How It's Made : Gels

Forget polyester. I say bring back the days of gelatin filters! Makes for a lot of fun on a rainy day.
 
It's always interesting to see how things are made. Whenever I watch stuff like this though I always wonder if the is a pun quota that they have to meet...


-A
 
Jim Brennan said:
I saw it. Kinda cool to see how it's done. Ironically, I picked up a roll of CTO today.
Click to expand...


Okay I gotta ask, CTO and CTB, is that usually what it's called on set? It's what I first was taught on several sets as a PA to call them. Now at school my teacher is calling them by their technical term, 80 and 85 filters. I told him that on set I was taught to call them CTO and CTB (half cto, quarter, etc), and he had never heard that and said "maybe it's a regional thing" (I live in Quebec btw, and he lives in ottawa), but somehow I thought the regional statement wasn't true.

Now I seem to be correct as you're form Colorado. Am I right that it's referred to as CTO or CTB on most sets? Anyone know why?
 
An 80A is a filter. So is an 85B. They are actually placed in front of the lens. While gels correct the lighting.

I think the technical number for a Full CTB (at least a LEE gel) is a 201. A double CTB is a 200. And then we go through the 200 series of numbers.
 
Mattykins said:
An 80A is a filter. So is an 85B. They are actually placed in front of the lens. While gels correct the lighting.

I think the technical number for a Full CTB (at least a LEE gel) is a 201. A double CTB is a 200. And then we go through the 200 series of numbers.
Click to expand...

To add to that, referring to gels by their numbers is more frequent in stage lighting... theater and concert technicians know their gels by number. For (lens) filters, it can go either way. Most grips and gaffers I've worked with call gels by name.
 
Oh totally.

I was an assistant lighting designer on a small theater show a month and change ago. And I was saying we needed some kind of diffusion on the lights. And my lighting designer came over and said "How diffused were you thinking - we talking a 129, a 250, or like a 229?" And I just kinda stared at him utterly lost. Now I know a few by number - mostly from him.

But every film set I've been on just goes by the name of the gel rather than the number - since few in the film/tv/photo market know them by number.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top