Old style floods

[Ynot]

I seem to recall that someone was looking for some old style floods a while back but a quick search rendered nothing obvious.

 

But as I came across these, I thought I'd publish them.

 

TD

[Frag_Me]

I'm a regular user of these types of floods, so if anyone wants some quick info on what they are like then shout.

[gareth]

Patt.137 - tin box with a reflector and a lamp in - the question of "what are they like" has a pretty short answer! :D

[Paul Roberts]

Pattern 137, hmmmm, not the best flood. I use two for backstage light and that's about it.

[adam5365]

I think it may have been me.

were still looking so thanks for the heads up Ynot

[lxkev]

I used to have 20, we kept four. The rest went in the scrap metal bin, I hear that you can make a nice BBQ out of them:-)

[dbuckley]

Yeah, those ones on ebay are faulty though, they're missing gels :D

 

Although these things are junk have difficult optical properties, if you put a 175W photoflood in them and use a few they make pretty good lightning...

[Stutwo]

I still use these as backstage lights, came in very handy.

[Paul Roberts]

I still use these as backstage lights, came in very handy.

I think if any theatre has these in their stock, this is probably the best way to use them. I'm currently designing and operating lighting for a school production of Bugsy Malone. Absolutely no good on the FOH rig, lovely for backstage.

[Dj Dunc]

Ha, we have nine methinks (together in threes) on our cyc bar for the wash, and yes we just did Bugsy Malone too.

 

we had some older ones, we gutted them for parts for the working nine, and then one of the threes was turned into a hanging nuts/bolts/chain box, and the other two were made into hanging flower baskets

 

dunc

[Frag_Me]

I tend to use them for understage washes. We mostly use rostra where I use em, and it looks very tatty without some sort of black cloth around it. 3 or 4 of these in various colours soon sorts this out, makes it look dead "industrial".

[Johnno]

Our school stage has twelve of these on two bars with alternate red-green-blue gels. I'm about to change all that as they are almost undetectable when on, especially the blues. Mind you, I think their bulbs have blown which could have a lot to do with it :)

[tokm]

Absolutely no good on the FOH rig

:o Shouldn't be using floods FOH anyway hehe!

 

Fair enough these days we use Patt.137's as wing works and such, but just think.. many years ago, these as well as some of the other well known Patt. lanterns, were considered to be as good as we think source4's and cantata's are today.. wonder what people will think of todays top fixtures and lanterns in 10/20 years time! We'll have the mac3000 and vl8000 all brighter than todays best kit and all run off LED's or something low power and light weight.. :)

 

Tom

[Don Allen]

The Patt60 500 watt flood http://www.strandarchive.co.uk/lanterns/p60.html and Patt 137 200 watt flood http://www.strandarchive.co.uk/lanterns/p137.html are still useful lighting instruments in this day and age for several reasons. They control the spill of light and have a colour frame, if complete, have a yoke and tilt lock mechanism so can be easily focused and are very cheap, quite often given away.

 

Many schools were supplied with the Patt 60 as there main stage lighting by a government supply system that saw the words stage lighting and supplied them for that purpose, quite often as two rows across the stage.

 

They are still useful for this as a colour wash for dance and musicals, not as effective as a modern stage flood or cyc light with a linear lamp, but instead of using them as barbecues or scrap metal, I assume a lot of groups starting up can put them to good use until they can afford better lighting.

 

The Patt 60 makes an excellent scenery projector, remove the reflector so you have a point source of light, cut out your scenery shape such as a building outline or for a jungle breakup using a knife or chisel to cut out triangles and other similar shapes then make up a split colour gel using colours such as red, green, yellow and blue, you can use cello-tape to join the gel as the Patt 60 runs cooler than a linear flood and you have a linebach projector.

 

Good lighting design is about being creative with what you have available, not wishing for the latest mover and spending a disproportionate amount of your lighting budget on an effect that may only be on for a short time.

 

There are useless lights as we have seen recently, the Patt 60 and the junior Patt 137 do not fit into that category.

[Dj Dunc]

Although these things are junk have difficult optical properties, if you put a 175W photoflood in them and use a few they make pretty good lightning...

 

haha I bet they do :) particularly if they havent been maintained properly :o

 

dunc