Getting the longest life from your gel is one of the most common challenges facing any lighting professional in theatre, film, television, or architecture.
Rosco manufactures a range of protective filters that not only will help prolong the life of your color filters, but can also protect the subjects lit by high temperature lighting fixtures. Just ask the ice cream cone or the plastic toy being lit for a commercial if the lights are too hot!
Cinegel #1991, Super Heat Shield™ is our most popular protective filter. This filter protects against convected heat – that is the mass of hot air that develops between the fixture’s lamp and the gel in the front of the fixture. Think of convected heat as the physical heat that you feel from your stove top.
In production, convected heat is the leading cause of premature gel failure and if you can protect your color filters from the heat generated by those high temperature fixtures, then your gels will last longer. Super Heat Shield does just that. **A helpful reminder to make sure that you keep at least a 1" air-gap in between the Super Heat Shield and the color filter - otherwise you'll end up conducting the heat directly into the gel and render the Heat Shield useless.**
It's worth noting that there are a wide range of products that claim to protect your gels from fading, and a wide range of prices for them. The video below tells the story about why Rosco Super Heat Shield really is SUPER. Take a look and draw your own conclusions.
The video states that other brands of heat shield protect color filters in a range of 239-338 degrees F. Rosco Super Heat Shield protects up to 540 degrees F - that's a difference of over 200 degrees!
As long as filmmakers continue to use extremely hot lights with color filters on them to illuminate their sets and actors, they'll need some sort of heat shield product. With ever-tightening budgets, more needs to be done with less, and a heat shield protecting your gels can really make a beneficial difference. Of all the choices available to you, Rosco Super Heat Shield is clearly the best performer.
Joel Svendsen January 21, 2011 Questions?
Marketing Director: Joel's Rosco career began in Rosco's Hollywood office in 1999 – first in sales covering the Western US and the Los Angeles Film & Television market, and then as Product Manager for Rosco's Film & Television Products. Joel's knowledge about Rosco's products and how they're used in each of our different marketplaces makes him well suited for bringing the stories in Spectrum to life.