Conventional Fixtures Cyc Lights Not Blending

[marcusianl]

Hello everyone,

In preparation for my high school's production of Seussical, I'm trying to get our cyc lights, which have never been very cooperative, to blend properly. We have 7 of what I believe to be Altman 3-cell cyc lights, outfitted with red, green, and blue cyc silk, equally spaced along a ~45' batten above our 42'x25' stage.

Despite multiple arrangements of spacing and height, I can't seem to get the colors to go together nicely, and I usually end up with the middle half of the cyc the desired color, the top quarter broken up in to the component colors, and the bottom quarter unlit. I'm a student and have only been working with lighting about 9 months, so I'm not sure if I'm missing something big. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

-Marcus

P.S. My set designer would like to use a ground row and we have ground StagePins along the floor. It might be a stretch, but it would be nice to light the cyc from top and bottom to fill out that unlit area towards the bottom. Would this work with only 7 units?

 

[Les]

It sounds like your cyc lights are too close. Typical distance is around 6-8 feet from the cyc, and ideally, they will be about that same distance apart. Is there any way you can move your cyc lights back an electric?

 

[shiben]

You probably only need 6 of the units, if you space them according to the feet on centers is the same as the distance from the cyc rule.

 

[rochem]

First question is, how far is your Cyc Electric from your cyc? Altman recommends that you put them the same distance from the cyc as the distance between fixtures, so for your purpose that'd probably be at least 6 feet downstage of the cyc.

As for the ground row, yes that will help a lot in getting an even wash, and will also give you more color mixing capabilities. Do you have any strips you could use? You wouldn't want to pull some of your Sky Cycs down to use as a ground row, that wouldn't work the way you want it to. If you have some R40 striplights or similar, those would probably wok best.

EDIT: Do your cyc lights look anything like the picture in this document, except with only three cells?

 

[marcusianl]

The cyc electric is at most 3 feet downstage of the cyc. Our theatre was not originally built with a cyc. It was installed a few years after construction.

Moving the lights down an electric would be tricky, because the next electric is about 10 feet downstage of the cyc, and there is a border in between. Next time I'm in the space, I'll take more accurate measurements. Would increasing the height above the cyc help?

We do have 6 15-cell, 3-control Altman strips, which I could definitely take down for use as a ground row (perhaps three of them?)

 

[Footer]

When you put in the frost, which way are the lines running? Upstage/Downstage or SL/SR?

 

[marcusianl]

Pretty sure upstage/downstage.

 

[seanandkate]

If you can't move them downstage a pipe, could you backhang them on their present pipe? Not ideal, but it will buy you another foot of throw . . .

 

[marcusianl]

By backhang, you mean mount them such that they are being held as far away from the cyc as possible? If so, I could, but it wouldn't be easy to get them even.

 

[kiwitechgirl]

Could you brail or breast line the electric downstage without causing issues with the border? It won't gain you 3 feet, I wouldn't think, but would give you a bit more distance.

 

[marcusianl]

If it comes to that, I will, but I'd rather not because there are constantly students in our space who could mess with the electrics, probably wreaking havoc if there were lines run.

 

[shiben]

Do you have a spare batten at the right distance not interfered with by the border? You could always put the lights on that pipe and then run in a drop box or a mult off the floor?

 

[marcusianl]

Hmm... I think that would work. Most of the lights are wired up with extensions anyways just to get the right dimmer control (the space was renovated last year and they wired it horribly, multiple outlets on the same dimmer with little rhyme or reason) and they would probably reach to the next batten.

Thanks for the advice everyone, I'll try these ideas this coming week and report how they work out.

 

[rochem]

When you put in the frost, which way are the lines running? Upstage/Downstage or SL/SR?

Pretty sure upstage/downstage.

I must have missed this earlier. Try rotating the gels so that the lines are running SL/SR. This will spread the light more evenly across the cyc, but it may reduce some of the light on the lower part of the cyc. Give it a try and see which you like better.

 

[marcusianl]

Thanks for the tip. Horizontal spread may be better if I end up implementing a ground row.

 

[iLightTheStage]

I must have missed this earlier. Try rotating the gels so that the lines are running SL/SR. This will spread the light more evenly across the cyc, but it may reduce some of the light on the lower part of the cyc. Give it a try and see which you like better.

If the lines of the silk are running upstage/downstage, then the spread is already across SR/SL. If it is changed so the lines are SR/SL, then the spread would be from the top to the bottom of the cyc, not really helpful to blend the colors better.