Picking out gobos

[gafftaper]

So I get to pick out 120 gobos for the new theater. It sounds cool at first then quickly turns overwhelming. Obviously I want a bunch of leaves and clouds... but when you start looking at breakups and other bloby things it gets a little dizzying. So do you have any special tricks you pull with gobos? Is there anything you would say... hey don't forget to get a couple of___ they looked really cool for____. I've got two GAM twinspin indexable rotators coming. The winning bid vendor chose Rosco gobos so that's the catalog I have to choose from (Sorry Keith... I am getting 4 Right Arms and two 400 watt power supplies from Apollo, so that's a good chunk of change).

Thanks.

[mattm]

I know that you have used this before but it may give you some new ideas:

http://design.cablepick.com/gobo/rosco

Matt McCormick
www.cablepick.com

[Logos]

Grids, you have got to have grids. And I have a great mesh full moon which is stunning.

[Footer]

Rosco 7750, Arcadia, great gobo for breakups. I HATE flowery breakups, Arcadia fits the bill. Also, you can never go wrong with construction B-D. Just be sure to get at least 15 of at least 2 patterns so you can fill out an entire system with them. And... all A sized! (if you have a full S4 inventory, which I believe you do).

http://www.rosco.com/us/gobocatalog/...ges/77750.html

[derekleffew]

I'm partial to what I call the "brain breakups," in large, medium, and small. My favorite gobo of all time is Jungle Leaf, although Rosco's isn't as good as GAM's, which was based on Jo Meilziner's design for Death of a Salesman in 1949.

[icewolf08]

The gobo that seems to come up all the time is GAM 520, and also the "Moonscape" templates.

[gafftaper]

First off it occurs to me that budget wise in the future it's going to be a lot harder to buy 10 matching breakups. I'm also thinking that it's unwise to spend a lot of money randomly guessing which realistic elements I'll want for a show 4 years from now. So it seems my best call is to go for several full sets of things and limit the show specific realistic elements that I can pick up two or three of later.

So Here's what I'm thinking as general list:
-15 leaf breakups
-15 brain breakups
-15 geometric breakups... Arcadia?
-15 geometric breakups... something different... grids?
-15 Clouds... a variety that I can use to build a couple of different sky styles
-12 fire/water collection
-12 a variety of radial breakups in pairs for the two rotators.
-20 A few each of the following realistic elements: Branches, trees, realistic leaves, stained glass windows, lightning, city lights, window frames
That's 120

Also note I'm already getting the following Rosco Colorizers:
8 Green/yellow stippled
6 Amber/red stippled
4 blue/lavender stippled
2 red/blue/lavender stippled
6 green/blue/lavender stippled
4 midnight free flow

Thoughts. Additions? subtractions? Changes? If I cut back on those breakup collections to 10 I can buy one more collection of 10.

[lightbyfire]

15 seems like a lot to me, although i dont recall your stage area. My feeling is that getting two different leaf sets would be a good idea, my personal favorites fall in the summer leaves area, I feel like you could get away with 10 per and then build on those with any left over budgets on a show by show basis, one at a time or so, since they will burn out eventually.

also, i like the choice of colorizers, i try to use them often, but we dont own too many so it does get difficult. Also, i find that the red/yellows are harder to use then the cooler tones, they stand out a lot. I would actually say fewer green/yellow more blue/lav, but it all depends on what you imagine them for.

[gafftaper]

The space is a 55' square black box So if I'm in the round the stage is about 22' square but other layouts are significantly larger. I like the idea of getting 8-10 of each instead and purchasing a wider variety of sets. If I need 12 it's easier to buy two more than it is to buy a full set.

[Charc]

Originally Posted by gafftaper

The space is a 55' square black box So if I'm in the round the stage is about 22' square but other layouts are significantly larger. I like the idea of getting 8-10 of each instead and purchasing a wider variety of sets. If I need 12 it's easier to buy two more than it is to buy a full set.

Wait, wait.

Get 20 assorted foliage gobos, and mail the rest to me. Problem solved!

(I hardly use gobos, or have them... But I want to add texture.)