From The Horse's Mouth

What to do with all those gobos you’ve collected over the years? For many lighting designers, lighting directors and end users there always seems to be a growing box of gobos used on previous shows or events. Actually, with a little bit of time, imagination, and color you’d be amazed at some of the combinations you can come up with in order to get more use from them. For example, if you take two Apollo standard B-size metal gobos Dots in Double Circle #2288, add them to an Apollo Smart Move rotator, throw in a dash of color (I like a triple color combination AP#8350, AP#7750, AP#6500) and BINGO! You’ve got a fun “dots in motion” effect. Another possibility is using the  Apollo Smart Move Vertical  for interesting vertical motion effects. Try using a standard metal #2342 Wavy Checks in the Vertical. Then add a B-Size round Wavy Checks to the standard gobo slot. Throw in some split color AP#3250, AP#4650, adjust the focus to your liking and there you go, you have an interesting Kaleidoscope type effect. One of my favorite things is to add an Apollo Crushed Dichroic to a gobo. It seems to bring so much more life to the pattern you are projecting. With some time and patience you’d be amazed at the number of effects you can come up with just using the old gobos you have or buying some new inexpensive metal gobos. So what are you waiting for? Have some fun and give it a try.

Sometimes, the manufacturers make it too easy for special effects such as a gobo rotator , wave effect light or even a snow machine. It is easy to create the effect by just using the device but what about using it over and over? Is there a way to give the effect a new look? Giving lighting students a challenge to find new effects by using what is in the electrics cage can be a fun assignment. Take a rotating gobo and focus it on a mirror ball at short range and you get a terrific visual effect. Blow fog across a stage between the cyc and a black scrim and you get a nice “flying through the clouds” illusion. I always marveled at how creative my students were because they weren’t given the instructions and told to use the effect. Mind you, keep an eye on the work to be sure the effect is being mounted and used in a safe way. Let the creativity begin!

The Apollo Smart Move rotator  has onboard motion effects and can create some very exciting environments onstage or at a museum installation. The Smart Move will accommodate both steel patterns and glass patterns. It uses a unique retaining ring that flips to use with either gobo type. One side is flat to use with steel patterns and the other side has a recess on it to allow you to mount glass gobos or “bezeled” products like Textured Glass  or Crushed Dichroics. Apollo also offers a clear glass separator to keep two steel patterns from warping into each other and tearing themselves apart. Some gobo manufacturers use thinner steel and warping can occur.

To install a pattern in the rotator, use needle nose pliers in the half circle grooves on the retainer rings to pinch them together and pull the ring out of rotator, place the B sized gobo into the rotator and depending on whether it is glass or steel, flip the ring over to accommodate the different thickness of the gobo. Use the needle nose pliers to pinch the ring slightly and place it into the rotator.  Check to be sure ring is all of the way in and flat. You can also use the small screwdriver included in the rotator box to place into one of the half circle indentations and gently pull towards the center and away from the rotator to take the ring and gobo out. To replace the ring in the rotator, place one end in the rotator pulled the ring towards the center of the circle and push the ring into place. Once the patterns are in place, you can set the dial switches onboard to assign an effect if constant counter rotation is not needed. The Smart Move can rotate, stop, and reverse, it can “chatter” the patterns, and a variety of different moves which make it more versatile than other rotators on the market.

To see a video on this process go to:

Installing Gobos Into A Gobo Rotator

Smart Moves are very quiet rotators  with infinitely variable cw/cww, 0-21 rpm speed. Check one out at your local Apollo dealer, you’ll be impressed!

Halloween is almost here! Even if it is for just one day, we like to show up at work in costumes of what we possibly would like to be in some alternate reality, and then take our kids out to get bags full of candy we spend weeks trying to control the consumption of. It is a day like no other and a lot of fun.  

Halloween parties and events are happening everywhere. Special effects are a must! For some ideas check out Apollo’s Creative F/X Guide.  What is the Creative F/X guide?  It is an online tool that has a number of lighting effects that list the Apollo gear, gobos, gel or other design elements and where to place them in the light fixture. 

One example that is a rather simple effect, but scary nonetheless, is the Flaming Skull.  To create this effect you need the enhanced crushed dichroic Phoenix Sunset (DI-CRUSH-2-PSUN)  placed in an Apollo Smart Move Rotator dialed into Effect: 01 and our standard steel Skull and Cross Bones gobo (MS-3062) placed in the static slot of the ellipsoidal. The results are something that resembles the scary Ghost Rider.

Click here and then launch the video to see in action and Happy Halloween!!!!

Whenever I show our Smart Move gobo rotators to folks, they will ask why we use a 1/4″ phono plug to connect the rotator to the power supply. This is actually a nice feature if you think about it. The weak link on any device that uses a wall wart power supply is the connection at the device. The thin low voltage wire is fairly vulnerable. In a typical theatre hang, a small wire can easily be pulled out when run down the electric with the big 12/3 cables or if the wall wart falls off the pipe before it is tied down (you know this has happened to you). The other common issue is a cherry picker or wagon rolling over the wall wart. By using the common 1/4″ phono, we figure that chances are a replacement connector is sitting in the sound booth. You will not have to wait until Monday to order a replacement. If there is not one in the theatre, they are readily available at Wal-Mart and Radio Shack. Life and theatre lighting is too complicated and hopefully this will help simplify it just a bit!

Gobos, gobos, gobos. What to do with all those gobos you’ve collected over the years? For many lighting designers, lighting directors and end users there always seems to be a growing box of gobos used on previous shows or events. Actually, with a little bit of time, imagination, and color you’d be amazed at some of the combinations you can come up with in order to get more use from them. For example, if you take two Apollo standard B-size metal gobos Dots in Double Circle #2288, add them to an Apollo Smart Move gobo rotator, throw in a dash of gel color (I like a triple color combination AP#8350, AP#7750, AP#6500) and BINGO! You’ve got a fun “dots in motion” effect. Another possibility is using the Apollo Smart Move Vertical for interesting vertical motion effects. Try using a standard metal #2342 Wavy Checks in the Vertical. Then add a B-Size round Wavy Checks to the standard gobo slot. Throw in some split color AP#3250, AP#4650, adjust the focus to your liking and there you go, you have an (continue reading…)