Major Lighting Overhaul

[rochem]

Hello all,

A local school where I've done some design work just called me and asked me to help them figure out how to spend an estimated $40,000 that the school found and needed to use to avoid a budget surplus. Besides a portion going to buy a temporary black floor (see my post in Scenery section), they want to spend the rest of the money on lighting.

The exact words of the person who asked me to do this were, "I would like black lights, strobe lights, possibly (very low profile) foot lights, lights that can move via programming to be fixed above, a cold fog machine (or 2), and any other basic items that you think we need that are missing". I've already told him that moving lights would probably not be a good idea, and he was more or less okay with that. I'd like to get them as much of the specifics as they requested, and then use whatever's left over to supplement their admittedly small conventional inventory. I also planned to buy a decent stock of spare lamps (they have none) and some cable, although they really don't need much.

The black lights and strobe lights I will discuss with him to get more details about what he wants, but my main questions are about the "cold fog machine". I'm guessing he means a dry ice machine, but I'll check that with him. In the meantime, can anyone recommend a good dry icer for this application? The stage is 36' wide, about 23' deep, and has about a 45' grid. The lighting people in this school aren't very well trained, so I think a machine that could be operated locally would be preferrable to one run via DMX - in a high school, free labor is readily available.

Thanks for any help you can give me, and I apologize if I wasn't very clear - I don't have many details about this, but they need some numbers ASAP in order to lock in the money before it's lost.

 

[Footer]

For the fogger, look no farther then the Aquafogger. I would buy two, on on either side of the stage. They also take a considerable amount of power.

For black lights, Altman makes a great fixture but the best out there is Wildfire.

I would push the cable thing. Buy plenty of two-fers. Buy gel. Buy a few apollo template packs. Buy top hats. Buy whatever fixtures you need. Replace connectors. Stock up on spare parts (reflectors, shutters, whips, power cubes). Fix anything that does not work.

At 40k you would waste your money on moving lights. You could buy a halfway decent scroller package. Also, I think your floor is going to eat up a good portion of the money and I think that should be priority #1.

 

[Wolf]

Well when considering dry ice machines you have two options a true dry ice machine that uses dry ice and hot water or you can go the other route which would be one that uses chemicals (liquid) to produce a low lying fog. We use true dry ice machines, we have two AquaFog 3300. They work quite well, simply fill with water turn the heaters on, load the ice about 10 minutes before its needed and hit go when its time. The reason we have two is to get nice even distribution from both sides of the stage. Originally we only had one, it looked and worked fine if you were filling the stage before curtain or at intermission but if you wanted to cover the stage during the show I thought it looked incredibly awkward, so when I designed a show I insisted that we rent another unit. We did and it looked great, soon after we bought another one (personal victory haha).

I have also used a chemical dry ice machine before, only rented and only for one show so I don't have a great deal of experience with them. We used a Glaciator X-stream im not sure of the manufacture but the manual that comes up is through the martin website but I cant find it on their web site. It is a nice unit, it really blows out the low lying fog and it will keep producing for a long time, again though I would still want one on each side if trying to cover the stage during a show.

Pros of a true Ice Machine
-Usually a longer hang time
-Looks more natural

Cons
-Cost more in the long run due to buying dry ice for every show
-COULD leak water


Pros to Chemical low lying fog machine
-Able to produce for a longer time
-Don't have to deal with actual dry ice

Cons
-Less natural look
-Shorter hang time
-Very expensive unit

Hope some of this helped, here is the link to city theatrical they see the AquaFog http://www.citytheatrical.com/ and here is a link to the manual for the Glaciator X-stream http://www.martin.com/service/downloadfile.asp?name=UM_GlaciatorXstream_EN_B.pdf&cat=65 Just found a seller for the Glaciator X-stream StageSpot.com - Martin Jem Glaciator X-Stream

 

[Wolf]

As Footer said the Wildfire is a GREAT unit, I rented one for a production and was able to wash the whole entire stage!, granted it was a black box but the grid was 22' and the acting area was probably about 24'x24'.

I recently used some MR-16 strips for a dance show as foot lights, they could not have worked better, I was VERY pleased with the look. They caught the face of a six foot tall man when he stood about 3.5' away and still gave nice intensity all the way US about 24' or so. They came up 6" so they weren't even to obstructive. You can also use these as a ground row for you cyc when you didn't want them as foots.

 

[kendal69]

I own two Wild fires and they are 400 watts. I used them last week for my daughters play that had some white "creatures" com out on stage. I shot these lights from about 100' ft and these creatures just GLOWED. The exact effect they wanted.

I also have the F100 fogger with the CO2 chiller unit. One the chiller gets down in temp you just tap out some fog and it rolls about 6" - 8" high and flows like a thick cloud and then it walked down the steps of the stage and then dissipated. It was amazing. I hit it with a blue 3 watt LED and it was creepy.

 

[kiwitechgirl]

Given that it's for a school, forget a dry ice machine and go with a chilled fog solution, purely because of the practical considerations. I've only used the LeMaitre LSG (which I think has now been replaced with the FreezeFog) but I've heard plenty of good reports about the Martin Glaciator.

 

[PeteEngel]

For cold fog, there is no substitute for the MDG ICE Fog.

 

[rsmentele]

I would agree with the others that buying a smoke converter would be preferable, I have one in my stock and I love it. You don't have to worry about chemicals, water, or dry ice; you just plug it in, hook up your fogger in the back and go!

 

[Wolf]

I would agree with the others that buying a smoke converter would be preferable, I have one in my stock and I love it. You don't have to worry about chemicals, water, or dry ice; you just plug it in, hook up your fogger in the back and go!

Well you would still have chemicals

 

[msavitt23]

Regarding moving lights, if you already have a DMX/ethernet run in the theater, you could go with i-Cues. They are relatively cheap ($500) and make a moveable beam out of a source four. I would not recommend going with a dry ice fog machine as you need a notice if it is going to be used so that you could go out to the store and buy dry ice. With a liquid one, someone could let you know 5 minutes before, and you would be able to use it.