Blacklight Efffects

[JD]

The real question is what you are trying to achieve;

The expensive blacklights do not let as much of the "purple" visible light escape, so if you really want reactive substances to pop, then that is the route. On the other hand, if you don't mind, or even want the visible purple, then the cheep units are just fine. As for the "canon" vs the "wash", it's the same as a spot vs a flood. If you need to punch from a distance, use the canon. if you want a real wide angle, use the wash.

The expensive part of the expensive lights is rejecting anything visible. UV should not be seen unless it reacts. Of course, with the expensive units you get a much better build quality by nature. This is important if you use them on a regular basis. If you are only using them once, or intend to use them rarely, then buying a cheep unit is most likely the less expensive rout. You could purchase 10 to 15 canons or UV wash units for what one good Altman would cost.

 

[jazzmo]

Thanks to all for the advice. I'm seeing the Director tonight at rehearsal, and I'll impart the info received. The Elation sounds pretty good, and I could make a good case for buying 3 or 4 for our Main and Thrust.
If anyone has other ideas, I'd be happy to check them out too.
Again, Thanks...... Jim

 

[gafftaper]

The Elations do flood a TON so be prepared for that, buy an extra if in doubt, and get them as close to the target as possible.

 

[avkid]

The Elations do flood a TON so be prepared for that, buy an extra if in doubt, and get them as close to the target as possible.

Maybe you could use some black wrap on the black light.

 

[Grog12]

Use R382 congo blue with wash instruments in your current inventory. Works like a charm.

 

[propmonkey]

I'm helping a friend set up a blacklight dance at her high school. The DJ they are hiring has some lights and everything but they want more blacklight around the dance floor. Since this will be in a cafeteria with overhead fluorescent lights I suggested they buy a roll or gel just to have some light over the dance floor, nothing fancy. At first I suggested Lee 181 (Congo Blue) but I remembered that when used with fluorescent light this will be blue, not purple/uv like. I want to stay towards Lee since they large rolls are a perfect fit for the lights.

What Lee gel can I put over fluorescent lights to give a blacklight look? I know this will not be perfect and it does not have to be since it is just a high school dance.

 

[SHARYNF]

the problem with gels etc is that they cannot ADD UV light, so the only UV content you get will be what the light itself is actually generating.

GE makes a t12 48" uv lamp that you could put in standard fluorescent fixtures.

I have used all of the suggestions

The ADJ units are not bad, take a long time warming up, generate a LOT of heat they are 400 watts and HEAVY they have a large transformer in side the and also quite a bit of visible light (the more visible light the less dramatic the UV effect

The Elations UV Wash units work well, are cheap and don't have the power and heat problems.

The Wildfire units are great, very expensive but the difference in the UV output to Visible light is minimal so the UV effect really pops

The cheap UV bulbs that are sold in stores (incandescent) are totally useless for UV they are purple but that is about it

Putting Gel on standard lights, IMO does not really work, it make the place purple or dark blue, but has minimal UV effect

sharyn

 

[DuckJordan]

I'm helping a friend set up a blacklight dance at her high school. The DJ they are hiring has some lights and everything but they want more blacklight around the dance floor. Since this will be in a cafeteria with overhead fluorescent lights I suggested they buy a roll or gel just to have some light over the dance floor, nothing fancy. At first I suggested Lee 181 (Congo Blue) but I remembered that when used with fluorescent light this will be blue, not purple/uv like. I want to stay towards Lee since they large rolls are a perfect fit for the lights.

What Lee gel can I put over fluorescent lights to give a blacklight look? I know this will not be perfect and it does not have to be since it is just a high school dance.

if you wan't more black lights in a cafeteria go with the cheap little purple black light instruments putting gel the flourescent lights will just cost way too much and will only succeed in making the room purple. Unfortunately in my youth i was the smart guy to say we could put a bunch of those on a dimmer in our auditorium for a talent show we have about 20 of them now and the effect we had was about 5 turned on right away the rest continued to randomly turn on throughout the act... having said this in a non theater environment don't spend a ton of cash on a black light effect that could be spent or borrowed from cheep little flourescent starter boxes or bulbs. most people will walk in see the black light say cool then completely forget about it.

 

[propmonkey]

Let's say I want the purple look...what color would you all recomend? I know I won't get a UV output but I just want a "close-enough-for-government-work" deal.

 

[MNicolai]

Let's say I want the purple look...what color would you all recomend? I know I won't get a UV output but I just want a "close-enough-for-government-work" deal.

Here's a pretty good thread discussing different gels that work well for UV output.

 

[rochem]

So this brings up an interesting question I've been wondering about for quite some time. On more than one large touring show (Beauty and the Beast, Mamma Mia, and I think Wizard of Oz), the plots show a huge number of conventionals mounted FOH gelled in "L181+R382". I could never figure out what these were for, but now I wonder if they were used to make the set pop a little more. Would this be a strong possibility for what those units were doing?

 

[NHStech]

I have used fluorescents hanging overhead about 20' on my stage. Using three fixtures, I got a pretty good wash of about 30' wide and 10' deep. I have not used the aforementioned gels or fixtures, so I have nothing to compare, but these looked very nice. Each bulb is about $17 at Amazon.

 

[rochem]

I have used fluorescents hanging overhead about 20' on my stage. Using three fixtures, I got a pretty good wash of about 30' wide and 10' deep. I have not used the aforementioned gels or fixtures, so I have nothing to compare, but these looked very nice. Each bulb is about $17 at Amazon.

I work with a youth theatre director who always puts a blacklight scene (no stage lights at all, just the blacklights on in a full blackout with UV-reactive costumes) into every youth production she does. I've lit 9 shows with her that had full blacklight scenes, and I've gotten the best results by putting a row of those cheap blacklight tubes along the front of the stage. They do give out some amount of visible light however, and some people complain of headaches after staring at the flourescent tubes, so you need to cover them on the downstage side so the audience can't actually see the tubes. I've hung them from a pipe as toplight, but that generally doesn't work as well because the front of the actor isn't lit as strongly, which is basically what you're going for in a blacklight scene. Overhead does work well when used in conjunction with tubes on the front of the stage when you need to get blacklight further upstage.

 

[NJLX]

Have you considered renting?
For our junior prom a couple years ago we rented 4 fixtures (altmans, i think), and they lit our gym quite nicely (a bit of overkill, but the redundancy paid off when the dj tripped a breaker...)

 

[Catwalker]

First off, sorry if this topic really does belong in the Special Effects section.

Now, for the meat and potatoes. I have been looking for a way to create a sort of blacklight effect for Beauty and the Beast. I have used the lovely search function provided, and discovered that industry standard is the Wildfire. I know that it will cost an arm and a leg, even to rent, so I looked for alternatives. Some thread mentioned the Lee 181 gel. I looked into that, and on a site selling equipment tells me that the gel needs a fluorescent source to create said effect. Can someone help me find the best way to this effect, for a low-budget operation? We have a roughly 55' by 40' stage.

 

[JD]

The cheapest way to come up with a lot of blacklight on a very low budget is a pile of those twisty blacklight CFLs they sell at home depot! Now, this is NOT something that is going to compete with a bunch of Wildfire units, and the amount of visible light can be a problem in some applications, but they are cheap enough to try a few and if you like them get more.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Feit-Ele...PESL15T-BLB-HD/100553168?N=5yc1vZbmatZ1z0u18v
About $5

 

[robmerow]

Another option may be UV Led's which can be found rather inexpensive to rent. I've seen success with the UVLED Bar 16 or UV Megabars which around here are about $40 to rent per week versus $100 for the wildfire.

They too won't be blindingly punchy, but if you were to get 8 or so it would certainly give you some basic, dimmable UV.

Do you happen to have 4' or 8' florescent worklights over the stage? A last-resort solution could be to just put blacklight tubes in those and flip them on and off as usual.

 

[Theresa]

We've used 6 sets of 4' fluorescent work lights with black light bulbs, along the front of the stage floor and braced so they face upstage. They worked well with in 10' of the lights.

 

[derekleffew]

... Some thread mentioned the Lee 181 gel. ...

Just in case the thread didn't mention it--this does not work, with any degree of success anyway. While L181 can simulate the visible portion of black light, its the invisible that we want. Any filter can only subtract from a source's spectrum, it can not add what's not there in the first place. True UV is 380 nm and shorter. L181 peaks at 410 nm; an incandescent lamp produces 400-700 nm.