The Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat

The past couple of Spectrum posts we've published have had a competitive edge to them - one recent post tied gel colours to European football and our last post offered up a prize to readers that found answers hidden in our new Color Resource Gallery.  Since today's society doesn't allow for losers anymore - this Rosco Spectrum post will focus on the winners and the 'winning-challenged' of both posts.

A few weeks back we published a piece about the UEFA Tournament, where we assigned each of the participating teams an E-Colour+ gel number and said "let the best colour win!"  Well the tournament has played out with all the drama and spectacle that only the professionals in the UEFA can deliver.  Powerhouses like Germany, Portugal and England were knocked out...

...leading us up to the final match between Spain and Italy this past weekend. The feeling amongst football fans here in the US was that Italy would win because Spain lacked "finishing power." Well, that theory was shot down completely as Spain completely dominated Italy in a 4-0 shutout.

Congratulations are in order for team Spain, my colleagues that work in Rosco Madrid - who, once again, will get bragging rights at this year's sales meeting next month - and of course E-Colour+ 026 Bright Red... the colour that won!
It's worth noting that the whole concept of the original "Colours of Europe" post came from Margie Heymann, who lives and works for Rosco outside of Florence, Italy. Our most sincere condolences go out to Margie and her 'winning-challenged' team Italia for Sunday's loss, and we hope that she won't allow this to stifle her creative suggestions for Rosco Spectrum in the future.

The last Spectrum Post took a closer look at Rosco's new Color Resource Gallery that gives lighting designers a place to see how our color filters render on stage by looking at production photos that other designers have submitted.

As a part of the close-up, we created a quiz that necessitated using the Color Resource Guide to find the answers. The readers that found all of the correct answers were rewarded with a unique R81 Urban Blue Rosco T-shirt. For those of you that read the blog, didn't participate, but are curious to know the answers - here they are:

Question #1: A lighting designer used R81 Urban Blue in a production of RUR. What does the 2nd ‘R’ in RUR stand for?
Answer #1: Robots

Question 
#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?
Answer #2: Anvilx

Question #3: An image was submitted from a University of Florida dance piece. How many pints are referenced in the title of their production?
Answer #3: 2,280

Question #4: The lighting designer for Chris McCann’s production at Purchase Repertory Theatre used R27 to create a mood that they coined “Canopy of ____ ?”
Answer #4: War

Question #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?
Answer #5: Evil Dead the Musical

"It's an awesome resource!," "WAY COOL!" & "Great resource! Can’t wait to really use it!" are just a few of the reactions we've gotten from those of you that jumped in early and put the gallery to work. The Color Resource Gallery has only been in existence a little over one month and in that time, it has already received over 5500 visitors looking for images of Rosco colors getting used on stage. Since we're focusing on winners in this post, we thought it would be interesting to see the most popular topics researched in the gallery.

It's no surprise that West Side Story - one of the most produced musicals in the world - would get a lot of searches. However, the stat that gets my attention is R13 being the most researched color - above R02 and R27! Granted, it's only been a month, but I look forward to seeing what colors people want to see in use. Who knows - maybe next year, R13 will dethrone E026 as "the color that won."

Remember that the images populating the gallery come from our Share the Work Program - which continues to reward designers that submit their photos with a one-of-a-kind Rosco mug. There are still many Rosco color filters that we don't have pictures of yet - which means they're not in the gallery yet.  If the gallery is missing your favorite color, submit a photo of how you used it on stage - you'll get a mug, make the resource stronger and make lighting research easier for everyone around the world. It's a Win-Win-Win.