Moving heads for school talent show?

[Chubbs the Techie]

Cheers yes a decent hazer is at the top of the hire list unless we've bought one by then ;). I doubt we would ever get the budget for 4+ (in fact it's a big placed think we'd need 6) movers. Thanks for all your advice!

 

Now I have another problem - our drama teacher is bent on buying a single moving head for our drama department. I can see that movers (especially single ones) in schools are thought badly of. I don't know how to stop her? We need some new profiles and fresnels so hopefully I can convince her...she's been given lots of

money this year and she feels she should spend it... :** laughs out loud **:

[mrcog]

I'm in school as well, but honestly, if you don't have the budget normally then don't even go down the mover line. Maintinence costs are beyond most schools and if you don't have the control to use a mover then you need to buy that first. Besides, for the price of a mover you could get another dimmer (if you have the avalible ciruits) and some more fresnels. I find that with another dimmer you have so much more flexibility with scenes, which is always good for talent show!!! Just my 2p, I'm sure someone else more experienced will be along soon.

[Chubbs the Techie]

Oh don't worry your advice is just as helpful! You may not have the experience but you're kinda in the same situation as me (at school) so the advice is just as useful. Thanks ;)

[Andrew C]

Now I have another problem - our drama teacher is bent on buying a single moving head for our drama department. I can see that movers (especially single ones) in schools are thought badly of. I don't know how to stop her?

Introduce her to the Blue Room? Give her a direct link to the lighting FAQ. We have discussed the question dozens of times, and each time the recommendation from professional designers, electricians, school technicians (not pupils) and even suppliers has been "DON'T BUY". If you need/want them for a specific event, hire.

 

This way you:-

 

1) Can get the latest kit

2) You don't need to maintain it, which is a non-trivial task.

3) When this years keen year 11 has left, you haven't got a white elephant that no-one knows how to use.

4) No impact on capital budgets

5) Schools suffer from not budgeting for subsequent costs. Maintenance and expensive lamps.

 

That said, a school talent show would be a place where their use would be appropriate from an artistic perspective. I'd see if you can't up that budget. Work out what you need, contact a local hire company and get a quote. 6 lanterns, controller, hazer, cableing and rigging. See if they'll give you an hour or so training on the kit. Take this quote to the teacher in charge and see if cash can be found. Maybe the PTA could help?

[Ryote]

As has been said before use what you have and rent some generics. You could use the 12 par cans on a bar at the rear creating a either a 3 or 4 colour wash and you could program some chasers. You could also hire some floor cans and do your back tab you can create some interesting chases there as well although if your using video then this may not be possible. Use your source 4's for front light and for some gobo's which you could buy out of your budget of 200 maybe some stars which although they may get washed out by everything else will still create the beams in smoke which give you that mover effect. As to haze what about buying a cheap remote controlled smoke machine 35quid or so and putting a fan in front of it not quite a hazer but probably as cheap as rental and your school then owns the smoke machine. What ever you have left can go into dimmers and Pars for rental just put them in blocks of 3 or 4 for your washes and at different places ie front of house in and side stage on floor booms or bars (if you have anywere to hang them) It'll be simple but efective.

 

Regards

 

Andy

[Chubbs the Techie]

cheers andy. I like the star gobo idea. I think we may already have such gobos, however I've been sitting here thinking which of the gobos that we have should be used and the only ones I could remember was a church style cross and a leaf so I was a bit stuck. Thanks for prodding my memory :** laughs out loud **:.

 

I will indeed march up to my drama teacher and recite those 5 points whilst handing her a neatly written link to the land of blue

 

I've been reading other topics on school rock concerts etc. and I've found some cool ideas involving fanning pars from the upstage bar pointing downstate. Sounds fun! And just to clear things up we already have a haze machine but it was designed for mice holes not enormous rooms :P so we will defo hire one. We have several lighting stands and I think somewhere we have a free standing truss disco roadshow style so I may shove that at the back with some pars and fresnels. I think we may use most of the budget on generics and dimmers. The surplus we can usefor some extra effects like strobes and I may pop to b&q for some blinders in the form of 500w floodlights. Might look at colour scrollers for the pars? And as I said previously we have the advantage of getting a 30-40% discount off 'standard' hire prices ;)

[Don Allen]

Most movers are too noisy for drama, especially if you have a few soft voices on stage. Having a demo of a mover in a hire department will not reveal all of the noise problems, as you will be in an area that may have a high ambient noise level, it needs to be tried out in your theatre. The fans can be distracting. Even when using movers in a musical I make sure we have pre show music to allow the audience to be "conditioned" to the fan noise.

[Guest]

I wouldn't bother with colour scrollers for the pars - just get a few sets of colour washes rigged up and you'll find you can do something just as effective.

If you want some decent blinders, and you can get such a discount off standard hire prices, then why not just hire some?

 

Just out of interest, what are the dimensions of the room the event is taking place in?

 

Alex.

[Trunker]

Cheers yes a decent hazer is at the top of the hire list unless we've bought one by then ;). I doubt we would ever get the budget for 4+ (in fact it's a big placed think we'd need 6) movers. Thanks for all your advice!

 

Now I have another problem - our drama teacher is bent on buying a single moving head for our drama department. I can see that movers (especially single ones) in schools are thought badly of. I don't know how to stop her? We need some new profiles and fresnels so hopefully I can convince her...she's been given lots of

money this year and she feels she should spend it... :** laughs out loud **:

 

Why do schools see the need to buy movers?

[Chubbs the Techie]

Oof sorry I'm appaling at approximating room sizes. It's certainly very tall, so tall that the halls 'normal' lights hang down on enormous chains to about 1/3 down from the ceiling just to light the room sufficiently...this means we have no rigging in front of the stage just to the sides on the walls and above the stage. Maybe I should hire some proper blinders...hadn't thought of that I just felt DIY-ish.

 

Certainly the reason our drama teacher wants one is because

1. She doesn't really know all the technicalities, just the results
   
2. Our schools, and I imagine quite a few school are slightly obsessed with keeping 'up to date'. For example our school has a projector in nearly every classroom, however most of them are only used at the end of term when nobody can be bothered to work and we want to watch a DVD :** laughs out loud **:
   

This may be the case for other schools as well.

 

Another thing not necesarily for now but for future reference...am I right in thinking that with most colour scrollers you get one power unit with DMX that powers and controls several scrollers?

 

And has anyone any suggestions on small but effective effects (like strobes but...not) that we can get cause I'm remembering that last year the hire company threw in alot of free stuff that nobody ever hires out. In fact, to make you all jealous, I may recite what we got for £60.

• Peavey 1200w system with subs and appropriate amplifiers
  
• Case of 10 sm58s
  
• An awful lot of XLR cables etc
  
• mic stands
  
• 2 peavey powered monitors
  
• I think some lights as well...can't remember what though...
  

So as you can see, we will get quite alot of light for our £200. Sorry couldn't resist bragging.... ;)

[Guest]

Maybe an animation wheel, or two, could be of use to you. You might be able to acheive a nice effect.

 

EDIT: Maybe some floor cans aswell? Is this taking place upon rostra or raised stage of any form? Is there any dancing? If so, you could get an effective use out of some side lighting.

[Light Console]

I work in a school. We have a £3million concert hall. Our rig can carry 4 tons. We don't own any moving lights, we would like to, but we see that the cost is better spent on other things - wired cans for example. We hire them in for our productions as and when, and let the hirer deal with the running costs. When we do hire them in, particually for talent/dance shows, they are so useful, as every section can have a different look to the others. Dancers can start their pieces anywhere on stage, and have light there.

We are doing Aladdin in two weeks. The director wanted to use some Martin MAC250s which I turned down, as the gobo selection as standard would not be too useful. The one that came out tops for this show was a Robe Colorspot 250AT.

[Chubbs the Techie]

I'm afraid I am clueless on the topic of animation wheels....never heard of such a thing. Would anyone care to explain? And also in what way I could use it/them. Thanks in advance!

 

EDIT: We have some floor cans hiding somewhere...we used them recently and they create a good effect, especially I find if you alternate between being lit from the floor and being lit from above.

 

£3 million concert hall? Wow. Our rig can carry a small torch ;) . Another thing for future refernce...I'm presuming its acceptable to ask your hire company to set up the selection of moving heads or whatever you are looking for and show you the various functions, in particular the standard gobos?

[Guest]

Basically, a large gobo that fits onto the front of a luminaire and rotates at a fixed or variable speed. Used to suggest objects in motion, eg. water ripples or fire.

 

EDIT: Yes, you can always ask the hire company to show you one in action, ofcourse its up to them whether they do or not, but always a good idea. Although most moving heads will have a spec online with a list of the standard gobos.

[Chubbs the Techie]

Ah thanks. A fire effect may be good. In fact I think we have a disco style flame effect. I think it's a martin mania type thing however I will still investigate animation wheels for our profiles...can you control the rotation remotely? DMX or custom controller?

 

And this talent show normally incorparates rock bands, solo singers/duets, comedy acts (stand up or sketches) and the occasional boy/girl group. Haven't had a dance act yet but who knows...anyway fairly diverse lighting is needed to suit all the moods.

 

Once again, thanks for all the advice guys! ;)

 

EDIT: Yeh I've just found the martin ones :** laughs out loud **: thanks!