Tawil: I pioneered the first deep-dyed polyesters at
Colortran, called
Gelatran. Before that, you had acetate and you had gels. But we were now making very small, high-intensity
tungsten halogen light fixtures that disintegrated the gels. I came across the dyed polyester and thought that we could create a product. It was far more expensive; the original
Gelatran was $4 a sheet, when
Cinemoid was only 75 cents and
gel was 35 cents. Most designers said they would not use it--they all said it was too expensive. I pointed out that they had no choice, because they had all these new
tungsten-halogen lights and the other stuff wasn't working. About a year after we first introduced the first deep-dyed polyester color filters, Jules Fisher, who said he'd never use it on Broadway, used it on a show. He said, "We figured out the cost of bringing in an electrics crew for a
gel change, and if we can go from a three-week to a six-week cycle, we'll pay for the
gel in the first
gel change. And if the show runs, we're saving money forever after." Designers started to use it. But then I left
Colortran and they sold it. Years went by and I thought, this is too good a product to let it die. So in 1987, we reintroduced it.
