studio beam or spot??

dj_illusions

Active Member
Hey yall...

We are doing fame in a few months and I am operating and desiging lighting aswell as co-designing the static fixtures.

our set is very industrial, built mainly from scaffolding and features garage doors etc. however costumes are bright in the traditional fame colours.

we decided to use moving lights for special effect lighting during hte dance and song numbers, however Im not sure if a studio beam or studio spot would be more appropriate. On one hand you have the wider beam good for bright colours and defined beams, and the other the smaller beam good for pinpointing out special things more so than just random "rock style" lighting.

I want to do a bit of both however, I am not sure if the studio spot or studio beam would suit the show better, what is everyone's thoughts?

I am also looking at using our venue's strand 500 console to operate the movers as oppose to getting a seperate desk. Just wanted to hear from people who have used a strand to drive a moving light and if it was relativly easy?? do they have the pallettes and whatever like hogs, and buttons and wheeles to just change like the gobo or whatever?

thanks!
 
I would mix and match. Don't go to overboard with the programing though. Keep it simple. Keep in mind that it not Brittany Spears and a broadway musical :) . Have fun with it.
 
The big questions are do you want CMY mixing or wheel choice, gobo's or no ?.

Mixing can work if the budget allows. If not and I didn't need texture from gobos and/or effect from prisms, etc... I'd use Studio Colors for the CMY choices. You can zoom in a bit and may be able to do isolated soft edge specials, or do general washes.

Note that you can get Studio Spots in 18-30 degree zooms WITH CMY plus gobo's, though these beasts are usually harder to find.

Ditto the programming on the Strand. It has the software (or should) and would probably work just fine.

SB
 
Budget is not a problem, it allows for up to 4 fixtures and a control desk. so control desk is out so there will be a bit left over.

Gobo's arnt terribly important to me, infact i wouldnt even use them so they arnt an issue.

CMY mixing is nice, with th beams you would just get your standard colour pallette correct?

I'd probably be able to understand programming moving lx on the strand a bit more if the manual wasnt written in hyroglyphics lol
 
I would probably just go with Studio Beams rather than the wash because you can still get much more texture when youre working with rotating gobos, strobing effects, etc... you could substitute the washes for some parcans of something because you're not going to get much of a wash out of only two fixtures. But imagine what you could get out of four Studio Beams. I can think of some pretty incredible effects, and I'm sure they have a good arsenal of colors.
 
Im not sure if it just me, or you have got your names mixed up... however the studio beams are the wash fixtures and the studio spots are the narrow beamed fixtures with gobo's.

I am interested in the effect the beams will offer in this production,as I said before the gobo's arnt important and I wouldnt use them anyway.

depending on your desk, you can generally make the studio beams strobe i believe.
 
Lester,

I think possibly you mean the Studio Spot ?. The Beam is a variation on the Color with an edge more like the European style plano convex wash units.

The Beam is more similar to the Color in that it has no gobo's or effects wheels, just zoom and CMT (plus CC).

To Jeremy, borrow/rent 2 of each type that offers CMY and try them all. Best way to make up your mind. I'm hoping to get 7-8 Studio Spots with CMY and zoom as they can accept a frost in place of a gobo, thus when combined with the zoom lens, they can almost function as a wash unit (at a good throw !, such as my house). The gobo's/litho's may well come in handy for you as well.

Steve B
SB
 
I think that i might organise for myself and the director to go up and have a bit of a look see at both of the fixtures and see how we go. At the moment I am leaning towards the beams, but we will see how we go!

lol litho's is a funny word, but as ive said they arnt terribly important, infact in most instances i think that they might wreck the atmosphere... the studio spots have some pretty average gobo's as standard and regular gobo's of the "fame" variety will be used as curtain warmers and as a special feature throughout the show :)

just off the topic of the movers.... can you get followspots that take gobo's (this is for something else lol)
 
we have two robert juliats and two pro lites (australian design) which have a spot for a gobo, however i have never come across a gobo that size (i deal gobo's for rosco)... maybe a home job would fix it *evil grin*
 

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