I have a method that I use quite often that a professor told me about a few years ago. You will need 3 standard light
bulb sockets, 3 lightbulbs (generally I use 2 25
watt bulbs and one that is a little hotter a 40w or 50w, but 3 of the same wattage will work just fine) 2
fluorescent light staters, a
plug of whatever type you need for your
system, 3 shades of
gel to
cover the bulbs (generally I use a nice amber, red and a amber/yellow) and
wire to
wire it all together. In short, you
wire one
socket straight to the
plug, this light will be a constant on and provide the glow of the fire (I color this one with the orange
gel), next
wire the last two sockets, but this time, add a
fluorescent starter on the supply
wire to each of them. What the starter does is provide a random flicker in the light. Make sure you get a starter with the correct wattage
rating or it will not work. I then usually
gel these light with the red and yellow. And once you have that done you can attach the sockets to a board that fits in your
barrel, and
plug it in.
The nice thing about this set up is 1. You only need one
dimmer 2. You can dim it, and record it into your
cue easily 3. You dont have to spend time programing an
effect 4. once you've made the set up you dont have to again, unlike a programed
effect that you would have to re-write and finally 5. Like a real fire, it will always flicker totally randomly, unlike an
effect that can get repetitive.
I know that I gave a breif explaination, but if you are more interested I can take a picture of my set up and post it, if that would help to explain things.
Good Luck!