followspot tips

[Bobbsy]

Moderation: Topics merged to try and keep all the good follow spot tips in one place.

 

Bob

[MobileMikey]

We usually ask the most junior crew member to run round a bit on stage so new f/s can get their hand in.

 

 

Dont know about the uk, but here in ireland F/S IS the most junior crew members job! I cant imagine the asm or chief lx running around to help a noob! :)

[Big Jay]

if the Chief Lx wants their crew to work at the best level, then I don't see a problem with them doing that.

[LXbydesign]

Quite!!!, Big Jay,

 

and lookin at it in the 'modern management' world- as a Chief LX, I would be welcoming my electrics crew to be running around on the stage (so long as its safe) to assist the F/S op in getting the hang of tracking people. It would be known as a 'team building' excerise, would it not?!! Hehe :)

[RoyJ]

:) In my humble opinion, the most important issue is followspot ballance, I was trained on a patt 793 followspot that was so balanced I could operate it with one finger and with some descret ghosting, guarantee in picking up q's.However, the modern thought is to make follows smaller and thus less easy to ballance.However my collegue Tom, (OSAL) found a cheap sorce of telescope sights, that you attach to the spot with bunggee cords.We used these for panto at the Derby Guildhall theatre.We also used them for G & s the sourcerer by Rose hill musical society,I was opperating the lx board but the f/s operator reported great ease in exicuiting even fairly complex q's.While I agree this is no replacement for skill, if you haven't got the time constraint to learn and practice, this certainly works.Put it like this I was that empressed, I will be getting 4 for our two pairs of follows as our "hires" are often to non experianced operators. Hope this helps.Keep it illuminated Roy

[Big Jay]

No ghosting, you're better than that!!!

 

If you were good at what you do you would not need to ghost, if not, make a sight, their not hard at all, a coat hanger and you are sorted.

[GaryM]

This is probably way too late to help out the original questionner, but some interesting points have been raised that I would like to add to. First of all I would agree with RoyJ about balance being so important. If you have to grip the followspot to counterbalance any weight, you're on a loser straight away. And remember that if you move the lenses to adjust focus/beam angle, then the balance will also change.

 

Some people have suggested having the Pan/Tilt locks tightened a bit to stop wobble. In my opinion this leads to delayed movement or overshoot and potentially jamming. A light touch (ie no force or tensed grip) on a free moving, well balanced followspot is by far the best method.

 

With respect to sighting, I agree that ghosting is not desirable for professional productions, but is a better option than bringing up the spot in the wrong place and seeing it sweep rapidly across the stage to its intended target! It shouldn't be too tricky to set up a makeshift sight as others have suggested. However, if money allows, I would highly recommend the SpotDot2000 sight from Flints, which I have purchased and used on a recent production. It was a worthy investment!

See this link:

SpotDot2000