Re: Curious . . What grand gel and what does it cost?
You see, I'm sure there is a method to it, something about saturation or hue or transmission or something, but it is NOT obvious and the number
system is totally screwy--can someone from
Lee explain their
gel book!?
I'm not from
Lee, and I'm sure Keith, Skip, Steve Terry, or others will correct me if I'm wrong, but...
The
Lee numbering
system and colors were derived from Cinemoid--a plastic color medium, like
Roscolene, as opposed to polyester like
Roscolux, that became defunct as it could not stand up to the energy of Q-I (T/H) lamps. Those of us who used
Cinemoid, which were 5xx numbers, are quite comfortable with the
Lee numbers, which use 1xx. The
Lee 7xx and 3xx are newer colors added when they ran out of 1xx numbers. Yes, it's a caluge, but
Lee still offers a "Numeric Edition"
swatchbook, and a "Designers Edition
includes Numeric listing"
swatchbook. My "Numeric Edition" is still what I use most often, does not include 3xx and 7xx, and is rather dog-earred. Most British LDs prefer
Lee, as
Cinemoid was a Rank-Strand product. Many American LDs, particularly in dance, seem to want to emulate the British and specify
LEE Filters only.
To further confuse matters, the
Lee 0xx numbers are "clones" of
Roscolux colors, with notable exceptions, i.e. Lee002 IS NOT the same as Lux02; Lee003 IS NOT Lux03; but Lee004 IS very close to Lux04. I once went 'round and 'round with a Master Elect. who said the sheet he had that just said "003" was Lux03. I didn't have my swatchbooks with me so I couldn't prove it, and it was only
Followspot color for a
one-off that the LD wouldn't use anyway. And I was right; we cut, framed, and loaded 6 colors in 6 spots and the LD only used OW and Frame#1. Happens ALL the time. Rant OFF. But I digress. Also
Lee has the "HT" prefix, which costs $2-3 more per sheet, but does hold up longer, and
IMO, is worth the added cost in saturated colors.
The only
color media manufacturer that makes sense spectrally is
GamColor. When Joe Tawil took the colors of the defunct
Gelatran, he was able to devise a
system that made sense, as he was starting from scratch. I feel
GAM colors are the "flashiest," as well as having the sexiest names, like G195 Nymph Pink, G888 Blue Belle, and G985 Ripe Plum. Three of
Roscolux's sexiest colors are what I
call the "ego" colors: X336 Billington Pink, X39 Skelton Exotic Sangria, and X349 Fisher Fuchsia. Do the designers, or Tom Skelton's estate, get a royalty whenever these colors are sold?
Roscolux has been able to keep somewhat of an order, by adding 3xx in between xx colors, but Excel doesn't understand that and it makes my color lists odd when I sort by color#. In the early 1980s
Rosco was having quality-control issues and began adding an "-A" suffix to colors they could no longer replicate. Thus there was R35 and R35A, and they were close, but not the same, color.
Sorry Keith, no offense to
Apollo Gel implied, but it took me 10 years to accept
GAM, and I still only use a few of those colors, not available in
Lee or
Roscolux.
For a .PDF of an Excel conversion chart of
Lux to
Lee &
GAM, visit my site at
http://www.derekleffew.com/referencedocumentsandwebsites. For the actual Excel file, so you can sort other ways, email me.
Hope this helps. As I've said before, I have a fetish for "modern"
stage lighting history.
Derek