Design A few questions on making a gobo

[Abraddesigns]

Hi CB,
After following advice from a friend to make a Gobo out of a coke can, I found this site for better ways to do it. I read an earlier post about making one out of a cookie sheet, or a pie tin. Which leads me to my question; I'm designing a show, and am a little new to the game, and need to make a Gobo. The show is low budget, and it's also a two week deal, so even if budget was there I may or may not get my Gobo in time. What material works best when making a Gobo, the coke can burned out while I was focusing it today. Also, I won't be able to be at the production, due to having to set up and run sound for another event. The Production only lasts three shows, so I'm hoping to find a material that will last those three shows at least. Any help for the new guy?

 

[Les]

Aluminum is the best bet if you're cutting it by hand. Pie tins work well, but aren't known for longevity. An important thing not to be overlooked is having your fixtures bench focused properly. You want a flat field with no hotspot. What fixtures & wattage are you using? Does the fixture need to run at full?

What kind of pattern are you hoping to achieve?

I had thin aluminum flashing "aperture" gobos last a two week run (barely - one had started to droop) in a set of 360Q's, but that material is too thick to cut by hand. I was surprised because the aperture hole was 1/2" in a 575w 6x12 (5 balcony rail specials; only fixtures on hand). I shuttered in as close to the image area as possible, which surely helped things a little. The shutters hate me now, though.

 

[Abraddesigns]

I'm using these small source 4 lights, that I'd never worked with or seen before until I started working in this theatre space. There's no documentation laying around, and noone in there seems to know anything about the lighting system. As far as wattages go, I'm not sure on that one either. The booth is an explosion of extension cables with numbers on them, which is standard for most places around here...but this particular one makes me think fire. The board is an American DJ Lighting board, and can go as low as 50% intensity, after that the instrument will be off completely. And as far as patching goes, to avoid blowing any fuses I wrote down what the designer before me had patched to where, so I could know what was safe. I know that's horrible information, but it's what I have. Oh, this is quite odd, and off subject, but there's also another problem I've ran into in this theatre space, not until this particular show. but any time I turn the intensity below 75%, the house speakers start making a weird buzzing noise, then the mics begin feeding back.

The pattern I'm trying to make is a bubble pattern. The ones I made out of the coke cans looked ok, at least for my first attempt, before they burned out. I had them out of focus, and I'd rarely say this...but the way the bubbles overlapped looked kind of cool...it just kind of sucks my first attempt at making a gobo was a fail, I'm going to try a pie tin tomorrow and see what happens there...I imagine it should work a little better

 

[josh88]

If they are "small source 4's" you mean they look the same? Those would be S4 juniors. If you do find that you've got budget a lot of places can get you something pretty quick of they know there is a show deadline.

I've got a heavier aluminum sheet for cutting my own, I've never had issues with longevity with it, though they are tougher to cut due to the thickness.


Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

 

[Les]

You're sure they're Source Fours and not Altman 3.5Q's? (They could also be Source Four Jr's).

Don't forget about that bench focus. Really important. Since you're doing a bubble pattern, you can possibly go with a heavier gauge aluminum and use different size drill bits to mill out your pattern.

 

[Kelite]

The pattern I'm trying to make is a bubble pattern. The ones I made out of the coke cans looked ok, at least for my first attempt, before they burned out. I had them out of focus, and I'd rarely say this...but the way the bubbles overlapped looked kind of cool...it just kind of sucks my first attempt at making a gobo was a fail, I'm going to try a pie tin tomorrow and see what happens there...I imagine it should work a little better

If your time frame is tight and the pie-tin doesn't work out, you can browse dozens of break-up gobos on our site. They're available via UPS Ground in two days from our facility too!

Product Search - bubble

 

[Abraddesigns]

They're source 4 Jr.s I found out today, and I made them out of pie tins, and had no problems whatsoever today, and I also made 4 extras in case anything happened. I was actually somewhat happy with the way they turned out. Thanks for the advice, it helped out a lot for sure. also I intend on getting a roll of Aluminium, just in case I run into a similar problem in the future. And Les that's exactly what I did, I used a few different sized bits, and I let it stay a little out of focus when I dropped them in. I actually found that I kind of liked the somewhat textured look being slightly distorted gave them. But only slightly, if I went to far out of focus, they looked like I had made a firefly gobo instead of bubbles...but again thanks for all the help