Lights and Sound: Storage for Gobos

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Storage for Gobos

Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Producing Theater
Forum Name: Lights and Sound
Forum Discription: Technical discussion
URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4594
Printed Date: 5/03/25 at 12:34pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 8.05 - http://www.webwizforums.com

Topic: Storage for Gobos

Posted By: Mr. Lowell
Subject: Storage for Gobos
Date Posted: 4/30/10 at 8:41am

Steel gobos patterns are a pain in the butt to store between shows in any kind of organized fashion.

For the past few years I have used storage books with clear sleeves intended for CDs and DVDs. This makes them easy to see as you flip through the pages looking for a pattern. However, the gobos tend to fall out of the sleeves and they get all messed up.

So I am looking for a new method to organize my house stock of about 100 gobos. Do you guys have any better methods?

Thanks, Dana

-------------
Mr. Lowell,
Lighting/Set Designer & Tech Director,
for the Linda Sloan Theatre,
in the Davison Center for the Arts,
at Greensboro Day School

Replies:

Posted By: gelcat
Date Posted: 4/30/10 at 9:36am

I personally like heavy cardboard, or at least file folders paper, between them, especially the more delicate foliage patterns. The more robust breakups always seem to end up jumbled all together.

You end up having to flip through the whole collection a lot of times, which stands up in a shoe box, but if it keeps those expensive little buggers from getting abused quite so much, great!

-------------
www.actorsguildonline.org
Actors Guild of Parkersburg
Parkersburg, WV

Posted By: JoeMc
Date Posted: 4/30/10 at 7:45pm

Blimey 100 gobo's!
I don't know any venue here that would carry that many, either pro or ameatre.
In fact a lot now are changing to the 'Fergo' used in the Sedlecon Pacific lprofile lamps.
http://www.seleconlight.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=159&Itemid=211 - Pacific D-I-Y Plastic Images

-------------
[western] Gondawandaland
"Hear the light & see the sound!
TOI TOI CHOOKAS
{may you always play to a full house!}

Posted By: TimmyP1955
Date Posted: 5/01/10 at 5:29am

Number them.

Xerox them - as many as will fit on a piece of printer paper.

Make a ring-binder catalog of the Xeroxes.

Store the gobos in a drawer style CD/DD case, with a divider between every 10 units.

Posted By: JoeMc
Date Posted: 5/02/10 at 9:10pm

Good idea timmy, but remember to use a foam & card sandwhiched packaging between to protect, as the they have the habit of images catching on each other.
This is allso need for glass gobo's to absorb any shock with handling, in fact if you hang on to the paking they ship in this is much better.

-------------
[western] Gondawandaland
"Hear the light & see the sound!
TOI TOI CHOOKAS
{may you always play to a full house!}

Posted By: dthomas
Date Posted: 9/23/10 at 1:14am

Here is what I have started doing since I have started purchasing gobos for my personal stock. I took an old CD case and make photo copies of each gobo then cut it to fit in the sleeve then put the gobos in front. This way when I finish a show I can flip thru my case and see which gobos are not accounted for. Also on the paper I write the manufacturer, model# and quantity.

Posted By: PhillyAvalon
Date Posted: 10/09/10 at 7:14pm

Mr. Lowell,

I worked with a Theatrical Supply store for years. We used a couple of old metal Library Index Card Holders- They work great and you can use Card dividers to make filing easy.

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Phillip E. Stommel
West Sacramento, CA

Posted By: JoeMc
Date Posted: 10/09/10 at 8:27pm

This may or not help;-
http://design.cablepick.com/gobo - Gobo Visualizer || Design Tools || CablePick.Com
Nothing about storage, but will help creating & visualising gobo images & there is other usefull info as well.

-------------
[western] Gondawandaland
"Hear the light & see the sound!
TOI TOI CHOOKAS
{may you always play to a full house!}

Posted By: Mr. Lowell
Date Posted: 10/18/10 at 10:29am

OK, here's my current solution!
I got some clear storage trays. They work pretty well so far.

See here: http://mydraftingtable.blogspot.com/2010/10/storage-for-gobos.html - http://mydraftingtable.blogspot.com/2010/10/storage-for-gobos.html

-------------
Mr. Lowell,
Lighting/Set Designer & Tech Director,
for the Linda Sloan Theatre,
in the Davison Center for the Arts,
at Greensboro Day School