A
gel organizer that doesn't suck, I mean, filing cabinets with folders work, but it's not the perfect solution. Still it's the best by far that I have come across for regular source 4 sized cuts and things of that nature, but when I have cuts for a 10 degree or a 5 degree, a filing cabinet isn't large enough. So if someone could design a larger cabinet and filing folders (the ones with the metal supports and grooves to hang them and keep them organized) that acommodates larger 10", 14" and 18" cuts, that would be amazing!
Currently I use a Filing Cabinet for the cuts of gels and then an Architect Filing Cabinet (the big wide
flat ones) for full
gel sheets and it keeps things really well organized but the larger
gel cuts get left out and then they get lost, or I have to fold them to fit them in a folder and they get creased and I HATE when they get creased.
C
Lee Filters still sells
Gel Files for full sheets I believe, otherwise any good scene shop could make them easily. Architects drawers I would think would work great but the height of the drawer verses amount of smaller drawers might lead to confusion or gells getting lost. Perhaps some 1/16" hard card board or plywood sheets/
veneer for them so as to be able to more neatly lift a stack of
gel above and pull out what you need without all above going haywire. See below in pre-cuts for the concept in dividers. Perhaps even make the intermediate parts slightly larger or
book marked so you can more rapidly find which
gel you want in lifting pages of
book marks.
At work they have like a 16' wall of
gel files for
stock sheets, above, below and to the sides of this is rolls of
gel in various sizes. Corner to that is like a 12' wall of six drawer file cabinets that stores the pre-cuts no doubt in much the same way with file folders. Much
gel is tossed out after shows. Don't remember what's on the third wall of the
gel cage... there is something there possibly more file cabinets. (Gobos are stored in another like 8x8 area.) On the front of the
gel cage is a 3' x 78" shelf that stores pre-sorted
gel files ready for use with what other colors of
gel are considered "
stock" for
gel file. Than bins for returned
gel and follow spot frames. Hanging along the front of the cage on hooks is a bunch of the absolute cheapest and worst kid's type back packs we can find, (so they don't get swiped.) - Backpacks no proper adult
stage hand would takwalk out the door with, or if they did, someone / anyone might question that and might perhaps ask what's in it. At least one would think assuming the overall joke no doubt about those climbing the
truss to their follow spot with say a Hannah Montanah
backpack. Such backpacks are for the follow spot positions and normally they carry the
Clear Com gear and
gel frames for the follow spot.
Anyway that's with a lot of room for
gel, cage must be like 16x16' and is only for
gel. Doesn't even store other than follow spot
gel frames or overstock
Gam Wrap.
I would never make it in such a cage by way of pre-cuts in how its laid out or done. Than of course I wouldn't
throw out just about any
gel if it still has a use. I often garbage pick
gel even if I don't have a use for it or it's even too much volume for what I could ever use.
Gel is still cut in it with a wall paper knife and frames individually on a cutting table in the center of the room. Paper cutters pre-marked for size for some reason over the years have not worked out as well for the
gel area. Sharp paper cutter... Reduce time by at least half. Blades can be maintained and re-sharpened and even if a brand new cutter per year, given the labor lost in cutting by
hand each
gel from MR-16
cyc size or Inkie to 8-Lite
gel stream for a
scroller, the paper cutter or something else up to some form of water or plazma cutter would pay for itself.
Again, I don't work in the
gel area... rarely go to it other than in at times dropping off show returns. Remember back in like 94' cutting all the
gel for LalaPaluza or something like that in name and it took me hours even with a sharp paper cutter, can't imagine our
gel person's time spent there when not being shipping clerk. Takes her a week to inventory her
gel, this even with computer
tracking.
For me, and what I did in past theaters and still have at home is a
bit less in scale but something I might expand were I more involved with
gel at the shop. No reason that a file cabinet has to have 8.5x11 sized files on a rack in it to store something - I use such file cabinets also for scrap cable, 60A plugs, moving light lamps,
Altman parts
etc. A 6"
Fresnel/
Leko pre-cut won't fit as well into a file folder and at some
point given a sleeve per
gel, it adds up in space required, or short of it, it adds to confusion some given the nature of file folders by way or gels following gravity and folding up if not tensioned.
Instead I made four classes of
gel size boxes which I "Japaned" and furnished with good covers following some travel with past boxes with them short of a
cover where the
gel fell out. So I have Inkie/3.5Q
gel in one, 4.5" Box Spot
thru S-4, or
PAR 46 sizes in another. 6"
Fresnel,
PAR 56 or 6"
Leko in another, than a last box for
PAR 64 to 10"
scoop gels in size. Easy enough to
build further boxes sized to the gels stored in them. Such boxes were built to about double the size needed at the time and I added tensioning blocks to them and even store the
gel frames in the boxes for spring tension when in storage.
Such boxes easily could be made for a file cabinet in getting side walls sized to the
gel size and not costing money in file folders that don't store smaller
gel especially well. For dividers I use cardboard boxes cut to size,
laminate, up to scrap
Luan that's sized for the box but a
bit longer so as to
book mark what
gel is stored between it and the next. Say every five or ten gels for
Rosco (I have more of), every ten or twenty
gel numbers for
Lee and every 50 or so for
GAM. Easy enough to adjust your
book marks to what you now have more of, really easy to hone in on what you have in
stock for any size in a particular color. Given there is no longer a file folder and its' normal gravity problems in gels falling down from the top or moving to the sides, such
gel flops over as one in staying straight instead of individual sections having a problem in folding or falling out of the file.
For me,
gel storage even for gobos is not a problem other than if the
gel is not marked. Abandon the file folder and size the pre-cut to the size of the
gel. Imagine the past Ducy Decimal
System or what ever it is called practice of library
book card indexes if they were only in the index card file folders sized for 8.5x11 sheets of paper. Would you ever find the card for the
book looked for? Size the storage for the
gel size and problem solved and is even more cost effective. Don't need a trip to an office supply store with your account number and 501c3 in tow, just need some scrap plywood or cardboard to add to it. run out of room,
build another box. If lots of file cabinets, store the boxes in them.
Lee Filters still sells
Gel Files for full sheets I believe, otherwise any good scene shop could make them easily. Architects drawers I would think would work great but the height of the drawer verses amount of smaller drawers might lead to confusion or gells getting lost. Perhaps some 1/16" hard card board or plywood sheets/
veneer for them so as to be able to more neatly lift a stack of
gel above and pull out what you need without all above going haywire. See below in pre-cuts for the concept in dividers. Perhaps even make the intermediate parts slightly larger or
book marked so you can more rapidly find which
gel you want in lifting pages of
book marks.
At work they have like a 16' wall of
gel files for
stock sheets, above, below and to the sides of this is rolls of
gel in various sizes. Corner to that is like a 12' wall of six drawer file cabinets that stores the pre-cuts no doubt in much the same way with file folders. Much
gel is tossed out after shows. Don't remember what's on the third wall of the
gel cage... there is something there possibly more file cabinets. (Gobos are stored in another like 8x8 area.) On the front of the
gel cage is a 3' x 78" shelf that stores pre-sorted
gel files ready for use with what other colors of
gel are considered "
stock" for
gel file. Than bins for returned
gel and follow spot frames. Hanging along the front of the cage on hooks is a bunch of the absolute cheapest and worst kid's type back packs we can find, (so they don't get swiped.) - Backpacks no proper adult
stage hand would takwalk out the door with, or if they did, someone / anyone might question that and might perhaps ask what's in it. At least one would think assuming the overall joke no doubt about those climbing the
truss to their follow spot with say a Hannah Montanah
backpack. Such backpacks are for the follow spot positions and normally they carry the
Clear Com gear and
gel frames for the follow spot.
Anyway that's with a lot of room for
gel, cage must be like 16x16' and is only for
gel. Doesn't even store other than follow spot
gel frames or overstock
Gam Wrap.
I would never make it in such a cage by way of pre-cuts in how its laid out or done. Than of course I wouldn't
throw out just about any
gel if it still has a use. I often garbage pick
gel even if I don't have a use for it or it's even too much volume for what I could ever use.
Gel is still cut in it with a wall paper knife and frames individually on a cutting table in the center of the room. Paper cutters pre-marked for size for some reason over the years have not worked out as well for the
gel area. Sharp paper cutter... Reduce time by at least half. Blades can be maintained and re-sharpened and even if a brand new cutter per year, given the labor lost in cutting by
hand each
gel from MR-16
cyc size or Inkie to 8-Lite
gel stream for a
scroller, the paper cutter or something else up to some form of water or plazma cutter would pay for itself.
Again, I don't work in the
gel area... rarely go to it other than in at times dropping off show returns. Remember back in like 94' cutting all the
gel for LalaPaluza or something like that in name and it took me hours even with a sharp paper cutter, can't imagine our
gel person's time spent there when not being shipping clerk. Takes her a week to inventory her
gel, this even with computer
tracking.
For me, and what I did in past theaters and still have at home is a
bit less in scale but something I might expand were I more involved with
gel at the shop. No reason that a file cabinet has to have 8.5x11 sized files on a rack in it to store something - I use such file cabinets also for scrap cable, 60A plugs, moving light lamps,
Altman parts
etc. A 6"
Fresnel/
Leko pre-cut won't fit as well into a file folder and at some
point given a sleeve per
gel, it adds up in space required, or short of it, it adds to confusion some given the nature of file folders by way or gels following gravity and folding up if not tensioned.
Instead I made four classes of
gel size boxes which I "Japaned" and furnished with good covers following some travel with past boxes with them short of a
cover where the
gel fell out. So I have Inkie/3.5Q
gel in one, 4.5" Box Spot
thru S-4, or
PAR 46 sizes in another. 6"
Fresnel,
PAR 56 or 6"
Leko in another, than a last box for
PAR 64 to 10"
scoop gels in size. Easy enough to
build further boxes sized to the gels stored in them. Such boxes were built to about double the size needed at the time and I added tensioning blocks to them and even store the
gel frames in the boxes for spring tension when in storage.
Such boxes easily could be made for a file cabinet in getting side walls sized to the
gel size and not costing money in file folders that don't store smaller
gel especially well. For dividers I use cardboard boxes cut to size,
laminate, up to scrap
Luan that's sized for the box but a
bit longer so as to
book mark what
gel is stored between it and the next. Say every five or ten gels for
Rosco (I have more of), every ten or twenty
gel numbers for
Lee and every 50 or so for
GAM. Easy enough to adjust your
book marks to what you now have more of, really easy to hone in on what you have in
stock for any size in a particular color. Given there is no longer a file folder and its' normal gravity problems in gels falling down from the top or moving to the sides, such
gel flops over as one in staying straight instead of individual sections having a problem in folding or falling out of the file.
For me,
gel storage even for gobos is not a problem other than if the
gel is not marked. Abandon the file folder and size the pre-cut to the size of the
gel. Imagine the past Ducy Decimal
System or what ever it is called practice of library
book card indexes if they were only in the index card file folders sized for 8.5x11 sheets of paper. Would you ever find the card for the
book looked for? Size the storage for the
gel size and problem solved and is even more cost effective. Don't need a trip to an office supply store with your account number and 501c3 in tow, just need some scrap plywood or cardboard to add to it. run out of room,
build another box. If lots of file cabinets, store the boxes in them.