From The Horse's Mouth

It is in most places time to get out the fishing poles. You should watch this for some good tips……on what not to do!

We recently received an email from a dealer that FINALLY received a missing package.  Please note this was not Apollo’s error but FedEx. Original ship date: July 6, 2007.  Arrival date: May 14, 2010. Gobos are still good … but might want to throw that gum away!  If you have a good story on a late delivery, share it.  We’d love to hear it!

This video shows how LEE Filters produces gel.  Apollo uses this similar process of double-coated polyester gel.

I had a conversation this morning with a visitor regarding the pressure on high school and college graduates gaining employment this summer. It brought to mind a most unusual method of ‘employment persuasion’ I’ve ever known.

A number of years ago, while I was working a third shift factory job, I met a newer employee that hustled at the end of each work day (ending at 7 a.m. mind you) to another factory a few minutes away. Apparently he held a full time position with this employer too, and managed to keep both schedules humming along with no ill effects. While this seemed rather unconventional to my way of thinking (two full time jobs with time to sleep, play, etc), he shared with me how he got the second job.
Upon completing his interview, the HR person determined that my friend couldn’t possibly swing a second full time job, so wasn’t hired for the position. Being a resourceful (continue reading…)

Cell phone cameras are everywhere! Chances are you have one on you as you read this. If you are a lighting designer or a student, you should be snapping and saving photos often. You can use pix of sunsets, sunrises (is there a difference?), clouds, trees or a variety of natural settings to show a director or choreographer an example of a color or “look” that you are going to use for their show. As video projectors and LED backdrops become more affordable, these same photos can be edited and used for backgrounds. With today’s color pickers on control boards, you can also sample a color in a photo for use in a show as well. I like to shoot 30 second video snippets to loop if I ever find the gear or the need. A few seconds of a waterfall or trees swaying in the wind works as a nice background. So you already have the capability but maybe not the projection technology, go ahead and compile the pix or vids for the future, it’s really easy.

PS: You can also have those great photo backgrounds made into a gobo by Apollo if you have an immediate need!

All of us use  internet browsers every day for work or play.  We all have our favorite browser, whether it be Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari or Chrome (sorry if I did not mention yours).  There are also a lot of tools or add-ons for us to use in harmony with our browser of choice.  Some are helpful, some are cute, and some are neither.

One tool I do like because it can be a real time saver when searching for a standard pattern, is to add Apollo as a search provider into these browsers.   I would like to show you how to quickly and painlessly do this in Firefox and Internet Explorer.  I will come back to Chrome, Safari (maybe even Opera) at a later date.

For both Firefox and IE, find the search window (continue reading…)