UV

[matt freeman]

ive been asked by the director of a school production, if it would be possible to have a UV light, the kind that turns white shirts florecent, and also turns some for of UV hair gel they are going to get the actors to wear to make that turn what ever colour its ment to.

 

now, we dont have any special UV lights, and im wondering if it is possible to create some sort of filter for say a parcan which will create the same effect, or if I would need to source a proper UV light from somewhere.

 

thanks

matt

[Tomo]

You need a proper UV light from somewhere.

 

You can get UV tubes that are just like flourescent tubes, or more specialist UV lanterns - floods and what I refer to as 'UV cannons'.

 

Most theatrical lantern hire places have a selection - the big hire firm like Whitelight, Stage Electrics and AC Lighting all have a big selection and go nationwide.

 

There may be some small, local hire places that may be better for you - anybody know what companies are good in Torquay?

[Andrew C]

{dons thickest fireproof jacket available} You get a bit of a UV like effect with lots of 181 Congo blue on a dark stage, but it is better in almost all ways to go for the real thing. Buying the tube type is so cheap as to be almost a no-brainer in most cases.

[Tom R]

UV Cannons tend to be the best bet - I have had a lot of good effects using them (a complete UV act on a stage show looked awesome!)

 

Do bare in mind though that UV cannons often use (if not always?) discharge lamps and so need time to strike before you can use them effectively - often resulting in a few minutes of fluorescent T shirts before you want them! If you are using the cannons when you have other luminaires on stage as well then you may need a few as UV doesn't show up too great in high light level situations...but that goes for whatever kind of luminaire you use with UV...

[Just Some Bloke]

Matt, you've got to understand how a filter (gel) works. As its name suggests, it doesn't add colour to the light but filters out all other colours except the one you want. That works fine as long as the colour you want is produced by the source of light. Unfortunately a par can (and indeed all the usual theatre lanterns), despite producing the full range of visible light from red to violet, does not produce either infra-red or ultra violet light (or, at least, they produce so little as to be unusable). Thus you can get any colour of light from them except IR and UV.

 

That is why you need use a lantern that starts with a special lamp which does produce ultra-violet light in the first place.

 

As other have said, your best bet is either to buy UV tubes to go in a standard flourescent fitting, or to hire a UV cannon. Either way shouldn't cost too much.

[GridGirl]

I'd add that if you get fluorescent tubes rather than cannons, make sure you get electronic starters - the tubes won't flicker when you switch them on that way! And also, if you're not already aware of this, don't plug them into a dimmer cos they don't like it very much ;)

 

If a UV scene is done properly, it can be fantastically effective - on panto a couple of years ago I had twelve UV cannons plus two double and two single fluorescent tubes, lighting up bird puppets, a cloud cloth and cloud trucks and the dame in a hot air balloon - looked brilliant, until some idiot took a flash photo of it ;) would like to see the photo though, it will have looked ridiculous!

[thelxbloke]

There's not a huge amount of hire available in the Torquay area, mainly ourselves (who dont currently stock UV else I would have PM'd) and Stage LX.

 

If I remember rightly TQBG have hired from (I think) bright star in either north Devon or Cornwall before (Jesus Christ SuperSstar if I remember rightly) ask Mrs A. Reynolds she may have more information about that.

 

Also you could ask LightOptions in union st see what they say in there.

 

HTH

 

Steve

[Brian]

These days a more managable unit than the linear tubes are the new compact UV tubes in fittings like these...

http://www.10outof10.co.uk/acatalog/UVbeam.jpg

[Tomo]

{dons thickest fireproof jacket available} You get a bit of a UV like effect with lots of 181 Congo blue on a dark stage, but it is better in almost all ways to go for the real thing. Buying the tube type is so cheap as to be almost a no-brainer in most cases.

Just to clear this up - 181 Congo Blue is roughly the same colour as the glow from white clothing under UV.

 

So if you point Congo Blue at a white sheet, it will go the same colour as if you point a UV cannon at it.

However, it won't glow, and neither will UV paints.

[danburns]

Another source I found was B&Q - tubes were about £7 each from my local store. It might be worth a try!

 

Dan

[Tom R]

In my experience I found that canons are far more superior when you are looking at a long throw where the tubes I have used have been crap at a distance (granted they may have been crap tubes!). And canons get a lot hotter so in this case tubes are better when lighting close to the stage, and also tubes are quite good at close range UV effects. I guess it depends what your kind of throw is from your source to the stage.

 

We got this effect

 

http://www.maidstonegangshow.co.uk/maidstonegangshow/Images/Source/200525.jpg

 

using the UV filters in moving wash luminaires and poy (or however its spelt) - the UV canons destruck just before the act was due to start ;) but when the canons worked the effect was amazing!!

[The Yellow Transit]

the UV canons destruck just before the act was due to start ;) but when the canons worked the effect was amazing!!

We had the same problem with 3 cannons we brought (400W Lamps). They worked in rehearsal, then right on cue nothing. :( So we checked the fitting and the control gear showed an igniter in circuit but none were fitted, so a phone call to soundlab technical and we got hold of the guy who designed them years ago. He said it was the lamps as they had sold loads of these. We fitted another lamp and it worked but we still had 2 that were intermittent so someone suggested we fit a 125w fluorescent starter across it to strike it. I must admit I had visions of this starter errupting like a roman candle but it worked fine and are still fitted today. The lamps were Omron and were considerably cheaper than others

[Ynot]

on panto a couple of years ago I had twelve UV cannons plus two double and two single fluorescent tubes, <snipped>

TWELVE cannons?

Crikey - what stage were you lighting? ThePaladium???

;)

[matt freeman]

right thanks for that,

yes we did hire some stuff for JC supstar, this isnt really a profesional type show, but ill explain to the teacher who wants the effect that they will have to buy some stuff.

 

to whoever said something about the gell, im away that gells just filter out light, but I wasnt sure how much IR or UV was produced by a lamp, I didnt know if it was anything useful, or something so amazingly small to not bother with.

 

ill recomend B&Q to them, see waht they can find.

 

thanks,

 

matt

[Andrew C]

I'll recommend B&Q to them, see what they can find.

You won't get the tubes at B&Q. For these you will need to go to a theatrical supplier, or a lamp specialist.