# What is the term for this lighting effect?



## derekleffew (Oct 14, 2021)

Students only for one week please.


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## Van (Oct 14, 2021)

ooh, ooh I know, I know!!!


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## MRW Lights (Oct 14, 2021)

Van said:


> ooh, ooh I know, I know!!!


 Me too me too me too! Aren't we all students of life? Doesn't that count to let us answer this week?


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## aeh20s (Oct 14, 2021)

I know what it's called, and I also know that every LD I've worked for would have hated that one. Very sloppy.


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## Jay Ashworth (Oct 17, 2021)

aeh20s said:


> I know what it's called, and I also know that every LD I've worked for would have hated that one. Very sloppy.


That was my thinking too.

I even know this is a standard effect on the EOS/Ion consoles.


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## Amiers (Oct 18, 2021)

aeh20s said:


> I know what it's called, and I also know that every LD I've worked for would have hated that one. Very sloppy.



Idk for that time and era I thought it did pretty well being that it was manually done.


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## Michael K (Oct 18, 2021)

How many other other students are (semi-)active these days? I'm still working on my BS as I took a few years part time student-ing to to work full part time. However, most of the more active student posters I've seen/found while searching have since graduated.

I kind of liked how random the Ballyhoo (what would the plural would be? Bally-who's on first?) looked, but I can see how that might irk most LDs.


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## Calc (Oct 18, 2021)

Amiers said:


> Idk for that time and era I thought it did pretty well being that it was manually done.


Seems really frantic- every LD I've worked with wants them a lot smoother than that. More "Swoopy"?


Jay Ashworth said:


> this is a standard effect on the EOS/Ion consoles.


Easy enough that it's often built right in to the fixtures, too.


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## Van (Oct 19, 2021)

"Good for Manual." your youth is showing...


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## aeh20s (Oct 19, 2021)

For the speed that they are moving I would want more lights. For just the three, I would want a less random movement for the two outside lights and have the center fade in/iris up with the crescendo of the music. Though you gotta do what you can with what you got. Who am I to judge?


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## sk8rsdad (Oct 19, 2021)

My guess is the ops were told to keep the effect in frame and had no way to know what the camera was seeing.


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## macsound (Oct 19, 2021)

sk8rsdad said:


> My guess is the ops were told to keep the effect in frame and had no way to know what the camera was seeing.


I can remember lots of black and white tv shows where someone would emerge from a curtain that had followspots ballyhoo and it was always a super tight shot on a fairly large stage. 
So absolutely agree, the fs ops probably had no clue how wide the camera frame was.


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## JonCarter (Oct 19, 2021)

Used to be that cameramen usually had their own cam on their monitors but sometimes if the director called for an effect , camera monitors would be switched to air (or line) so that they could see and coordinate better. Follow spot ops probably only had a monitor hanging somewhere up in the grid.


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## Jay Ashworth (Oct 19, 2021)

Pro/broadcast grade camera chains have -- in fact, it's one of the defining characteristics -- Return Video, usually viewable on the viewfinder at the push of a button on the zoom control handle. In some facilities it's Preview, sometimes it's Program (which is usually more useful, but not always).

Some high end chains send both back to the camera head, so you can look at PVW to set up the effect shot, and PGM to maintain it once it's on air. I've also seen it fed from a router, so the director or TD can switch it.


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## jonares (Oct 20, 2021)

With just three spots, I would have had them play "Pong" to entertain the audience! (Been there/done that)


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## aeh20s (Oct 20, 2021)

jonares said:


> With just three spots, I would have had them play "Pong" to entertain the audience! (Been there/done that)


Pong didn't exist back then...


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## jonares (Oct 20, 2021)

aeh20s said:


> Pong didn't exist back then...



I apologize for making a joke. Please accept a full refund.


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## ChrisGLightingD (Oct 20, 2021)

I'm trying to do this right now with two VNSP pars on two right arms, and an ETC Express console, and compared to mine, these look GREAT, haha!


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## JChenault (Oct 20, 2021)

My real question is how did they do what looks like a glass gobo of the ”E” at 30 seconds In?


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## derekleffew (Oct 20, 2021)

aeh20s said:


> I know what it's called, and I also know that every LD I've worked for would have hated that one. Very sloppy.


Rather than "sloppy," I prefer "organic." I love the fact that it's "manual" and not machine-made. And at the end, when spots 1 & 3 peel off, leaving just spot 2 at center. Don't tell me _that_ wasn't rehearsed a whole bunch of times before shooting.


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## techieman33 (Oct 21, 2021)

JChenault said:


> My real question is how did they do what looks like a glass gobo of the ”E” at 30 seconds In?


I thought it was a transparency placed over the camera lens.


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## DrewE (Oct 21, 2021)

techieman33 said:


> I thought it was a transparency placed over the camera lens.


Filters/transparencies associated with the lens wouldn't appear white, but black; they could only block light, not create it. (Placing one over the end of the lens itself would be pretty much invisible due to being wildly out of focus.)

It's presumably whatever sort of titling technology they used at the time--which I think was generally an additional camera pointed at some (black and white) art on an easel, and then mixed/overlaid in the video stream live like any other camera. That is, of course, assuming it wasn't a pre-filmed bit (as it would appear other parts of the introduction were, e.g. the brief clips of the celebrities), edited and titled with whatever movie editing and titling techniques were used. The shot of the spotlight on the curtain behind the giant E sure does look like a live shot to untrained me.


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## JChenault (Oct 21, 2021)

derekleffew said:


> Rather than "sloppy," I prefer "organic." I love the fact that it's "manual" and not machine-made. And at the end, when spots 1 & 3 peel off, leaving just spot 2 at center. Don't tell me _that_ wasn't rehearsed a whole bunch of times before shooting.



I agree. The effects that do this seem very mechanical and sterile to my eye. Kind of like watching an oscilloscope.


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## RichardBunting (Oct 21, 2021)

Didn't there used to be a website dedicated to just this effect? - http://www.ballyhoomatic.com Sadly, it disappeared some time ago, but I'd love to see it come back, or does someone have the content stored somewhere?


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## derekleffew (Oct 21, 2021)

RichardBunting said:


> Didn't there used to be a website dedicated to just this effect? - http://www.ballyhoomatic.com


If I'm not mistaken, it was an offshoot/sub-page of _Modern Followspot Monthly_, an _Onion_-type spoof site. One day both just up and disappeared, as though they had run out of carbons.


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## RichardBunting (Oct 21, 2021)




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## aeh20s (Oct 21, 2021)

derekleffew said:


> Rather than "sloppy," I prefer "organic." I love the fact that it's "manual" and not machine-made. And at the end, when spots 1 & 3 peel off, leaving just spot 2 at center. Don't tell me _that_ wasn't rehearsed a whole bunch of times before shooting.


The end is very nice. I just think that they were told do some stuff with the light and then on this cue pull out and the center stop on center. Just picking at nits.


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## Van (Oct 21, 2021)

JChenault said:


> My real question is how did they do what looks like a glass gobo of the ”E” at 30 seconds In?


The same way Credits were done at the time. It's a peppers ghost arrangement on the front of a camera. A piece of glass is placed at a 45° angle to the lens. A reverse printed negative is scrolled past a linnebach type projector mounted at -45° to the glass. The camera shooting straight ahead sees the image superimposed over the scene the camera is pointed at; varying the intensity of the light varies the opacity of the 'white'. Yes, there are other angles and keystone-ing things that had to be done, but that is the basic. OLD film credits were done the same way and scrolled by hand. you can often see pauses and shakes in the scroll. The Title scene at teh opening of Star Wars was done the same way, shot against a chroma key then overlaid on a starfield.


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## Ted jones (Oct 21, 2021)

Growing up in Baltimore, it was also called a spot chase, or a chase, when I was a kid. I don't think I heard the term "ballyhoo" until I came to the sunny Midwest.


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## bobgaggle (Nov 19, 2021)

I worked at busch gardens for a summer, big out door theater where there was a Chinese acrobat show. 15 minutes before showtime I and my fellow spot op had to point our Gladiator II's up into the sky and do some big ole ballyhoos to let everyone know the show was about to start. Got scolded for letting my pattern get a little too loose and clipping the top of the stage facade. It was also a big no no to look like the beams were chasing each other. Gotta stay in sync, nice big mirror image figure 8s.


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