Lighting Gels

[PuppetLight]

I am currently working on a school production, and have been leasing with the technician at the local, commercial theatre regrading our lighting, I now get an email saying that in the contract it states that we are required to provide them with gels, and this is something we did not budget for in our production budget. Do many theatres do this, or is it very unusual? I am unsure how to take it!

[mark_s]

Generally if you want anything colour-wise other than whatever is in their standard rig (and many places may not even have a standard rig), you either provide it or they provide it and you're recharged. It does depend on the theatre though, and if you want anything even slightly unusual I'd be bringing it along yourself just to be safe.

 

Regardless though, the contract is the final word. Whatever it states in the contract you have with the theatre is how it works. Let's face it, finding some pennies for a couple of sheets of Lee is hardly going to break the bank is it? Your production budget should have set aside a contingency fund, from which you could take this. If not, well best use this as a learning experience for next time ;)

[rossmck]

From my experience this is common practice .. some theatres will have a small stock of (used) gels from previous shows that they've kept and will let you use but there's no guarantee they'll have the colours you requested.

 

In every commercial theatre I've gone into I've had to bring my own gel, although one or two were able to help out with a couple of spare bits of L201, L103 and other common colours if I've miscounted what I needed or things changed on site.

[Roderick]

Something to remember; gel is cheap, labour is not.

If the theatre are providing the gels for the show to your specs, there will be a charge for cutting it to the right sizes.

You'll be better off to buy the gels yourself and have a few students cut them to the required sizes.

Make sure the theatre sends you a list of gel sizes for their equipment.

 

PS, the word you were looking for is "liaising"

[kitlane]

I would say that either providing your own gel or being recharged for it by the venue is common practice. You should check the contract to make sure there are no other 'suprises'. For example, you are likely to be recharged for smoke or haze fluid if you use a smoke machine that you haven't provided.

[jonathanhill]

When working in a recieving house, I used to keep a stock and would cut and provide Lee from 002 to 212 for incoming shows. Anything outside of this, or from another manufacturer, would be recharged with the visiting company's agreement.

[fazJ]

It all depends on what is written in the contracts with us.

 

Most common practice for us is that either a company will provide all gels for a show or we shall provide a colour call at cost of gel plus a labour fee on top that is then contra back to the company, sometimes we might waive either the labour or gel costs if its a small amount of colour we already have in stock.