Lighting budget question

[gafftaper]

Although the Pacifics are impressive fixtures, when compared to source four, ETC comes out as a much better value.

Check your facts. Selecons with fixed focus lenses are higher than ETC but what you want are the zooms anyway and they are nearly the same price as an S4 zoom. You'll save the difference in money in the saved gel you would burn out quickly in the S4 zoom.

Sample of prices from Production Advantage's website (I paid less in a package purchase through my local dealer last year):
ETC S4 Zoom 22-50 $450
Selecon Pacific Zoom 575/750 watt lamp $483
Selecon Pacific Zoom 1000 watt lamp $463

By the way occasionally someone's on here talking about these long running shows where they have a lot of heavy saturated gel and they spend tons of money replacing gel all the time. Switch to Selecons and your gel's will last a LOT longer.

 

[church]

I have to agree with WAYNEHOSKINS. I have Colortran 5/50s and their earlier incarnation, plus Strand, plus CCT plus Source 4 in my inventory and I keep them all clean, benched and with good shutters. They all work well, they all have their advantages and sure they all have disadvantages.

However I do not understand why the OP claims the Ctrans are so hard to change the lenses. i have some spare C'Tran barrels the same as I do for S4 and strand fixtures, they are all easy to swap. I have different lenses for the Ctrans, S4s and Strands (and field stops for C'TRAN) so I can make up degrees that I don't use so often - it only takes a couple of minutes per fixture so I don't understand why you need to "dismantle the fixture to change the lens".

Also re repairing the Ctrans you can strip one into a kit of parts in minutes, clean and rebuild the entire thing in 20 minutes or less. Same for the Strand units I have - although some Strand fixtures are an absolute nightmare, the S4 is straightforward until you need to change the reflector.

The only fixtures I have scrapped are radial lekos with stepped lenses simply because the cost of EGE lamps was such that for the amount of light I was getting they were not worth replacing when I could repair fresnels with the P28 lamp bases.

A good rule of thumb is keep it repaired and keep it working.

 

[awhaley]

Victor, we're just going to have to disagree on this I suppose. I'm sorry you were so frustrated by your experience with that designer... But at the same time I'd defend his right to do what he did if the show looked good in the end. Designers do lots of weird stuff that makes us roll our eyes when we have to swing the wrench on it, but if they're going for a specific look and they have the tools to get there then they should do it and the crew should support them. The VL1000 is a nice light, but like anything else, it's not for everything. Though I think I would have traded away a little 'quality of light preference' to save the hanging and focussing of 100 lights personally. That's a lot of time that could have been spent programming....

The Altman quality of light isn't bad, it's just different. It is less 'perfect,' but when you're lighting a scene that isn't supposed to look clean and perfect, this can be desireable. Saying that a S-4 can do everything an altman can do and more is like saying we should all drive crew cab trucks because they can do everything a car can do and more. It's technically true, but it doesn't make the truck the right answer for every trip you take- they drive differently and can each have their uses. The 360Q is softer with a steeper falloff curve, and the imperfection of the focus can be desirable. If I want to do soft sunlight through tree branches and not have chromatic aberation make it look like I gelled everything red and blue, I pick the altman fixtures every time I have the chance. I know the S-4s are marginally easier for the electricians to maintain and work with, but I want a certain look and sometimes the 360Q gives me that. As for gobo rotation... designers and technicians used to know how to put the gobo in the right way the first time... Not saying I don't use the rotating barrel.... just that it's possible to put it in the way you want it in the old ones too if you think ahead of time. I DO know that if you then want to turn it 5 degrees this is a (literally) painful thing to do... but it can be done. As an LD, I do try to make life as easy as I can for the electricians... but never at the expense of a design idea. (This is NOT me saying that it's okay to abuse the crew! There's REAL value in taking care of those guys and gals, both because it's the right thing to do and because they take care of you too! But I WILL choose to work them a little harder (for example, dealing with two kinds of lekos) to get my design right, because that's my primary responsibility. I'll just bring in a case or two of beer after focus to make up for the extra work I caused!)

Art

 

[BNEL]

None related question. What is the size of your venue and school district? I am managing 3 venues and only have $6k to keep it going. Did you build your budget up over the years? Did you need to fight for the $16k budget. What is your budget breakdown?

 

[quarterfront]

Following up re. the C'trans and barrel changes....

About 5 years ago I stopped doing barrel changes on the 'trans. As the LD I don't have to argue with anybody but myself when I wish my standing inventory of 20deg/30deg/40deg 'trans isn't exactly the distribution I'd like, so I made a decision to set fixed numbers of beamspreads and forced myself to live with it.

The reasons for this were twofold:

1) While converting a C'tran barrel isn't all that labor intensive, it did slow down rehang a little, which means it adds man-hours which means money.

2) The most wear and tear on the instruments, hands down, was coming from cracking the barrels open, moving the lenses around, and putting them back together. The process is easy but a little clumsy, especially up in the catwalks. Lenses get chipped, the silicon lense cushions don't always get seated properly and then fall out and get lost, etc...

This is a compromise that I made and accepted with keeping the units in service as long as possible in mind.

The C'trans don't have the sharp edge snap of S-4's, nor do they have the higher color temp. I use the S-4's I have where those characteristics matter most. I have a couple old Altman 6x12's too. Their useful characteristic is that light comes out the end of the barrel, which is handy for lighting the hand-sign interperters - no reason they can't do this until the yokes rust off of 'em. If I had a dozen of 'em instead of just 2 I'd use 'em for a soft wash of some sort.

 

[chris325]

One of the things that I do like about Selecon (despite the price) is their versatility. The ability to print out gobos onto a transparency would be amazing for my high school, as we use (or at least would like to use) custom gobos often. It would also be useful in terms of gel life- the C'trans destroy gels ridiculously fast. Although I still think that ETC has the best value economically, I do like the Pacifics, and we are thinking of purchasing several lekos to use primarily as 30 degrees.

One another note, I've found that the tiny screws that hold together C'tran lekos get lost really easily, and they are very difficult to find or replace.

 

[quarterfront]

One another note, I've found that the tiny screws that hold together C'tran lekos get lost really easily, and they are very difficult to find or replace.

"Rationalizations are more important than sex. Have you ever seen anybody go a day without a rationalization?" - Woody Allen