Suggestions for lightning effect

[Bryson]

On 10/9/2022 at 7:27 PM, gareth said:

Martin Atomic, or equivalent. Particularly the newer LED version - they rock. Best thing for a lightning effect.

I was always a fan of the Dataflash for this sort of thing, but I guess you can't really get them anymore.

 

My favourite ever rehearsal note I received:  "We need MORE strobes."  We doubled the order.  🙂

[Jivemaster]

A xenon Strobe for repeated flashes will likely put out 10 - 20 joules per flash but a typical photo flash head may put out 5000joules per flash -but only one flash every 10 seconds. 

A typical Bowens (etc) studio flash may be found on ebay for little or in the dust in a studio for less since the digital changeover.

[alistermorton]

Bowens heads still go for "proper" money, as do most of the other major flash manufacturers.

Recycle time can be rather less than 10 seconds (by turning down the power), but yes, not as fast as a stage strobe.

[sunray]

I built the unit from scratch with parts from Maplins which would refressh fully in several seconds (from 1988 I can't remember full details) but one of the things I liked, and others thought were a design feature, was the way successive flashes after about a second would not be as bright as not fully charged. A big flash was not as bright as a camera flash gun of the era.

The SFX was just a random selection of thunder claps from local library LP copied onto a 60 second endless loop cassette.

The only other light on the scene was a red pygmy bulb almost under him but very dim disguised as burning embers.

[Ynot]

My father 'made' a lightning box in the early 70s with a tin chocolate box housing a photo-flash flood lamp in a bayonet holder and a push-button switch to control it. 🙂

 

[sandall]

13 hours ago, Ynot said:

My father....

And probably hundreds of others🙂

[xllx]

3 hours ago, sandall said:

And probably hundreds of others🙂

I seem to recall at the first theatre I worked in, we had an old Patt flood with three photo flash lamps in, with a control box with three flash buttons, so you could "play" the lightning effect, doubling up flashes to increase brightness etc.

[Brian]

On 10/11/2022 at 8:50 PM, Bryson said:

I was always a fan of the Dataflash for this sort of thing, but I guess you can't really get them anymore.

I always regretted getting rid of mine.

[kgallen]

I think the solution to the OPs original question is really split down the pro/amateur line.

For Pro (on a large stage), I'm sure you'd use the "proper gear".

For amateur, I'm sure the most cost effective approach is to use the (cool) white emitters in a number of RGBW (or similar) PARs. Certainly that's what I do, although I do have access to a DMX-controlled Xenon strobe - it's just often it's too much of a faff to rig that unit when there are a load of RGBW PARs already in the rig for other purposes!

As mentioned earlier in the thread, having some sequencing over a number of (say) sidelight units is useful along with a generally darker stage, at least for the "lightning" cues.