Gels

We are setting up "Brighton Beach Memoirs". Its inside a house, upstairs and downstairs with a lot of floral wallpaper. The time is 1937. Our lights are currently gelled with Roscoe 'Bastard Amber #02'. But the director doesn't think that is warm enough. I've looked at some other gels like Roscoe's Dark Bastard Amber #03 but worried the faces may be too dark or red. Anyone run this play have an idea?

And on the subject of gels, I was left a box with hundreds of different color gels cut for our Fresnel lamps (7.5 x 7.5) - All mixed up! Sorting them using the Roscoe color swatch booklet is a real pain. Is there any app or actual device that can look at a gel (or any transmitted light) and give you its name or RGB content? I know a painter who has a handheld device, but it's for use face down on solid surfaces.

Robert F Jarvis said:

We are setting up "Brighton Beach Memoirs". Its inside a house, upstairs and downstairs with a lot of floral wallpaper. The time is 1937. Our lights are currently gelled with Roscoe 'Bastard Amber #02'. But the director doesn't think that is warm enough. I've looked at some other gels like Roscoe's Dark Bastard Amber #03 but worried the faces may be too dark or red. Anyone run this play have an idea?

And on the subject of gels, I was left a box with hundreds of different color gels cut for our Fresnel lamps (7.5 x 7.5) - All mixed up! Sorting them using the Roscoe color swatch booklet is a real pain. Is there any app or actual device that can look at a gel (or any transmitted light) and give you its name or RGB content? I know a painter who has a handheld device, but it's for use face down on solid surfaces.

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OMG The YEARS spent sorting gels because I was the new guy... "The horror, the horror".

Van said:

OMG The YEARS spent sorting gels because I was the new guy... "The horror, the horror".

Click to expand...

How much gel did you wash?

If Amber is too pale try an apricot - L147 perhaps, or straw L103?

What’a the wattage of the fresnels you’re using? An old trick is to just double up on your gel cuts.

1. I think you're over-thinking this too much. If the director wants it warmer, give him warmer. I've never found that R03 made faces too dark or too red. R04 is probably my favorite BA.

2. A photographer's light table, made for sorting 35mm slides, can be of help here, to do it manually. Anything with obvious fading, such as when the center doesn't match the corners, gets tossed without hesitation. Roscolux sometimes varies by thickness amoung colors but not within. If two colors appear the same but one is stiffer, they're probably different colors.

3. Unlike Roscoe P. Coltrane, it's Rosco--no e.

Rosco.com has many 'resources' to help. There are both technical and artistic guides for many situations, especially a classic interior drama.

While the setting is natural, the drama is not and can be stressed with deeper color. The practice of 2 colors that can be mixed to white dates back to before McCandless.

Robert F Jarvis said:

We are setting up "Brighton Beach Memoirs". Its inside a house, upstairs and downstairs with a lot of floral wallpaper. The time is 1937. Our lights are currently gelled with Roscoe 'Bastard Amber #02'. But the director doesn't think that is warm enough. I've looked at some other gels like Roscoe's Dark Bastard Amber #03 but worried the faces may be too dark or red. Anyone run this play have an idea?

And on the subject of gels, I was left a box with hundreds of different color gels cut for our Fresnel lamps (7.5 x 7.5) - All mixed up! Sorting them using the Roscoe color swatch booklet is a real pain. Is there any app or actual device that can look at a gel (or any transmitted light) and give you its name or RGB content? I know a painter who has a handheld device, but it's for use face down on solid surfaces.

Click to expand...

The apparent color you see when holding up a gel to, say, a desk lamp is going to be rather different than how it looks when projected onstage. For one thing, theater lights are much brighter, and quite often a different color temperature than household lights -- so it's always best to make those sorts of judgments in situ, or after garnering years of experience.

Keep in mind, also, that we often see things only in context; so a light that's gelled one way may appear warmer based on what the set is -- how it reads against mauve wallpaper versus a black backdrop; or when the performer is wearing a bright blue dress versus a charcoal grey business suit. Performers' skin tone, the light you just had on them in the previous scene, the emotional content of the play, all will play a factor. To be honest, I'd worry that both R02 and definitely R03 would be too saturated, and look for something lighter. But it's really a question for the lighting designer!

Also, remember that these things dim, and the color temperature shifts as you dim. It may be that the director is saying "warmer" but actually means more subdued (which also happens to shift warmer). It may also be that they're looking for more contrast/shadows too if the current look is a bit flat. Interpreting what a non-technical person means when they ask for something is one of the trickiest skills to learn--and will always be there no matter what generation or type of technology you're working with.

Might want to think about the labor cost in identifying and labeling all that gel. Might be cheaper long term to deep six and replace as production requires.

I will never pay someone to sort gel like that. It all goes into a generic color box so if someone just needs one cut of "red" they're free to take it. Otherwise I don't trust it enough, and it costs too much, to get it sorted perfectly.

of course, if you label it when you're loading it this whole 'identifying' issue goes right out the widow.

I found, after a show, that rather than labelling with chinagraph or even sharpie under the frame, someone had labelled in the centre of the gel with a ballpoint pen! Of course, they'd had to press quite hard, which left grooves in the gel. Which promptly burnt through.