Boomerang - Past optics?

Charc

Well-Known Member
I'm wondering where the boomerang is in most follow-spots. Between the optics, or in front of them, or what? Let me try and clarify the use quickly. I've started preliminary research for the show. I'm considering using followspots on Amadeus to pull him out of the scene when he narrates/address the audience. Now I have yet to finish the script (Hey, I did say preliminary, right?), but I feel like these followspots should be gelled with an unrealistic, or almost dreamlike color, as he is reminiscing. To enhance this concept, I wanted to soften the focus, and add some sort of gobo to breakup the edge of the light. It would be, in essence, a circle, with a jagged edge. Now maybe this is really unconventional or just plain bad, but that was my first thought reading this script. Now, I was wondering, is there anyone to safely put a gobo in a followspot? Is this even possible? I'm also worried about beam diameter with this gobo. I assume it'd have to be a shop-built piece. And where is the boomerang in relation to the optics, I mean, otherwise it wouldn't be a gobo, right? Any thoughts are welcomed.
 
Being Australian I naturally looked immediately at a post bearing the word Boomerang.
I have certainly used follow spots with gobo slots and I have used follow spots without gobo slots. I'm a bit out of date on the newer gear and I'm on a different continent so the lanterns would be different but the idea certaily works. I used a CCT 2K followspot with a heart gobo once for the finale of "The Boyfriend".
AS far as whether the idea is a good one or not. You are the designer. If the image fits with your design and you still feel strongly about that when you have got further then it's a good idea. I don't believe there are bad ideas as such. There are concepts that don't work but that means that when you get into the theatre and start the tech's if it doesn't work the way you envisaged it you may need to modify it or drop it. That doesn't mean it was wrong or bad as an idea it simply means it didn't work this time.
 
Whether or not a gobo is possible depends on the make and model of the followspot.

Boomerangs are after all but I think one of the lenses. Again this may vary.

Gobo in the boomerang? No. If you can use a gobo chances are it will be in a gobo holder and the unit has a gobo slot.

Midget 2k's have a gobo slot.
 
Color boomerang is usually the last thing in the light path in most follow spots. The interior temperatures in most spots get high enough to melt gel even without light passing through it, so putting the color as far away from the light source is most practical.

As for templates, some follow spots are designed to accept them and some are not. The Robert Juliats that I own accept an A size template (using an RJ template holder). In theory you could put a template in any follow spot if you mount it at the gate (or where the gate would be). There is nothing unconventional or bad about using templates in follow spots.
 
Wow 3 replies in 10 minutes and it's the middle of the night... well not for Logos... great idea Charc, you just need the right follow spot to do it.
 
Wow 3 replies in 10 minutes and it's the middle of the night... well not for Logos... great idea Charc, you just need the right follow spot to do it.

Hmm. I don't think our followspots (Lycian Midget 1209) have those gates. Shoot.

Well I guess I'll just play with color for the effect, or perhaps consider a narration spot, but I don't think our actors can hit the same spot consistently.
 
Depending on this placement and how active the person is onstage (moving, that is) you may be able to off-set some of the sharp followspot light with a gobo or two placed somwhere in a conventional. I'm not sure, though...it depends on placement...however, if this was the case I would just use a conventional and no followspot if he wasn't moving.
 
To fuzz out the edge of the beam just add some L119 to the boomerang. So when you need the spot they throw in the L119 and what ever your other Colour is.
JH

Can I put two gels in the same boomerang flag? (dunno what to call it?)

I'll assume that L119 is some type of diffuser, will that work with a gel?

The reason I ask is that our boomerang only allows one color up at a time, besides the douser and the prism, I guess it's a prism, it's really weird. What is that for?
 
A diffuser would certainly work with a gel; it'll reduce your focus and light output combined with the gel, but it'd work in the same boomerang slot as your gel.

Worst case, if you can figure out a way to do it, I think you could just hold up/blacktak some of it on the front of your followspot, if you don't want to screw with your boomerang.
 
Yes just combine it with a gell in the same slot.

The benifit to keeping them seperate is that you can use it with multiple colours.

L119 is a difusion gell.
JH
 
I am standing next to a 1209 and yes it has a gobo slot right in front of the iris control. (It's the odd shaped notch in the iris control opening.) To be anyway near focus, the gobo has to be very near the iris gate, that's the trick. As for size, the best thing to do is make up a couple of throw-away samples out of junk metal and work by trial and error. The other way would be to set the iris to the right size, shut down the spot, open it and measure the iris opening. (lot of trouble) Good luck!
 
I am standing next to a 1209 and yes it has a gobo slot right in front of the iris control. (It's the odd shaped notch in the iris control opening.) To be anyway near focus, the gobo has to be very near the iris gate, that's the trick. As for size, the best thing to do is make up a couple of throw-away samples out of junk metal and work by trial and error. The other way would be to set the iris to the right size, shut down the spot, open it and measure the iris opening. (lot of trouble) Good luck!

Wow great, I never noticed it!. Is there any difference between the arc and incandescent versions? Is it standard B size, or will I need to buy a pattern holder?
 
Sorry for the double post, just caught the question about the prism. It is actually a spread lens used to make a wide stage shot. Unfortunately, it usually rotates into the wrong direction and makes a big blob of diagonal light! (It can be played with and fixed in place with a dab of ge silicon.) As for the color boom, if your 1209s are like my 1209s then you can engage more than one color. It is a self-canceling boom, but you only have to bring them up at the same time and both will latch. Speaking of 1209 boom problems, I finally took those return springs off the douser! Kept working its way open during blackout color changes.
 
Wow! Real time here! The 1206 is an incandescent spot, the 1209 is HMI. Off hand, I don't know what features are different. Let me look up their website.
 
Wow our posts are really overlapping. Thanks for the links though, I did find them and the guts, and I do have a gobo slot. Speaking of Midget problems, not Lycian's fault, but my boomerangs are missing the screw knobs, and I'm missing a handle, grr.
 
Darn it, I could have told you about the gobo slot if you had said you had a 1206 earlier. :(

And what JD was saying about is 1209 also holds true in a 1206. If you put up two colors at the same time, they'll both stay up, even though it's "self-canceling."

And that weird diffusion stuff that's in the spot that makes it a weird blob...does anyone else know what that's for? I dont have access to the theater any more to check it out, I guess ifyou did it a little bit it diffuses a little, but all the way, ew.
 
Lycian calls it a "Spread Lens" basically a linticular lens that allows you to cover the whole stage (provided its aligned right.) Personally, I would rather have a sixth gel frame, and one of these days I might just convert mine! Actually, if it's a static frame, like a color correction filter, it might be better as a non-canceling frame ;)
 

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