Need help with lighting and gobos please!!!

[sleepnowmoon]

Hello! I have been researching lighting and gobos for the past month and have found most of my information through this website. Such a fantastic resource and everyone is so helpful so I thought maybe some of you could assist me with some questions I have.

I am finishing up my last semester as an undergrad studying visual arts. I have been working with light, shadow, and projection for the past year. Right now I am working on a light installation where I will basically fill a room with patterned light (using gobos and some sort of light). I will have the lights situated somehow to where when the viewer enters the space they will automatically interrupt the light that is being projected onto the wall. The space is 43 feet long x 13 feet wide x 8 feet high, so it's basically a hallway.

So my question is: What can I use as a light (90 watt clamp, flashlight, professional lighting, etc.) and what can I use as a gobo (aluminum pie sheet, acetate, etc)? I've talked with theater lighting companies and they've suggested 50 degree Shakespeare's, source 4's, and LED gobo projectors. These are all fantastic but my budget is basically non existent. I've thought about using a 90 watt spotlight and creating a gobo with aluminum pie sheets but this will have to hold up for 6 hours a day and I'm just not sure if this would last. I've also tossed around the idea of creating a gobo for a flashlight and just using that since the flashlight uses LED's just like the LED projector (may be a bit of a stretch but I'm trying to stay open to any plausible way of making this installation happen). At this point I'm running out of ideas and time and need help! I kind of just jumped in head first with this installation without realizing all the elements of lighting. But I'm learning a lot and hopefully with your help I can execute this installation successfully. Thank you in advance for all of your help!

 

[Clifford]

Without knowing exactly what effect you're going for, or how the surfaces in the hallway are treated, it's hard to say what will and will not work. However, based on what you've provided and some assumptions about college art installations, I can provide the following information:

For a 40 foot throw, you're going to want something with the output of one of the professional fixtures the rental companies listed. LED flashlights are often not particularly bright, especially the cheaper ones. The nicer ones that run on CR123A batteries are expensive, and so are the batteries. The ones that run on AA batteries don't typically have the life to run on their higher setting for more than an hour. More importantly, they just aren't going to be able to fill the space. The flashlights in the 150+ lumens range (tactical flashlights, etc) tend to have a fairly narrow beam, and won't fill a 40'x13' hallway, especially at the end with the light source. Not only will it not be very bright (compare ~150-250 lumens to 14,000+ lumens with a Source4 with 750W lamp), but you won't get the fill you need. Other styles of of flashlights, like krypton-bulb units are going to have similar power and output problems as well.

The second problem has to do with using gobos. The word 'gobo' is a shortening of 'go before optics' and they work because they're inserted at a very specific point in the fixture. It goes before the lens(es), and at a specific distance from various components in the fixture. This allows you to focus the image (or leave it in any state of focus you wish, if you don't want the image sharply defined). Sticking a pattern or shape in front of a flashlight may or may not give you your desired effect. If you want an image very out of focus and abstract, you might be able to get the effect to work; but more than likely it will just make a large dark blob in the field of light. If, however, you want something well-defined and sharply in focus, your options are far more limited. You'll have trouble finding anything with that feature outside theatre fixtures, moving lights or projection.

As for how to get lights to do the installation with, does your university have a theatre, or theatre or film departments? If so, they may be able to loan you equipment (or rent it to you at a discount) and provide you with additional help for your project. I'm sorry if this didn't sound very supportive, but without a budget, making things like this work can be difficult. Again, see what resources are available to you on campus before you go out trying to spend money.

 

[Grog12]

Basically on such a limited budget you're going to have to go for the movie style of pattern. They'll use a wash light then put a piece of fencing or some other object that will block light and allow light through it and move it back and forth in front of the wash light until they achieve the desired "focus."