World War 2 Searchlights

[Spock]

Doing a play in a few weeks time called "The Brylcreem Boys" which has a scence in it where the characters 'fly' over Germany in a Lancaster. The script calls for them to be picked out by a searchlight. Due to budget constraints (ie we don't have any money) I am planning to use some P23s upstage, sited on the stage and operated by wires, and a Strand followspot from FOH. What I need to know is what gel to use to give the searchlights the correct appearance. There is a reference in the script to the main searchlight beam being blue. Anybody have any ideas?

[goochr96]

You could try a lee 201, that is quite a light blue colour, it is used of rtungsten to daylight, I like it because it gives a very crisp white light, similar to that of a discharge lantern, or a lee 202, is similar but a bit more blue. Hope that helps

[gareth]

You could try a lee 201, that is quite a light blue colour, it is used of rtungsten to daylight, I like it because it gives a very crisp white light, similar to that of a discharge lantern, or a lee 202, is similar but a bit more blue. Hope that helps

202 is lighter than 201, not darker.

 

Weren't WWII searchlights carbon arc units? I'm not too familiar with the output temperature of these sources, but didn't they veer towards yellow rather than blue?

[andy_s]

I remember them being really white, but maybe that's because the movies are all in b&w......

 

sorry for the appalling attempt at humour.....

 

on a more serious note, try the imperial war museum in London or Duxford - they may be able to give you information, I'm sure they'd be very helpful.

[boswell]

From what I remember, the searchlights were carbon arc, they had ordinary 'white' searchlights, manually aimed and 'Blue' lights amed by radar.

 

Then again I could be wrong! I was VERY young at the time :P

[goochr96]

apologies, I sit here corrected!

[dbuckley]

When I was a kid with an age measured in single digits, I fell in love with theate at Broklands Bowl, and as followspots they had a pair of these:

 

http://www.firework.co.nz/photos/searchlights/carbon_arc_2.5kw_restored_2.jpg

 

Ex-WW2 searchlights, but running off a transformer/rectifier rather than a small generator. As these spots were outside the fence that defined the edge of the paying area, and the Bowl was a ten minute walk from home, I'd often persuade my mum to take me to the Bowl so I watch and chat to (and in hindsight, probably bug the hell out of, though they never said a cross word to me) the followspot ops.

 

Decades later I find myself showing 35mm movies on projectors with carbon arc lamps, so I actually get to operate carbon arc sources on a regular basis.

 

So, onto the answer: Carbon arc lamps produce full spectrum white, same as a xenon arc lamp, it definitely leans towards blue in a similar way that HMI does, but HMI is not a full spectrum source, HMI is bluer. Its very different to tungsten, which appears quite yellow by comparison.

[Light Console]

:P Would a mirror attached to a motor not be an easier and potentially safer way of moving the beams of light? I made such a beast that ran automatically when I was at school. It had micro switches at the two end stops, that made or broke the circuit to a relay, which simply crossed over the polarity of the voltage to send the motor in the other direction.

 

Back on topic, Since you have a mention of blue search lights, I agree that 201-3 is good. Without out this mention, I would have left the light open or gone for a light neutral density.

[Mush]

Searchlights have a lot of their presence from the fat beam , 60" reflector and originally carbons burning 17kW:

 

http://www.geocities.com/bobz299/searchlight.htm

 

Have seen 2kW xenon in 24" reflector against carbon searchlight, looked like a minimag. Theatre Projects had a fleet of WWII searchlights, wonder where they are now, retrofitted with xenon and a couple still burning carbons, nothing beats carbons. Used carbon film projectors and followspots ,er, sometime ago, carbon has a unique quality of light to it.

 

Colour temp wise bit of light blue might differentiate it from 3200k base lighting, this site puts carbons at around 5000k:

 

http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/support/h2/temp.shtml

 

Mebbe use a moonflower, profile with dot breakup or if can find disco place with some pinspot wavers as `background `searchlights with unmasked profile as the fat beam searchlight that picks out the target?

[Jivemaster]

Arc colour varies but is always about daylight 5500 to 6000 Kelvin so a full CT blue on a t/hal source would be a good start. Could you use some disco moving mirror lamps lying on the floor and waving around by DMX micro?

[bruce]

It could be argued that the "real" colour of a WW2 searchlight is irrelevant, what matters is the audience's perception of what it should look like. A bit like the argument for using blue lighting for night scenes...

 

And since the audience's perception will have been mostly based on movies like "battle of britain", then I'd guess that white or blue/white would be more appropriate than yellow/white, even if it's less historically accurate?

[dbuckley]

If it were me, against a neutral or warm stage colour I'd probably go L117, which is very inaccurate, but as an effect would provide the qualities of "harshness" that I think are required. If the stage were cool I'd guess I'd try L104 for much the same reason. This is art, not science.