Comments on: Gobos – A Guide To Choosing And Using A Gobo

By: Derek Gutteridge

Derek Gutteridge — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 21:06:45 +0000

Hi Rob
great article.
I am staging a show at a church and want to achieve amoving water reflection for some scenes.
Any advice would be useful.
I have limited power supply and, hence, limited no of lanterns/channels in use at one time.
regards

Derek

By: Rob Sayer

Rob Sayer — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 09:40:54 +0000

Hi Ian,

For gel splits, Sellotape does “bed down” (ie melt) nicely after being heated up but it seems pretty flame retardent and it’s what we generally use. I’ve not had any problems with it, although I suppose the belt and braces answer would be to say scroller tape – the kind used to make up gel strings.

I love split gels, especially with gobos and Gam Online has a great page on the subject with some design ideas that you may not have considered. Check it out, if you haven’t already.

By: doctorstar

doctorstar — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 23:45:10 +0000

Hi Rob,

I would like to use split colour gels on a forthcoming production…having not done so before(!)
Should I tape the diagonal joins and if so, what with? Gut instinct tells me sellotape might be a bit melty in the gaze of a profile spot.

BW for the new year and keep up the good work,

Ian

By: Rob Sayer

Rob Sayer — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 13:52:44 +0000

Hi Ray. Many followspots have an accessory slot in the “gate” (the focal centre) and you can get gobo holders to fit them, along with masks, shutters and other beam shaping stuff. If a gobo holder isn’t available, it wouldn’t be impossible to make one.

Metal gobos have image limitations but etched glass and full colour / dichroics etc mean that there aren’t many limits nowadays. Don’t forget that even a high quality stage spotlight doesn’t have the optics of a dedicated projector.

Glad you enjoy the site. Thanks for visiting.

By: Ray Charnock

Ray Charnock — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 00:06:23 +0000

Thank you for sharing your expert knowledge in such a friendly and easy to understand way.
We are an established showgroup, performing in different venues, most of which have some lighting and sound consoles, although we do carry our own sound desk, stage lihts and follow spots. We are always looking for ways to improve our presentation and I am wondering whether we can incorporate Gobos into our follow spots. Is there such a thing as an “adapter box” that can be fixed to a spotlight that would accept Gobos?
Presumably there must be a limit to what can be projected using a Gobo due to their physical size and the “readability” of what you are trying to project?
Regards
Ray

By: LD SHARUKH

LD SHARUKH — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 22:52:37 +0000

Hi karen
What are you using to project the gobos.Moving heads, image scanners. Gobo projectors what? There are millions of ways u can do this? Project the gobos onto a large white backdrop and change the gobos from the console. Use several sets of lights for each scene.etc.
If you tell me what projector u are using i can help…let me know.
Thanks ciao sharukh

By: karen joyce

karen joyce — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 23:45:21 +0000

Hi can you assist me , I want to use my gogos as scene changes how can I achieve this, would this be a pin wheel effect lighting system .
this is a great site very informative for the beginner to the knowledgeable

By: Rob

Rob — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 15:52:16 +0000

Hi Gary

There are a number of theories about where the term “gobo” comes from. No one can seem to agree and I am pretty sceptical about the accuracy of most of them. But thanks for pointing that one out.

I’m surprised that you have never heard of glass gobos cracking. I worked on a tour where we had about 6 crack on the first show. Luckily, we had spares but taking care of glass gobos, including using the correct gobo holders, is important.

Thanks for visiting.

By: Gary

Gary — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 06:26:01 +0000

Great article, lots of great information. I just have a few notes, You can buy actual metal donuts for your lights, saves on black wrap and time making them. My company sells them, as well as custom stock steel and glass gobos galore, which are both etched, not cut for finer detail. Here is the link http://www.stagespot.com Custom gobos are only $77 and ship free, most school plays now a days can afford that I believe. Also we never had a glass gobo break in the light do to heating up to fast. We use a much better material to make them now. It might be fun to include why they are called Gobos… Goes Before Optics. If you are looking for more information to add to this you can check out our FAQ on gobos as well http://www.stagespot.com/gobo_info.html

-Gary