Gels/Filters

[adambattey]

Hi Guys,

 

I was just wondering if you could suggest the best place for me to get [cheapish] coloured gels from? I am lighting a concert on a VERY small budget and am looking for the best deals!

 

Cheers,

 

Adam x

[Just Some Bloke]

To be brutally honest, the cheapest way to buy gels is to also buy lots and lots of expensive stuff from the same company, at which point you will get a good discount off everything, taking the price of gel down a fair old way. If, however, you're buying 3 sheets of gel twice a year then you're going to be paying the RRP wherever you go, TBH. In which case you'll be best looking for the place that charges the least in postage. Can you maybe buy some from your local venue? That way, even if you pay RRP you're eliminating the delivery. Just a thought.

[Glyn Edwards]

We've been known to donate small (ish) quantities of used gel to good causes. Usually in exchange for tea bags or cakes or similar...

 

Glyn

[JonM]

Depending on how exact the colours need to be, I managed to pickup a job lot of old Gels from a local hire company from EBay. Might be worth a look on EBay or contacting a local hire company and see if they have any old stuff kicking around they want rid of.

 

Edit: Spelling

[adambattey]

Thanks for the advice guys! I will give those places a look-see!

 

In terms of what we are - I work in a secondary school and am trying to make the summer concert a BIG moral booster after a shocking OfSted outcome - so I'm trying to pull out all of the stops designwise to show them what we can do. I have a day and a half to get it all designed/rigged and sorted next week [without knowing the actual set lists for another month...fun times!] for the concert on the 1st July.

 

...we also have a fully qualified [and awesome] tea lady if you're interested...! ha ha!

 

Thanks again!

 

Adam

[GridGirl]

If you're a school, go to your local theatre company and ask them very nicely if there's any chance you could have any of their old gels. We often donate cut colour to schools who ask us, as mostly it comes out of one show's rig and goes into the "cut gel bin" never to reappear unless it's blue and parcan sized, in which case it sometimes goes onto desk lamps for production week! You may well find that your local company does the same sort of thing, in which case they quite possibly will have a stack of slightly-used but perfectly good colour.

[tokm]

I work in a secondary school and am trying to make the summer concert a BIG moral booster after a shocking OfSted outcome - so I'm trying to pull out all of the stops design wise to show them what we can do.

Should be thinking more along the lines of - show them what you can do, to safegaurd your job!

 

If they've had a bad Ofsted report, they're probably all bricking it and might start cutting what they could see as 'waste' to patch over academic issues.

 

With regard to gel's, it might be worth you sticking up a wanted ad' in the relevant section asking for donation/spare (but usable) offcuts of gel/gel on its way out. At least there it might get some attention rather than just being here in the general LX section. Filling out your profile with a location at least will help as there might be people in your local area who can help.

 

Best of luck! T

[dmoffat]

I also know of a few companies that keep rolls of gel that is discontinued. Its often rolls of perfectly good gel, but no-one will really buy it as it's not in the current Rosco/Lee swatch book.

 

Another 2p's worth

 

Dave

[dmxtothemax]

Check e bay regularly, you can get gels quite cheaply,

But be warned cheap gels dont last too long,

You get what you pay for!

Its not so bad on smaller lights like 300w or 500w,

But on bigger 1000w lights they tend to burn quickly

 

Hi Guys,

 

I was just wondering if you could suggest the best place for me to get [cheapish] coloured gels from? I am lighting a concert on a VERY small budget and am looking for the best deals!

 

Cheers,

 

Adam x

[boatman]

Hi Guys,

 

I was just wondering if you could suggest the best place for me to get [cheapish] coloured gels from? I am lighting a concert on a VERY small budget and am looking for the best deals!

 

Cheers,

 

Adam x

 

If you're happy with Rosco E-colour gels Enlightened Lighting have a special offer at the moment of only £3.45 + VAT per sheet. That's fairly cheap.