The specific colorings mentioned are good for the specials you may decide to employ, however you shouldn't be thinking about just that sort of color scheme first.
You begin
gel selection by considering the overall design concept of the show. If it is a musical comedy, think pink tones, if it is a straight
play, think straw/lt amber tones. Use this scheme for your acting areas. Next you should have some basic warm washes and cool washes from various locations. Then you consider textures/gobos which might prove useful, such as leaves or breakups. Then you have to consider a
backdrop if one is used, and decide on color/
pattern choices. You will always have some "specials" which might be the
reflection of fire from a fireplace, or TV,
etc. Other specials might be to
cover a specific area for a short period of time.
I tend to stay with
Roscolux.
Acting areas- I
gel one side either 06 or 34 (straw or pink) and leave the other side without color. That other side reads as cooler in relation, and by staying
clear, you maintain the sparkle in actor's eyes, and highlights on their faces.
Washes- I use 80 and 26 (blue and red) from the front and sides. Additionally, I like to have 99 (chocolate) from the sides and 23 or 25 too (amber).
Backlights - These vary quite a
bit, but lately I have been finding 65 useful (light steel blue), although sometimes I will use 02 or 06, and sometimes just
clear.
Gobos- Lots of realistic leaves. You can change the focus and just use them as breakups if you are short on $. Clouds on the
cyc are nice of course, but usually overused-if you do clouds, use a few and keep them soft.
My favorite
backdrop is to keep a stardrop in place, and a white
sharkstooth scrim/
cyc in front. You can have a good day sky, and at night slight stardrop for stars.
Additional instruments would add more color washes, perhaps a 27 and 83 for more saturated colors (better for surrealistic sequences or dance lighting--but that is a whole different design concept--don't even think of lighting dance like you light a
play.)
Just whatever you do--keep the
followspot unplugged.
Steve
