Touring and Gels

Lacey

Member
I've been browsing CB for a couple of months, but this is my first thread here (so please bear with me!)

I am a complete Newbie when it comes to lighting design (so please excuse any verbiage mistakes, and feel free to correct them), but I will be going on my first 5 week tour with a 6 piece band in February/March. I will be traveling with 5 LED par cans (Blizzard Pucks) and my own board (Scene Setter 24) to use for uplighting.

My question is regarding color filters/gels. I have color choices in mind, but have no idea how many sheets to order of each individual color. There will be about 35 shows during this particular tour. So far in the advancement process, I have a maximum of about 24 par cans at any one venue [Please see attached Lighting Plot for Lincoln Hall, if you need a visual
8632t-touring-gels-lh-light-plot.pdf
].


For concert lighting, is there a standard amount of each gel that I should have while traveling? Also, how many different color choices should be in my design?

If you'd like to recommend particular gels that you use in your concert lighting - feel free! I've been becoming familiar with Rosco lately, but I'm open to other brand recommendations.

Thanks for any input!
 

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  • LH Light Plot.pdf
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I would not really take any... assume they will have a red wash, blue wash, some type of green, some type of amber/orange wash, and possibly a lav wash. After that, you get what you get. Your not going to have time to re-gel... and you won't want to be on a ladder during the out putting it all back. In the advance process ask for your color but I would not go out of your way to bring stuff. The music world tends to look at house rigs as "you get what you get... and your going to like it". Use your ground package as much as possible and assume the house rig is there for fill only.
 
If you're bringing gel to fill in the house lights, the easier way might be to specify which color goes in which can, and make the venue provide it. If you have to provide it yourself, remember that gel is reusable. If you have to provide it, make the house technicians remove it after the show. Or you can just live with what they have, and given the apparent small size of your tour this will probably be the best option.

The other issue will be size. Not everyone uses the same par cans, even tho a par 64 should be the same all over. The frames are often a shade different. And some places may be using par 56. So cut them a little larger than necessary. You can always fold over the excess.
 
Take gels if you would like - but chances are you aren't going to use them.

Are you going to be setting up the lights? Are the lights your lights? Are you going into the concert venue to set up? If the answer to these is no - then you may get what you get. When a group comes into our venue - they usually specify warm wash, cool wash, specific colors and whatever on the tech rider. They might have their own sound guy - but the lights, light bar and everything else belong to the facility. We don't let outsiders use our stuff - it really costs too much.

Now if you are going to be setting up - it really depends on the instruments and how long they're going to be on at what intensity. If I'm going to use 575 W bulbs in a Source Four at 80+%, I figure the I can use the darker colors for a shorter time - maybe several shows. The lighter colors usually last longer. A rough rule is to look at the transmission values on the gel pack. Lee Filters give a value for Y - say 26.4% for Sunset Red and 81.6% for Straw - I know that the Straw gel will last a longer time as it isn't absorbing the light and deforming as it is used.

If you are going to be on the road - you can usually have Barbizon or any other vendor FedEx you a gel pack to your next stop. They are very accommodating.
 

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