Free Equipment

[james.gardner]

Hi Everyone ( my first post so here goes)

I was wondering does anyone have any free equipment e.g gels gobos even old lanterns. We / our school would relay appreciate it as we only have a limited amount of lanterns and budget isnt great.

I would relay appricate it even stands or mics or cases or old desks !!

Thanks very much

James Gardnerhttp://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/laugh.gifhttp://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/blink.gifhttp://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/laugh.gifhttp://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/blink.gif

 

[adi19956]

You say your budget isn't great so presumably you have a budget... why not try out some rental gear? You're based in Southampton, I assume that means Southampton, Hampshire so go into the Marlands and there's a lighting/sound/DJ renting place there.

[Adam L F]

James,

 

Probably coming onto this forum and asking members for free equipment isn't the best way to go about making contacts and connections within the industry, especially when it comes to getting your hands on any equipment.

 

What is your budget? You don't have to buy equipment to use it, you can also rent it from production companies, remember, you don't need the latest moving light to illuminate your production, a good old Patt 123 will work just as well!

 

A little bit of advice from me, rephrase your question, and see if anyone could assist you with lighting your production, and point you in the right direction for getting your hands on needed equipment.

 

Hope your school production goes well.

 

Best,

 

Adam

 

 

 

[Bobbsy]

Moderation: We've removed a bunch of negative, sarcastic and/or bickering posts. If you want to offer help, fine. If not, then it's simple--just don't reply.

 

To the original poster: welcome to the Blue Room. We've moved your post to a different forum (which is specifically for school queries and topics). As you might gather, we get a fair number of requests like this and some of the old timers are a bit jaded by this sort of thing and forget to be welcoming. It's unfortunate but there are a lot more organisations which would like donations than there are people with gear to give away. My best suggestion would be to keep an eye out on the Classified section of the forum--sometimes bargains do crop up and even (occasionally) people offering to give away stuff.

 

The suggestion of looking into gear hire is a good one. Even professional theatres rarely own all the stuff they use, preferring to rent by the day or week and let somebody else worry about the maintenance.

[GridGirl]

I'd add that in terms of gel, have a chat to your local professional theatre. In my last job we'd have loads of perfectly good gel derigged at the end of a run, and we almost never re-used it because it was always the wrong colour or cut for the wrong lantern for the next show. Schools were often the recipients of this as it was no good to us.

[adi19956]

I'd add that in terms of gel, have a chat to your local professional theatre. In my last job we'd have loads of perfectly good gel derigged at the end of a run, and we almost never re-used it because it was always the wrong colour or cut for the wrong lantern for the next show. Schools were often the recipients of this as it was no good to us.

 

Don't want to hijack, but are you serious? I think our small community theatre could benefit from that! We spend so much money on gels

[Bobbsy]

You lose nothing by asking.

 

In my experience, there are two types of professional company:

 

ones that operate as Gridgirl described and...

 

...ones that spend hours filing every scrap of gel by colour and lantern type to save money (forgetting that the person doing this is being paid).

 

(With the second option, I don't know how often I've watched LX cursing when, after a diligent search, they realise the only gels of a particular colour were cut for the wrong lantern!)

[Ashley R]

Local large hire co, that A school that I do a bit of work for, gave the school two large garbage bags of gel from their "to be sorted bin" (Albeit the school does hire a fair bit from them) but worth asking, even if its only a small amount, it can be better than nothing!

 

(Just don't over do it, as they may get sick of it)

 

As for hire, some of the larger ones sometimes have got old kit lying around the warehouse, they they will either sell for cheap, or hire out to you for even cheaper.

[james.gardner]

Thanks for the help chaps !

 

I hav learnt alot

 

JAmes

[jono9691]

Thanks for the help chaps !

 

I hav learnt alot

 

JAmes

 

 

Don't forget touring companies that specialise in lighting. The company I used to work for

threw out massive amounts. I'm sure they won't mind if someone empties their bins each week in the name of

school charity :)

[rossmck]

I'd add that in terms of gel, have a chat to your local professional theatre. In my last job we'd have loads of perfectly good gel derigged at the end of a run, and we almost never re-used it because it was always the wrong colour or cut for the wrong lantern for the next show. Schools were often the recipients of this as it was no good to us.

 

Don't want to hijack, but are you serious? I think our small community theatre could benefit from that! We spend so much money on gels

 

These things tend to be "early bird catches the worm" or "who asks, gets" - since GridGirl is in another country (lucky!) its likely her own venues policies differ from many here however I know of a number of predominantly receiving houses who will happily give away left over gel to schools and community theatres alike. Smaller venues tend to hang onto it in case another production could make use of it.

 

 

[adi19956]

well I shall certainly look into some of the venues around me

 

 

/hijack

[light-man]

Without wanting to turn this thread into a thread about free gel...

 

I stayed on an extra year in college, so have ended up doing both a substantial amount of work and also stuff in the school's theatre.

 

Certainly in work and college, and for several companies I've done bits of work for, they order Gel as its needed.

 

At the end of the day, if you've not got 20 PAR 64s all requiring, say 119, then a £3 roll of whatever gel will probably last you a while if you get a colour which is used often in productions. That way, you generally will only need to buy a small amount of specific colours as they're needed.

 

As for lanterns - I know this isn't necessarily the case, however if any of your stock is 'broken', give it a good clean, check the lamp (although it may be obvious, it could be the issue with it). Get a member of staff to help you, and perhaps ask the school politely if the electrician will take a look at them next time they're in - just don't mess with any electrical stuff yourself!

 

Good luck with the production(s), James.

[rossmck]

£3 roll of whatever gel will probably last you a while if you get a colour which is used often in productions. That way, you generally will only need to buy a small amount of specific colours as they're needed.

 

I'm assuming this is a typo - otherwise I need to know where you're buying gel at £3 a roll :-)

 

 

 

[adi19956]

£3 roll of whatever gel will probably last you a while if you get a colour which is used often in productions. That way, you generally will only need to buy a small amount of specific colours as they're needed.

 

I'm assuming this is a typo - otherwise I need to know where you're buying gel at £3 a roll :-)

 

 

 

 

Definitely same, pay like £4.50 for a sheet!