Straw and Steel

I’ve been in the garage testing the Dean Friedman lighting rig- two 1000 watt PAR cans. A PAR stands for Parabolic Aluminized Reflector, a sealed beam fixed angle lamp not dissimilar to a car headlight. The good thing about them is that they are extremely bright, the bad thing is that they are fixed angle. I have a two channel portable dimmer unit so there will be at least one lighting cue- from dim to bright as Dean walks onto the stage.
Being of theatrical persuasion, one will have light straw (warm) and the other steel tint (cool). I could have blagged much more lighting equipment but I’d have to get it all back again to wherever it had been scrounged from and the lamps cost £20 each! I’m more interested in it sounding good really. Switching off the house lights will take be back thirty years to my City Hall days as it is one way of getting the audience to start cheering. No smooth transitions in Morley- just switches. (The three electroliers, under balcony soul destroyers, balcony brackets, ceiling cornice). The City Hall had one main dimmer but the cornice and under-balcony lights were switched. There was a reason for this- it had been designed to suit the Northern Sinfonia and the switched lights stayed on so that the audience could read their programmes.

Addendum- I’m not using Roscolux, I’m using Lee. This swatch book was prettier though.