Have you had a chance to explore Rosco's new Color Resource Gallery yet? It's a great research tool for lighting designers to see how Rosco color filters render on stage by showing pictures that other designers have submitted to us. The gallery is organized into five different categories, which will allow you to search by specific Rosco color, production title, type of production, how the color is used to create a specific effect and by the lighting designer that submitted the photos.
"Wow - that R325 Henna Sky sure looks like an interesting color in my Roscolux swatch book. I wonder what it looks like on stage..."
Search results for "325" in Color:
"I'm looking for color inspiration for my upcoming production of Les Miserables..."
Search results for "Miserables" in Production:
"How can I use color to help create an environment?" In this case, the sewer from Urinetown...
Search results for "Create an environment" in Use of Color: (note the green from the sewer)
At the top of the query results from your search, you'll see images that we have used in our email blasts, which feature professional lighting designers and how they've used our color filters. If the designer submitted more than one image, then all of the images are clustered together as a set. This is why, when you do a search on R80, there are some images that CLEARLY have no R80 in them. The designer that submitted the range of images used R80 in at least one of those images - so, if you click on the R80 image you like - say this one from CATS:
You'll see the other images that LD Kevin Holly submitted for the same production and you'll see some of the other colors he talked about using in the show too.
Because the Color Resource Gallery illustrates all of the colors included in the submission, you also get a nice sense of the color palette of the show or scene. This is one of my favorite features of the Color Resource Gallery, because it can provide ALL of the colors you might use in a particular production. For instance, take a look at Mike Wood's color palette in West Side Story:
You might be asking yourself - "How did Rosco get all of these fantastic images and descriptions of their color on stage?" The answer my friends is the Share the Work program we initiated last year. After a year of collecting images and descriptions from coffee & tea loving designers all over the globe, we have published them all into this fantastic gallery. The Share the Work Program is still alive and we continue to send our Rosco Mugs to any designer that submits a photo along with a brief description of the production, what colors were used and why.
In order to encourage you to use this new resource that we've created for you to use, we've come up with a contest consisting of challenges related to the gallery. The first 25 people to successfully find all five answers using the clues below about the Color Resource Gallery will win an R81 Urban Blue T-shirt.
Keep in mind that I just finished reading Ready Player One, Ernest Cline's tale about the ultimate easter-egg hunt focused on 80's pop culture, and that it had influence on me as I configured the contest.
#1 - Let's start off easy - A lighting designer used R81 Urban Blue in a production of RUR. What does the 2nd 'R' in RUR stand for?
#2 - The LD that submitted images from a production of The Wiz shares the name of a famous New England Patriots quarterback. In the description, the LD says that he is also known by another name. What is it?
#3 - An image was submitted from a University of Florida dance piece. How many pints are referenced in the title of their production?
#4 - The lighting designer for Chris McCann's production at Purchase Repertory Theatre used R27 to create a mood that they coined "Canopy of ____ ?"
#5 - Lighting Designer Jeff Cusano used Roscolux colors to add a little 'Broadway-Campy-Glam" to the musical version of what classic, 80's horror movie?
To enter - use the various features of the Color Resource Gallery to hunt down the answers to all five questions. Submit the answers in the "Reply" section below this blog post. The first 25 correct responses will receive the coveted R81 Urban Blue T-shirt (only one winner per name/email/address).
Enjoy the new Color Resource Gallery, keep posting pictures up to the Share the Work site (there are still A LOT of great Rosco colors not represented in the gallery yet!) and best of luck to all you Gunters (Gallery-Hunters) out there!