Followspots through glass

[Grahame]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this advantage of shooting through glass: If you are using blackout cards on the front of your follow spot, you can open the card a teensy crack, just enough to get a sliver of light on the glass but not enough to show on stage, and mark up your pickup positions on the glass with a chinagraph pencil. It makes spot pickups an absolute doddle, and you don't need to be constantly moving your head to look through sights.

Also mark where the edges of the stage are so that you have some warning of when you need to fade off to avoid hitting proscenium, audience, cyc, etc.

[Andrew C]

Don't worry about the heat thing, it's a non-issue.

NOT if the glass is wired. The heat from a 2k can/does crack this glass. I'll take a picture if you need it Gareth.

[Seano]

If you are using blackout cards on the front of your follow spot, you can open the card a teensy crack, just enough to get a sliver of light on the glass but not enough to show on stage, and mark up your pickup positions on the glass with a chinagraph pencil.

 

The same wheeze works a lot better if you make a pinhole in the middle of the blackout card.

My experience of spot ops opening up a "teensy crack" is that they're usually not being quite a subtle as they think they are, and at best there's a fair bit of potential for embarrassing accidents. :)

[gareth]

Will take your word on the wired glass issue, Andrew - have never had the need to point a lantern through any! My comments were referring to regular glass rather than the wire-reinforced stuff.