Followspots HELP PLEASE !!

[jack2609]

Hi Guys

 

I am currently studying a lighting technology course at university and have been set my first assignment.

 

We have to write a report on a luminaire commonly found in British theatres in the 1980's, then compare and contrast to a modern day version.

 

I have decided to write my report on the followspot luminaire, as I already have a lot of research done on history, origins, limelight as well as the modern day equivalents and developments. However, I have crawled the web for hours upon hours trying to find information on what followspot was commonly found in theatres in the 1980's and found nothing!

 

If anyone can point me in the right direction of what followspot was commonly found in British theatres in the 1980s that would be a great help.

 

 

Thanks in advance

 

 

Jack

[boatman]

These were very popular in the 1980's. We've still got two working today.

[jack2609]

These were very popular in the 1980's. We've still got two working today.

 

 

Thats great, thank you!

so is it correct that I could mention that, beam size is not variable, unlike most if not all modern followspots, along with no boomerang etc

How do you focus these units?

Any advice or information on maintainance of these would also be greatly appreciated.

 

If I have to reference where I found out the information on which were common in the 1980's, is it possible boatman that I can referance your full name and where you work etc?

 

Many thanks again, you have realy helped me with my project already, that was like the missing peice.

 

Any other suggestions and posts would also be greatly appreciated as I have to mention if there were any other simular units around at the same time made by manufacturers other than strand.

 

thank you :)

 

jack

[David A]

the Strand 765 was the professional version of these and did come with a colour pack, the 293 was really a 70's light and not over-bright.

[johnarro]

the Strand 765 was the professional version of these and did come with a colour pack, the 293 was really a 70's light and not over-bright.

 

And, Jack, you can get more info about the 765 here: http://www.strandarchive.co.uk/lanterns/p765.html

and the 293 here: http://www.strandarchive.co.uk/lanterns/p293.html

on Jon Primrose's excellent Strand Archive website

[paulears]

Tut Tut!

 

The 765 was NOT the professional version of the 293. At this time there were no non-professional followspots. The 765 was simply a discharge source, rather than the 293. There was also the 793, a Halogen lamped version too, don't forget.

 

The big problem with choosing followspots is that they have an abnormally long lifespan for a piece of kit in general use. Our 765s were only retired two years ago. One still functions, as a spare if the modern ones die. To be honest, the ones we are using are built around a Golden Scan and are rubbish.

 

The 293/793/765 all share a common lamp house pressing and lens tube. The 765 had better yoke and balance capabilities to cope with the 4 flap mechanical dimmer perched in the front runners - which also made colour a real pain.

 

All of these have fixed beam angles - they are not zooms. The end of the lens tube has a helical slot and adjuster knob(s) to set the focus. In the 1980s you also found many theatres still had heir 1960s followspots in use - as I said a daft lifespan. So in the 80s, some venues would still have Patt.93 - the forerunner to the 293. So by picking that decade, you have loads of kit to look at. Most is Strand, but a few places had CCT Silhouette followspots - just a long lensed profile with iris. I seem to remember the original video for Abba's Supertrouper usig these - a bit odd really, as the song is abut an American followspot!

 

 

If you want to compare these to contemporary popular followspots, then probably you need to look at the Robert Juliat's - they seem to be the 'modern' standard.

 

What is different? Brightness, weight, beam quality, operator comfort, hot bits! In this age of discrimination - look out for left-handed follow spots. Some RJs have what appear to be left-handed capability, but it involves new holes and some operator inconvenience - hence why we bought the Golden Scan derived things - because they are operated from the rear, and we had a left handed op (who left as soon as we bought them).

 

Colour is still a problem. You're pretty well stuck with boomerang frames in the runners. In the Strand ones we are talking about, the 293/793 had 4 frame ones in the runner - but you lost that when the 765 came out, unless you put a piece of card in one frame, and ran with 3 colours - however, the distance between the knob to dim at the front, and the iris at the side was a bit of a stretch. We settled for the 4 leaf shutter at he front, with a piece of dowel, connecting this to the back - with the dowel through the side hand hold - meaning iris and dimmer were right next to each other.

 

 

I hope this helps.

 

For what it is worth - internet research on this subject is likely to be pretty useless. Jon Primrose's site is the only place you'll get a range of info. Other than that, you'll have to go and ask old theatre people what they remember.

 

Paul

[jack2609]

Thats great, thank you to all again that replied.

I certainly agree with what you said about finding little info on the web, which is why I joined this forum, hoping that someone would be kind enough to help me out and pass on some of their past experiance.

 

Guru could you just explain to me one more time, what you did with your peice of dowel, what did you fix it to?

Appologies if I am sounding realy stupid.

 

Thanks again

Jack

[chris_c-lighting]

I seem to remember every truss spot I used around that time was a PANI,great for short-throw.still used to this day I think !

ahhh happy memories of climbing 100' to an outrigged truss chair underhanging for david bowie in maine road

[boatman]

Yes you're welcome to mention my name if you wish. I used the 293's purely in an AmDram environment though, so I don't know if that's any use. As johnarro said have a trawl around the Strand Archive site, there's lots of fascinating stuff there. You might like to also get hold of a copy of Richard Pilbrow's book from your library as it has a good section on historical lanterns.

[ianl]

my memories, which are the later half of the 80s onwards would be strand solos, CCT sils with piece of broom handle bolted on the back, (strong??)super troupers and panis for rock and roll, and of course the much loved strand patt23 followspot for the low budget events

[paulears]

Ok. I knew I had some old pics somewhere, and found this.

http://www.earsmedia.co.uk/765-5.jpg

You can see that there are two sticks, joined with tape (for adjustment!) that go from the operators hand to the knob on the front of the 4 leaf dimming shutter. These are (were) Pattern. 765s bought in the late seventies, and seen here during a Jim Davidson Summer show in the 1990's. I note that they are working through the glass - I don't remember this happening, but I fell over the glass only a few weeks ago, and now I can see where it went!

 

I hope you can see what I mean. If you look carefully, you can see the iris knob is only just above the wooden stick, and she can just lift one hand to operate the iris.

 

 

The image actually came from a piece of videotape - lasting a minute or two, but quality isn't too bad.

[David A]

Talking of left handed spots, I had a couple of Strand zenspots with 2kw zenon lamps and the colour pack was fed with rods back to the iris/barndoor unit.The spots are converted now to hmi but still work, the irises are superb and the old power supply is in a shed and I use it when the truck battery is flat.The controls were easy to convert.I bought them from a theatre in Wolverhampton and shipped them out in 74.

[Grum]

I note that they are working through the glass - I don't remember this happening, but I fell over the glass only a few weeks ago, and now I can see where it went!

 

 

I remember that glass!

 

Really handy for pick-ups in black outs or when the light form your mates spot reflected back in your face (somehow your own spot never did that????)

 

I don't know who took that glass out but I'd happily shake thier hand if I ever had to work in there again.

 

Anyway, back on topic the 765 was used all over the palce and still is in some venues but then that is just as good an example as you can get of (old) strand kit.

[swampman]

Didn't CCT have the Silhouette (interchangeable lenses) and Minuette range out by then ?

 

There were both short arc (Mercury Halides 1kw/250w ) and Tungsten halogen (1kw/650w) versions, usable in appropriate environments, if I remember correctly.

 

I've still got Minuettes PC for use in small rentals (how they got this far is a long/tall story!), & I'm sure there are plenty more since CCT still thankfully and sensibly make spares (the concept of Long Term investment is regretably lacking nowadays).

 

One thing that is very apparent from that period is the level of light output per lantern.

You'll get nowhere nowadays with a 1kw against a background of today's moving FX !

Even the 1kw PAR 64 was known in Strand theatre catalogues as a "Punchlight" (!!) for 'saturated coloured back-lighting' (Strand had very little chance against King Thomass' troups on the rear goalpost)

 

There were some Continental "cabaret" type lanterns, (seen in films and brothels eg Cabaret?): short and ugly, spinning colour wheels, other long things that stuck in my mind (from R&Roll humping) were horrendously heavy US bits of gear...

[Suzette]

Jack,

If you are ever in London and want to see a Patt 293 working then pm me - I'm in the Clapham area and we have one as our followspot --- you are more than welcome to come and have a play with it and take photos etc. for your project.