Cyc Backdrop

[nmccoart5]

I am designing a show for my school, and am having a small dilemma. Below are the two sides of the argument, please tell me what one you feel is best.

Idea A:
Three pieces of white fabric, 16' tall x 4' wide will be positioned along the back curtain. Using CK ColorBlasts, 2 per section, we will light the fabric from the bottom to make a color changing panel effect.

Idea B:
Get a 35' wide x 16' tall cyc and position it along the back curtain. Light the cyc from the bottom using Altman R40 strip lights with red, blue, and red gels to mix colors.

I feel that the led option is much more flexible, and will offer more creativity and be more appealing to the eye. My fellow designer is in favor of Idea B, as it will save costs of renting the leds, however i have the budget to rent the 6 colorblasts for the show. Please leave any remarks about this situation!
Thanks.

 

[derekleffew]

"Best" is such a subjective term. (I'm sure you meant Red, Blue, and Green gels in the strips, right?) No answers, only more questions...

Is this a concert/revue/variety show and not a realistic play or musical?
So you have the R40 striplights, but would have to rent the ColorBlasts?
If Idea B, would you have to rent the cyc, and how much would that cost?
Do you have five or six 6" x 6' 12-lamp strips?
Do you have the fifteen or eighteen dimmers available to circuit each color of each unit individually?
150R40/FL, 150R40/SP, 300R40/FL, 300R40/SP lamps or other?
Do you already have linear diffusion (Rx104, Rx113, or L228) in the R40 strips?
Idea A = three 4' wide "banners," totaling 12', on a 35' wide stage, leaving 23' of dark?

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Idea C: Use three striplights on three banners, thus nine dimmers?
Idea D: Rent six ColorBlaze72s, in 36-channel mode (216 DMX channels) and every 6" can be a different color?

 

[gcpsoundlight]

To be honest, when I have seen LED's used on cyc's, it looks very washed out.

Just my 2 cents....

 

[mstaylor]

While LEDs on a cyc is not the best idea, we did it with color blasts this past weekend and it looked pretty good. It depends on the show but I like idea A and D.

 

[Van]

Personally, while I feel LED technology IS the wave of the future, it is not quite ready for prime time. As gcpsoundlight stated they tend to look washed out on cycs. I had a Color Blast demoed here not too long ago and that was my opinion as well. Sencondly i simply do not like the colors one attains from LED fixtures, at this time. I posted this opinion elsewhere on here once. There is something not-quite-right about the colors and Cyc washes need to have, IMHO, subtle change-ability.

 

[Goph704]

Silly Question
Option E, Could you do both? I mean wash your Cyc in conventionals and then back light your panels with the color blasts? do you have the line sets and the space to try something like that? You'd have to be a little creative to keep a lot of spill from happening, but it could be done. And call me crazy even if the colors don't match well that would still look kinda cool.
Even if you had to you could set your Color blasts in stand alone mode and have them do a slow scroll while you mixed the Cyc in the back ground? maybe that would case a headache. You I think you could set it on just one color and leave it without going to control? Or if you can do control, Do it and that would be awesome. What kind of control are you playing with ?
but it sounds like your buddy needs to play around with new tech some more and you need to look at conventional solutions. This would be a good meeting of the minds for both of you. Option C will save you time money and hassle, while option D will get you great color control. Option E would blow your budget, but you could really get the effect your going for. What do you think?


And that's a couple of my pennies your way.
-Goph.

 

[JChenault]

I think you are asking the wrong question. Your two approaches would give radically different looks. One would be a single cyc with color control. The other would be multiple panels you could light. Which one is better for your show? Or would something else like a solid back cyc with panels in front of them be even better?

Once you have answered that question, then you can think about how to implement - or cut your design as necessary for reasons of time, space, equipment, money, etc. But you have to start with the vision. Don't think of it as the 'led option' think of it as the 'Three panel option'.

Ask yourself the question 'Which look do I want' before you start thinking about what technology to use to get the look.