Creating a standard stock of gel

S

SanTai

Active Member
I need some advice on buying alot(for our organization) of gel.

We are getting funds to buy about 15-20 rolls of gel to create a basic stock. It will be used for Musicals, Concert, Dance and Theatre. Our suppliers have SuperGel, E-Colour and Lee. The plan is to use supergel when possible. We have each year a budget to buy 1-2 rolls of gel to resupplie and buy if we are missing something, but we are going to be stuck with these 15-20 rolls for a while and there will be a lot of different people using them, so we would like that they are useful for many tasks/or different shows.

What would you buy if you were buying a 15-20 rolls to use for Musicals, Concert, Dance and Theatre?

These are some of our thoughts:

Warm:

R01 Light Bastard Amber
R02 Bastard Amber
R11 Light Straw
R33 No Color Pink
L103/RE103 Straw

Cold:

R53 Pale Lavender
R61 Mist Blue
R66 Cool Blue
R62 Booster Blue

Effect/Specials:

R27 Medium Red
R80 Primary Blue
R91 Primary Green

R357 Royal Lavender
R382 Congo Blue
R385 Royal Blue

R343 Neon Pink
R73 Peacock Blue
R49 Medium Purple

Any comments?
Suggestions?
Ideas?
 
why "rolls" why not sheets
when i started my stock I bought 3 sheets of each roscolux (supergel) color (enough for a full bax wash)
each year when stock of any color drops below 3, I restock that color to 5 sheets. Some colors that are more popular I stock more of.
it is easy for me to justify having 3 sheets of any one color.
 
I could see buying rolls of 26, 27, 80, 91, 382, and maybe 385. And maybe any other really saturated colors that you find that you like. Anything else I would just buy by the sheet, 3-5 sheets would probably be fine depending on what cut sizes you would need. Also I don't see any diffusion listed, I would want some R101, R114, and R119 at a minimum.
 
The reason we are planning on rolls instead of sheets are two-fold. 1, The economic situation is kind of strange and money for gels is never guaranteed(I could very well be 2 years without any new gels being bought). 2, The gels will also be used for two simultaneous tours in smaller theaters were gels are not supplied and at the same time the have the house gelled. We have felt that having fewer option but being able to have the same color for the front wash if you want to is nice.

Any advice on which colors are the best to buy?
 
Perhaps this list of Apollo's 11 most popular colors will help?
Kelite said:
...I'll do my best to give you accurate info regarding the top 11 Apollo colors we sell, as this report was run at 9:41 am today for your viewing please. Here goes:

1. 4250 Apollo Blue
2. 8300 Diva Red
3. 8350 Bludgeon Red
4. 7450 Golden Amber
5. 1650 Light Textured
6. 7050 Fatherless Amber
7. 8550 Bit of Pink
8. 5400 RnR Green
9. 4350 Sultry Blue
10. 7600 Apollo Orange
11. 4200 Bright Blue

We keep track of the top 144 colors list and I'll recheck at year's end to see how these colors have moved around within the pack. ...
Click to expand...
Here it is translated to Roscolux/Supergel (via iSwatch, NOT verified by a human):
1. R68
2. R26
3. R27
4. R21
5. R114/R119
6. R03
7. R33
8. R90
9. R69
10. R23
11. R81
One can debate whether two reds and three blues are necessary, but all in all it's not a bad list, if one had to pick only 11 colors.
 
Which colors are the most common for front wash?

If you had too choose 4-5 cold and 4-5 warm colors for a general stage wash that are the most requested and used, which would those be?
 
A 24"x25' roll of gel is 100 bucks. In that roll you can cut 15 "standard" sized sheets. 15 standard sized sheets is 107 bucks. You really are not saving that much by going with rolls. Granted, if properly stored and cut, you have much less "offcuttings" which can pay off. However, you are then stuck with the 11 colors you buy. Sounds like you have about 1200 bucks to play with here. That is roughly 170 sheets. 8 sheets worth of 20 colors that you will be happy with. 8 sheets with give you 48 cuts in 7.5", 72 in 6.25". That is a lot of color. Total, you talking at least a thousand cuts.

One of the issues you are running into here is what everyone runs into when designing a rep plot. Because you have no basis to pick your color by, you tend to pick pretty lame and safe colors. You will also find that your designs start to get stale because you are using the same colors. I would have at least two different rep colors for every system you have. Have your safe "corporate" colors but also have your balls to the wall killer color. Don't buy yourself into a corner.

I would advise to buy your rep color but don't buy as much. Once a year, pick one show and buy ALL new color for it. Over time you will build up a pretty good color inventory as well as not letting your designs get stale.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for all the Advice!

I will speak with "the powers that be" and our suppliers to see what we can do. If we can buy cuts instead.

Why are diffusers so popular? We have mostly fresnels and PARs, what does a diffusers offers on a zoom ERS that you can not get buy playing with the focus?
 
For one thing, a linear diffusion can make the oval beam of a PAR Almost circular.
 
Footer said:
A 24"x25' roll of gel is 100 bucks. In that roll you can cut 15 "standard" sized sheets. 15 standard sized sheets is 107 bucks. You really are not saving that much by going with rolls. Granted, if properly stored and cut, you have much less "offcuttings" which can pay off. However, you are then stuck with the 11 colors you buy. Sounds like you have about 1200 bucks to play with here. That is roughly 170 sheets. 8 sheets worth of 20 colors that you will be happy with. 8 sheets with give you 48 cuts in 7.5", 72 in 6.25". That is a lot of color. Total, you talking at least a thousand cuts.
Click to expand...


Footer, glad you brought up the roll price as well- For someone who doesn't mind cutting a little gel, it's a money saver over buying sheet stock.

However- if you take advantage of Apollo's 20% off April Special and have a 2' x 25' roll Perfed for FREE- you have $4.90 per sheet gel pricing without breaking out your scissors! (At MSRP, of course, which some dealers discount further.)

Half rolls of gel can be Perfed for free resulting in sheets @ $5.25

Regular 20x24 inch sheets may be purchased at $5.92 MSRP during the month of April-


April Gel Special.png
 
SanTai said:
...Why are diffusers so popular? We have mostly fresnels and PARs, what does a diffusers offers on a zoom ERS that you can not get buy playing with the focus?
Click to expand...
See the following threads on uses of diffusion media :
http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/lighting-electrics/24102-good-use-frost.html
http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/lighting-electrics/8629-blue-edge-brown-edge.html
http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/lighting-electrics/13852-different-types-diffusion.html
-----
Footer said:
... as well as not letting your designs get stale.
Click to expand...
I don't know what you mean by stale. Just because I've used R02 (and before that, 802) as frontlight for every show I've ever done in the past thirty-five years, doesn't mean the designs are stale.
 
Last edited:
I do small concert and most of the time I never get a light plot for the acts and when I get their they don't like the gel selection. So I want to get a bundle of some gels that people use most often. I want a few red ambers yellow greens blue violets or anything else one might think I would use.
 
Contact the bands before the show to see what they want, or to give them options. If they won't communicate with you then tough luck they get what they get. Some gel I use on a a regular basis are: R12, R21, R26, R27, R339, R42, R49, R58, R68, R80, R385, R89, R91, Lee 181. There are lots of options out there, and everyone has their own go to colors. Something else to consider is some retailers are clearancing all of their GAM stock at really low prices. While GAM isn't usually the most rider friendly color, if your not filling riders the cheap gel could let you buy a lot more gel and have a lot more options.
 
SanTai said:
Warm:

R01 Light Bastard Amber
R02 Bastard Amber
R11 Light Straw
R33 No Color Pink
L103/RE103 Straw

Cold:

R53 Pale Lavender
R61 Mist Blue
R66 Cool Blue
R62 Booster Blue

Effect/Specials:

R27 Medium Red
R80 Primary Blue
R91 Primary Green

R357 Royal Lavender
R382 Congo Blue
R385 Royal Blue

R343 Neon Pink
R73 Peacock Blue
R49 Medium Purple

Any comments?
Suggestions?
Ideas?
Click to expand...

Warm: Blah, but safe.

Cold: Same.

Effects/Special: Love me some R27. Any other red is just orange, in my opinion. Take a look at R74 over R80. If you're going to go balls to the wall, go balls to the wall, not balls to kinda over there by the window. I would also look at R358 over R357. No real reason, I just really love R358. And I would look at R69 over R73. R73 used to be one of my rep colors, but I found that R69 is a little more forgiving, especially on dark skin. Also, if you have extremely limited funds I'd think twice about spending the money on R91. I've seen more than a few riders who had no other lighting specifications other than, "NO GREEN!"
 
MrsFooter said:
Warm: Blah, but safe.

Cold: Same.

Effects/Special: Love me some R27. Any other red is just orange, in my opinion. Take a look at R74 over R80. If you're going to go balls to the wall, go balls to the wall, not balls to kinda over there by the window. I would also look at R358 over R357. No real reason, I just really love R358. And I would look at R69 over R73. R73 used to be one of my rep colors, but I found that R69 is a little more forgiving, especially on dark skin. Also, if you have extremely limited funds I'd think twice about spending the money on R91. I've seen more than a few riders who had no other lighting specifications other than, "NO GREEN!"
Click to expand...


On a limited budget blah, but safe is ok. No one is going to complain if they go into a venue and those colors are available. They will complain if a lot of those colors aren't available though.
 
Gee, we now seem to be talking about gels for concerts and so far no mention of R39, and my favorite L108(or Rosco Ecolour 108).
 
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