Thread: making the lights purple-y?

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Hi all! Thx fer readin my first post here. Glad I found this place.

I have been struggling with getting the right lighting effect on the outside of my house for a couple seasons now. As an electrician, my neighbors have just come to expect that I will do most of my effects with lights... My house is always illuminated, year round with spotlites. So for halloween I wanted a castle effect. My first thoughts were purple. But blacklights arent strong enough when used outside... unless I coated the whole house in clothing detergent... lol. So I settled on the cheapy floodlights, in blue. The blue worked fantastic for my graveyard scene... very eerie. But upon inspection of the actual house, the blue backround with orange flicker flame bulbs in my light fixtures just makes me look like an extremist bears fan. It is so freakin blue.

My question amidst my babbling is... is there anything I can put over my flood lights that with deepen the blue or turn it purple. I was thinking red fabric but it just seems dangerous. Any ideas? On a budget?

Could you build a box around your floodlamps with a slide out lense at the end? That way you could change your colors as your haunt evolves. My local plastics store sells scrap plastic dirt cheap and as long as you vent the boxes and keep the hot bulbs away from the lense it shouldn't become a fire hazzard. Im experimenting with UV LED floodlamps this year, but at $35 each I wouldn't put them in the "budget" category.

You can also try theatrical gels... They are the colored cellophane sheets that they put over professional stage lighting. They come in ALL KINDS of colors. Unless my limited knowledge of Chicago is incorrect, I believe it does have an abundance of theaters, which would mean there would need a be a local theater supply company. In Buffalo, we have a place called Unistage that sells them but I'm pretty sure they are local. The gels are pretty cheap too.

But like walkingcorpse said, you'd probably need to build a box around the lights because putting a gel right up againts a 150W flood would probably just melt it.

thanks you guys. My sister had the same suggestion from her past on the stage... they are only 100 watt-ers and they are outdoor so they have the thicker glass, but I do like the idea of being able to change out for different applications. Gives me ideas for Christmas too.... I think time may be of the essence, tho... when will I ever learn to start planning earlier.

Originally Posted by SparkyC

the blue backround with orange flicker flame bulbs in my light fixtures just makes me look like an extremist bears fan.

lol. That's funny.

why thank you :P

Originally Posted by wudden

You can also try theatrical gels... They are the colored cellophane sheets that they put over professional stage lighting. They come in ALL KINDS of colors.

That would be your best bet right there. Gels will actually withstand a LOT more heat than one would expect. I wouldn't go sticking it on top of an open flame, but you get the point. Some of the lights I have put out incredible amounts of heat (even the cheaper ones) and the gels hold up just fine. As far as where to buy.... Rosco US : Where To Buy
Rosco lighting makes some fantastic products and I'm sure somebody in your area would carry what you need.

Gels are the way to go...

thanks... everyone! I checked the sites,very helpful... then called a couple local music supply stores... closer to me than theater supply and found one selling gel sheets dirt cheap! Attaching will be another story once I aquire them, but this is a great start!! thanks!

Ok how about this? Add a red floodlight to the blue one and put both on a dimmer switch. That way you can power up or down each of the colors until you get what you are lookig for, also you may want to add in a green floodlight. I use all three colors for halloween.

One other thing? Do you have big trees in your yard? The higher you get the lights the more shaddows you cast. Makes it very spooky.