Source four on a stick / spot dot

JChenault

Well-Known Member
We will be performing for a festival using the house “Source 4 on a stick” as follow spots. We will be bringing a spot dot and I am trying to figure out the best way to temporarily attach the metal mounting plate to the aluminum body of the S4. ( and where to attach) so the magnet will stick. Anyone dealt with this? Any ideas?
 
As long as you stick it down the barrel on a spot that won't get crazy hot you could use 3m mounting tape. its the double sided foam tape with varying degrees of strength. The extreme strength is hard to pull off but you can definitely do it. Thats the route I would go.
 
3m VHB is only good to 250 degrees F, but I know it can be removed with a little work.

3m Ultra high temp is the permanent one up to 540 degrees F.
 
What? You're out of aluminum magnets?

I'm thinking of something like a hose clamp around the entire barrel.
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Perhaps two, holding a ferrous plate. Still ruminating.

Or attach the plate with Black-Tak.
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Drill a hole in your spot dot base and hold it down with the barrel screw. I wouldn’t use 3M anything if it isn’t your fixture. Last thing you want is the house charging you for a fixture cause ya left tape behind.

A good spot op shouldn’t need a dot though. Just saying.
 
Drill a hole in your spot dot base and hold it down with the barrel screw. I wouldn’t use 3M anything if it isn’t your fixture. Last thing you want is the house charging you for a fixture cause ya left tape behind.

A good spot op shouldn’t need a dot though. Just saying.

It's situational. For most shows they shouldn't. But then there are those head shots from 200ft away. Or the shows where your running at 50% with a heavy diffusion and your fighting a bright wash.
 
Drill a hole in your spot dot base and hold it down with the barrel screw. I wouldn’t use 3M anything if it isn’t your fixture. Last thing you want is the house charging you for a fixture cause ya left tape behind.

A good spot op shouldn’t need a dot though. Just saying.
Every spot op I've run into in my years of touring that told me "a good spot doesn't need a sight" was the type of spot op who would miss half of their pickups and be all over the stage. Just sayin.
 
I think Mr. Leffew's answer is better than the redneck engineering concept of using duck tape and baling wire.
 
What about modifying a gel frame to hold the mounting plate.
 
It's situational. For most shows they shouldn't. But then there are those head shots from 200ft away. Or the shows where your running at 50% with a heavy diffusion and your fighting a bright wash.

Nothing like running a 3k xenon spot and trying to find your beam while a dozen upstage VL3k are hitting you in the face, and a full front wash is up 100%.

Or my favorite from The Mouse Theatrical production of Beauty/Beast - "spot 3, your next cue is to pick up the character running from upstage left to downstage right, in the dark with a head shot, you'll roll from frame 2 to frame 5 at mid stage while opening up to a half body shot, then blacking out as the character exits DSR in wing 1. Keep in mind this cue takes less time to execute than it does to call..." That made me so happy to be Spot 4. ;)
 
Thanks for the ideas guys. I will give this a shot and let you know how it goes.
 
Thanks for the ideas guys. I will give this a shot and let you know how it goes.
@JChenault Let me throw another idea at you, an idea from the days of round bodied carbon arc Super Troupers.
Two notions, same concept. Think not of peering at the stage or pointing a laser dot at the stage. Organize a mechanical dowser that allows you to leave the S4 lit at all times. (This could be as simple as a 10" square piece of black card board that you hinge with tape and fold down in front of the lens.) Find a light leak that leaks from the S4 into your booth, assuming you're in a booth. Use chalk or a sheet of cardboard on the wall or floor to make reference marks which you mark during a rehearsal or pre-show / pre-doors. Typical marks to have would include: DSC, SR entrances 1, 2 & 3, SL entrances 1, 2 & 3 as well as any specials and possibly the seat in the audience where the Mayor or guest of honor is expected to sit.
The alternative to finding a suitable light leak is to clamp a small laser pointer to the S4 that shines within your booth and use the laser pointer to chalk or Sharpie your reference marks within your booth in the same manner. I once had the misfortune of touring with a less desirable early Xenon follow spot. Not knowing anything of the booths and various elevations of the theaters I'd be finding myself in, I drilled and tapped three 6-32 holes in the top front of the lamp house behind the dowser and filled two of the three holes with a 6-32 x 1/4" bolt. Each booth I found myself in I was able to find at least one of the three holes that cast a reference mark in a workable position. My favorite pick-up on that tour was a tight head shot on the lead singer of a black trio as she stepped off of an automated platform the moment it stopped moving down stage in time with the music in a dead black out. I've been enjoying the comments about "most experienced spot operators". I was one of two touring assistant electricians, I focused the entire FOH (Approximately 200 lamps) and called the cues for two local spot operators. During load-in I'd learn who my other two spot operators were going to be, warn them of their pickups and let them know an ASM would come on stage prior to our first tech rehearsal so all three spots could get our marks. I'd ALWAYS get the "We don't need no steenkin' marks, we're pro's" line. It was always difficult to watch them blow their first pickups out of the water and not laugh out loud at them. When we got to Broadway's Shubert, my two spot-mates informed me they'd been running 'Chorus Line' for years and wouldn't be needing to make any reference marks. Yeah? You should've heard the excuses when I warned and called their go for the tight head shots on the other two members of the black trio stepping off the moving truck in PITCH BLACK. He who laughs last truly laughs best although I found it best to be sure I muted my headset immediately after calling their 'Go!' (And it was always difficult to hold my own lamp steady on the head of the center girl as she began her choreography and I was laughing myself silly.) Some memories stick with you.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
 
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Ron
I've seen the 'use the light leak method' but I don't think it will work in this case. I don't think we are in a booth ( it's not my theatre), and I don't think trying to rig up a dowser is a good idea in the time we have.

I do want to be clear about the spot dot however. It does NOT put any kind of laser dot on the stage. It puts a dot on a piece of partly silvered lens that is where the spot will shine when you bring it up. If we had pickups in the dark, I would try what you are suggesting. Fortunately we don't have that.

John
 
Just wrap it with this. This is Great Stuff!
It'll be Perfect! What could go wrong?
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It does stick to everything.
Also, when needed it sticks to everybody.
Further drifting along, for the pedants in the audience, yes you could say that Duck is wrong, it should be duct to be correct, but consider that it really isn't very good for sealing ducts. You might insist on calling it "jungle environment ammo case sealing tape".
Further adrift, was anyone else disappointed when they discovered the GaffGun wasn't really one. I was really hoping for something like a confetti cannon that could shoot out strips of duck tape, very useful for taping a duck tape perpetrator to the wall.
 
So, see, I thought that too... but apparently, "duck" is the correct original usage, for the tape originated in wartime, for military uses, and is named after the cotton duck cloth it was manufactured from... Since in most states it's actually illegal to use it to seal AC ducts now... :)
 
Actually theres no proof either way.
Duck Brand says this https://www.duckbrand.com/about
BUT
PPM and other places point out. "It is a common belief that duct tape, in the years of its early history, used to be called “duck tape”, probably referring to the name of its fabric or to its resistance to water, just like a duck bird. However, according to research, there is no reference of the name “duck tape” in any document of that time. During the War, the tape simply had no specific name."
and that it became tape for ducts (duct tape) in the 50's https://www.ppmindustries.com/en/news/long-history-duct-tape
 

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