Thread: help using theatrical gels?

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Can anyone here tell me exactly how to use theatrical gels to color a basic floodlight? Do you just apply them right to the front of the flood, or do you have to use some kind of frame, or do you have to use a specific kind of floodlight, or what? Not having much experience in theater, and none setting up the lights, I don't know these things... help!

Thanks in advance.

The professional gels you're thinking of are really expensive. Have you thought of using 12 volt floodlights (much cooler temperatures) and covering them with homemade gels like these binder dividers that you can find at Office Depot?


You could use multiple layers for deeper colors, and even combine different colors, all for a few bucks.

I belive that you need to make a frame for the gels they can be made out of shirt type carbboard I think there are how to's about using gels if you google that. and don't put the gels right on the bulb they will melt and maybe burn up.

Rookie,

great idea, I was thinking about this very same thing for lighting my GB once it is finished, would of never thought of that. Thanks RL4 for asking this

I tried some of the real gels and they do work but I was amazed at how much they reduce the amount of light. The gels that I have reduce the light output so much that you would have to start with like a 150watt bulb to end up with something like a 40watt bulb. In most cases I ended up just using the plain white light or colored LED lights.

Thetrical gels are made for lights like parkans and skoop stage lights. These types of lights burn REALLY bright so this means with a thearical light source it wont reduce the light. But since a normal flood light has a lower wattage the gell will reduce the amount of light a little but not to much. you can also buy gells that are thinner for this purpose. If you put a gel on a flood light you want to make sure that you do not directly put the gell on the light bulb, because this will melt the gell. I pesonally like gells better, because there are some many clolors to choose frome rather than just the basic colors of a colored flood light and in the end it can be cheaper than buying alot of colored floods. Also the thing about colored floods is that somtimes the color sucks. I got a red one this year that looked more pink than red. When I was in High School, I was activley in theatere so I got to borrow all kinds of stuff for Halloween like our F-100 fog machine!! I also got to borow a few parkan lights which lit up my house so well. i think thats the only part I miss about high school.
Heres a link of where we would get our gels from. We actually have a place in town that sells gells so I never had to order from the internet. But $7.25 for a 20" by 20" sheet isn't that bad. when comes to it, it will be cheaper than the colored flood lights.
Apollo Design | 20" x 24" Gel

We usually put gels in a frame in my theatre, but I don't think you need to. The frame is basically a thin sheet of aluminum folded in half to sandwich the gel, with a large hole in the middle. It's nothing special-- just a place to hold the gel.

although gels are made of high-temp polycarb they will melt. i get a ton of the basic colors off ebay.

i would stay away from using plain plastic. too risky for anything over 40 watts.

binder clips are great for holding them as is real gaffers tape (DONT use duct tape!)

Thanks for the info, folks. Now, any ideas about how to make some kind of frame I could use to set gels (or binder covers) into, to color the light from a plain old flood in a cheap lawn stake? Needs to be usable outdoors, in northern Missouri's unpredictable October weather. It's common here to leave the house in warm sunshine and return in the middle of a sleet storm two hours later. And it needs to be cheap. More time and talent than money here. Budget, y'know... heh

I'm thinking maybe some kind of black ducting, plumbing pipe, whatever, with one end cut at an angle to display the light, flat end staked to the ground? Not very flexiible or aimable, but could be pretty sturdy and watertight, and could easily be used as a base for some kind of color film. Whatcha think?

BTW, y'all are great!!

Just attaching the gel directly to the light with gaff tape should be fine. I really wouldn't suggest using the binder dividers-- I tried to once, and even at a few inches away it burned through the plastic within an hour.