Cheap Moving Heads

[frog3d]

I can give you the name of a college with half a dozen movers in flight cases, piles of scrollers and an avo control where they sit unused in a store room, hidden away because the current technical and teaching staff don't know anything about them, and would rather pretend they didn't exist. The people who did know, moved on, and thousands of pounds worth of kit sit there wasting away!

 

The movers would be cool, but some scrollers would be awesome. Surely they would want to sell them, and forget about them while making money?

[CharlieH]

Yea, that's a good point. Would you mind asking them if they're willing to sell? If they're just sitting there gathering dust, and they want to get rid of them, then it might be worth the school buying them after all, as long as they aren't too expensive!

[niclights]

Brilliant, thanks. Is that just a T-Bar, or does it have trussing / cross bars or anything else?

To answer this question, a Manfrotto is just a wind-up stand that accepts a spigot. Normally you would get a spigot fixed to a half-coupler that will enable you to attach tube or trussing.

 

It is quite common to take one of these stands and attach a tube allowing you to hang two movers. Or two stands supporting a length of truss/tube. Whichever you do you must be aware of how much your equipment weighs (including trussing etc.) and the limitations of the stands which reduces with height: http://www.manfrotto.com/Jahia/site/manfro...d=24&idx=33

[patch]

OK, thanks everyone.

I am a student, not an employed technician, and I would use my MacBook because it is so much faster, and easier to use than anything the school has.

 

You make a good point though, about when I leave. I will volunteer to return to light any major events, if I can, but I won't be able to do them all. I will have to try and train someone before I go, but I hadn't thought about that!

 

Hiring might work, but the school doesn't like to hire things much in advance, therefore it wouldn't give me much time to familiarize myself with it, rig it, and program it (for the last play, they got the scaffold company in the day after the play was done to take it all down, I hadn't even started to de-rig it by that point!), but that might be sensible.

 

Thanks

 

 

 

Hear your pain as I was once in that position at my old school, very few lanterns 4 par 64s and the rest were pat 123 and 743. all very basic but it was enough

What you need to think about is

-who will use it after your gone and more imporetantly how will they control it if they do not have a mac book

-how often will you be using them realistically prob twice maybe three times a year when your school does big productions with a budget

-are you wanting just moving heads because they can move around and do pretty things or can you use them to a level of knowing where to add them in.

 

personally I would suggest hiring moving heads everytime this way you can get better lights for your production and not have your school turn round and say well you have this equipment why do you need more.

 

good place to hire is www.csrlighting.co.uk pretty much any mac at 50quid a week mac 700 mac 2k and mac III 100quid a week or www.vikingstagelighting.co.uk are fairly good and if you ask for discount they are fairly good at it. or just ring up a company and ask to demo equipment and your interested in buying

If you want something cheap then the I solution moving heads 250w they make a spot and a wash version but I would say go for something like scrollers or the chroma q colour punch which stack up against any par 64.

 

think thats it really sorry to have gone on for so long but hope has given you a good idea

[CharlieH]

Brilliant, thanks! I will have a look at those Manfrotto stands, and I will try those lighting companies. £50 a week sounds very good! There's also a place just down the road from school that we have used before, whcih I will try, but I'm not sure what the prices are!

Thanks,

Charlie

[Chris Beesley]

Dont forget tho... one moving head on hire isnt going to do a lot - usually movers are used in multiples to create effects ... often this can be 8, 12, 20 + + + etc. You soon run into a lot of programming and a reasonable size hire bill to get the desired effect. A well programmed & focussed rig of generics with scrollers will always look far better than a badly promgrammed rig and a couple of movers waggling around for the sake of it.

[patch]

Brilliant, thanks! I will have a look at those Manfrotto stands, and I will try those lighting companies. £50 a week sounds very good! There's also a place just down the road from school that we have used before, whcih I will try, but I'm not sure what the prices are!

Thanks,

Charlie

 

 

im sure if you start hiring or talking to them saying you will put some money there way as often as you can and you may get discount rates also if its just down the road you save on delivery and just get someone to take you in your school minibus or something

[CharlieH]

Yes, I will try and barter a bit! I will also suggest some form of sponsorship - we put their ad in out brochure, in return for discounted rates, or something like that.

[johnhuson]

Yes, I will try and barter a bit! I will also suggest some form of sponsorship - we put their ad in out brochure, in return for discounted rates, or something like that.

I wouldn't bother with the sponsorship idea, the reality is that an advert in the program for a school show has very little value to a lighting hire company, you just have to think how many people coming to see a school show will also be in need of a lighting hire company?

 

As suggested above speak to a few local companies, any reasonable hire company will be able to offer you advice on what best suits your budget and needs. Also bear in mind that if you start shopping a bit further afield you need to also factor in the costs of having the equipment delivered or someone from the school going to collect them.

[CharlieH]

OK, I will try all that. The people down the road have lent us loads before, and have always seemed very decent about it, giving contact numbers for it not working, and a mobile number for emergencies. I will probably try them.

 

I emailed csr lighting and they can lend me a mac 250 for £60 a week. Is that good? I can also hire a Zero Fat Frog for £65 a week. Again, is that good or shall I try somewhere else?

[Joe Bleasdale]

OK, I will try all that. The people down the road have lent us loads before, and have always seemed very decent about it, giving contact numbers for it not working, and a mobile number for emergencies. I will probably try them.

 

I emailed csr lighting and they can lend me a mac 250 for £60 a week. Is that good? I can also hire a Zero Fat Frog for £65 a week. Again, is that good or shall I try somewhere else?

 

Its OK... For dry hire I can get 250 Entours for £30 per week...

 

Best,

[J Pearce]

Depends on your week.

 

Some hire co's call 3 days a 'hire week'.

Some hire co's, and a lot of directors/venues etc, call it a show week of 8 or so days.

[CharlieH]

Joe, you said you could get dry hire for £30 a week, is that a 3 day week, or a 7 day week? Dry hire is just the light - no technician, right? And where can you get those prices?

[Joe Bleasdale]

Joe, you said you could get dry hire for £30 a week, is that a 3 day week, or a 7 day week? Dry hire is just the light - no technician, right? And where can you get those prices?

 

As far as I know a week is 7 days... Dry hire is without techs, either you pickup and return or you pay shipping. I have met the owner, nice fella and £30 is even lower than some of the big players I know. May be worth a call... not to sure how far he is from you though. You could always give him a ring and ask him how long he thinks a week is...

 

http://www.lighttheway.co.uk/

 

EDIT - I have just checked... this guy is in Manchester (near me) so is quite a way from your location... Sorry.

 

Best

[Ynot]

Hmmm...

 

£30 a week is exceptionally good price for a Mac 250.

What the OP needs to be careful of - especially as they're not going to have any experience maintaining the kit - is the distance from the hire co. If a local company hires out the kit, then they're local if something goes wrong, or a lamp blows. Someone 50 miles away is going to have a bit of a trog to get a replacement lamp over to the hirer.

 

That said, I will (as always) second the CSR lighting option. Gary is my local guy - only a mile or so down the road. Has always been happy to turn out - even out of 'office' hours - to sort any issues I might have with kit hired from him. Can't recommend him highly enough.