Techiegirly
Member
I did a search and read previous posts to pick up some tips about this situation but I have a very specific problem and I need more specific answers so here goes:
I work in a childrens theatre that runs year round the same show sometimes 6 days a week 4 shows a day depending on the time of year. During a busy time I'm literally changing out gels in 10 of our units (6" Fresnels) that have R74 (night blue) every other day (or every 4 shows or so). 1 of the Fresnels in particular burns through VERY quickly. Sometimes I have to change him out before I change out the other 9. The theatre is very small in that most of the lights aren't more than 10 or 15' from the stage and they can all be seen from the audience. The Fresnel I struggle with constantly is such a headache because this set of Fresnels are used all alone basically at one point in the show to create night time so I can't see myself poking holes in the gels although I've been tempted to with mixed enthusiasm.
I was thinking of using a gel extender but have done a Google search and had no luck finding any. Do they even exist for this particular fixture? If they did exist would it even work? The light is about 12-15' off the ground above the stage, wouldn't a BUNCH of light end up showing through and make this idea look pretty stupid and useless? I couldn't use a top hat because the light is so close to the stage, it would ruin the focus.
Is it the light itself? I assume so since it burns through more quickly then the other 9 lights with R74 they are all pretty much used as often as one another in that they are a group on the board and mainly get used together. Does it need to be bench focused? Can a Fresnel even be bench focused? I feel so stupid asking that...
What if I took the lens off? Would that make the difference? Isn't that unsafe if say the lamp were to break suddenly the lens would provide a barrier of protection certainly wouldn't it?
I've run every idea through my little brain and I'm dying for a solution. Since this show is a permanent install I think it's important to solve this issue since we go through so many sheets of gel per week. Keep in mind we use heat sheild. We put the R74 in one frame and then the heat sheild in another frame behind it. I feel as though the heat sheild might be helping but really I can't say for sure since the only gap in between the 2 is very tiny (think 2 gels frames loaded into a Fresnel...not much space).
Any ways...what would you do?
I work in a childrens theatre that runs year round the same show sometimes 6 days a week 4 shows a day depending on the time of year. During a busy time I'm literally changing out gels in 10 of our units (6" Fresnels) that have R74 (night blue) every other day (or every 4 shows or so). 1 of the Fresnels in particular burns through VERY quickly. Sometimes I have to change him out before I change out the other 9. The theatre is very small in that most of the lights aren't more than 10 or 15' from the stage and they can all be seen from the audience. The Fresnel I struggle with constantly is such a headache because this set of Fresnels are used all alone basically at one point in the show to create night time so I can't see myself poking holes in the gels although I've been tempted to with mixed enthusiasm.
I was thinking of using a gel extender but have done a Google search and had no luck finding any. Do they even exist for this particular fixture? If they did exist would it even work? The light is about 12-15' off the ground above the stage, wouldn't a BUNCH of light end up showing through and make this idea look pretty stupid and useless? I couldn't use a top hat because the light is so close to the stage, it would ruin the focus.
Is it the light itself? I assume so since it burns through more quickly then the other 9 lights with R74 they are all pretty much used as often as one another in that they are a group on the board and mainly get used together. Does it need to be bench focused? Can a Fresnel even be bench focused? I feel so stupid asking that...
What if I took the lens off? Would that make the difference? Isn't that unsafe if say the lamp were to break suddenly the lens would provide a barrier of protection certainly wouldn't it?
I've run every idea through my little brain and I'm dying for a solution. Since this show is a permanent install I think it's important to solve this issue since we go through so many sheets of gel per week. Keep in mind we use heat sheild. We put the R74 in one frame and then the heat sheild in another frame behind it. I feel as though the heat sheild might be helping but really I can't say for sure since the only gap in between the 2 is very tiny (think 2 gels frames loaded into a Fresnel...not much space).
Any ways...what would you do?