coming to a point in the geometric centre of the square. It gave a window shape with sort of formless colour on the floor of the stage.

[SerraAva]

Just finished a show of Footloose not to long ago with stained glass windows for the church, looked really cool. I used Apollo's Crushed Dichroics http://www.internetapollo.com/Produc...w.aspx?pl_id=1 for the color. You could use pieces of gel instead of strips, just don't know how well it will hold up. As you can see from the pictures, they have a bit of white in them, so you can have a bit of white light in yours to get the same effect.