Pinspots - effectiveness

[cvanp]

Hey all,

At the end of one of the songs in our show we want to have a full-on blackout and have beams of light shining. The scene takes place in a sewer so the idea will be that light is creeping in from the world above. This is the kind of thing I'm looking to do: http://www.hmmagazine.com/reviews/dvd/TSO%20lights.gif - those really narrow beams of light are exactly what I want.

Currently the top candidate is this Chauvet Pinspot. The way the light is described, it seems to do exactly what I need - it provides a focused, narrow beam of light - the problem is it's only a $20 light, and by looks alone it appears that there will be a great deal of wash.

So I guess my question is.. are pinspots like this really that effective? I need a good amount of distance... we're clamping them to a bar so something like 18 feet away... are they capable without too much wash? Also, does this look like something that would work or are there any other (non-DMX) lights that could provide a similar function?

Thanks again everyone

[gafftapegreenia]

Pin spots would work nicely. Beam Projectors would provide a larger beam, but might be more expensive/harder to find. Possibly some ERS's with gobos could work too.

[SerraAva]

What else are you using in your show? 30w pin spots won't seem powerful if the rest of your show is 1000w par 64s or 575w S4 pars.

You can also try using irises on movers and make them as small as possible. I have done that before to great effect. Problem with the irises is that you block a lot of light and lose intensity. Hole pattern gobos in ERS's like gafftapegreenia would also work well.

[cvanp]

We're poor though. :-/ Plus as I've mentioned in the past our situation is crappy so we have to go with as simple a solution as possible.

[RiffRaff54]

I'm going with the idea of gobos with a bunch of holes in them.

[cvanp]

If we had more lights that would be a viable option too, but here's what we're dealing with....



As you can see we really have almost no lights. If we had more, I would definitely want to throw on some gobos and use that option simply for the control we would have. Unfortunately, I'm afraid we're going to have a tough enough time lighting with the few lights we have now!

That's the primary reason I want to go with separate lamps for this, and particularly something not DMX controlled. It is by no means the best situation but that seems to be our best solution.

[Charc]

Originally Posted by cvanp

If we had more lights that would be a viable option too, but here's what we're dealing with....
Attachment 879
As you can see we really have almost no lights. If we had more, I would definitely want to throw on some gobos and use that option simply for the control we would have. Unfortunately, I'm afraid we're going to have a tough enough time lighting with the few lights we have now!
That's the primary reason I want to go with separate lamps for this, and particularly something not DMX controlled. It is by no means the best situation but that seems to be our best solution.

Do you even have any available circuits?

[gafftaper]

First you won't see the shaft of light like that without particles in the air for the light to reflect off of... thus you need to start this project by getting a hazer. It'll probably cost you $100 to rent a hazer and buy fluid for a week's run. Haze is designed to stick around a while. So be prepared to have haze on stage for another 20 minutes or so. Then there's the smoke detector issue to be considered with haze.

I would say that Serraava nailed it on the head with the next problem. Little 30 watt pins will work, but will be quite dim looking if the audience has been looking at a full wash from the rest of your gear. I would spend that money renting a few extra Source fours with 50 degree lenses. Experiment with making your own pin hole gobos out of pie pans, try different sizes of holes. You should be able to rent them for around $30 a week. Place them at odd angles with long cross stage throws should work fine.

This solution will still be dimmer than what you see in that picture but it should give the idea you are looking for. Those beams in the picture you showed are being created by very expensive moving lights and it's a difficult effect to duplicate.

One final option would be to rent a bunch of 5 degree Source Fours. This would be a great way to duplicate that effect. You could put a home made circle gobo in to reduce the size of the light further if you wanted... but they cost more than the standard S4's to rent so we are probably talking $40 per week per shaft of light. But it would be a really nice bright effect.

EDIT: What about renting a basic laser?

[sound_nerd]

Go with pinspots. I did a mock-acl setup in a nightclub using a bunch of pin spots, and they work rather well. You'll find they're not too bright but it's a good buy on a budget and effective none the less.

[Charc]

given the effect I'm picturing I would think either a 36º or 50º (depending on throw) with a hard polygonal breakup would complement the effect quite nicely. While fog sucks for this effect, it's cheaper, and likely won't fill up the whole space. You will likely have less of an issue with smoke detectors too (unless you're shooting straight into one.) you can try and breakup the fog a little bit with a fan or something. Is it possible to incorporate this in to the "sewer" look, as a scenic element? Low RPM fan, with a trickle of fog coming through? However, you did mention it would be a full blackout, except for this effect light, so perhaps you wouldn't even need to disguise where your fog is coming from. (It would just be a little unexplainable.) Those are my thoughts on the matter.