Celebrating 10 Years Of Rosco Spectrum Blogs

In August of 2010, we published our first Spectrum blog post. We weren’t sure what we wanted our blog to be at the time, which is why our first blog post ended up being about me – your host, Joel Svendsen. Since then, we have published almost 500 blog posts! Most of them describe how creative people have put our products to work creating brilliant projects all around the world. The idea was that our Spectrum blog stories might inspire others to work with Rosco so that we could create something brilliant together with them too. I humbly believe we have accomplished that.

You Could Win A Rosco MIXBOOK®!Rosco MIXBOOK

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Rosco Spectrum, we have gathered together a Top-10 list of your favorite Spectrum blog posts. You’ll want to read each of them closely because we’re also using this celebration to give away 10 of our new MIXBOOK digital swatchbooks!

 

 

Update: The Blogoversary Contest is now closed. Thanks to everyone that went on our scavenger hunt and entered.

 

 


How To Properly Choose A Color Filter

Rosco Spectrum blog

This blog is filled with tons of useful lighting information. Ever wonder why the same piece of gel looks different on a tungsten light than it does on an LED light? This post explains why that is. Ever wonder what those graphs inside the Rosco swatchbooks mean and how to use them? They’re called SED (Spectral Energy Distribution) charts, and this blog explains how you can use them to choose the right color filter for your project.

 

How Green Is Your Green Screen? Comparing DIY Keying Paint vs. Rosco Chroma Key Paint

Rosco Spectrum blog

Easily one of our most frequently asked questions here at Rosco is “why can’t I just use paint from my local hardware/paint store for my Chroma Key studio?” So, once we saw the excellent video that Paul Shillito from Video Alchemy made that explains the difference between the two paints – we knew we had to build a blog post around it.

 

The Winner Of The Rosco Gobo Design Contest

Rosco Spectrum blog

The Rosco Gobo Design Contest was one of our highlights for 2018. We loved seeing all of the designs come in – there were so many good ones! We also loved interfacing with our panel of lighting designer judges as they told us who the finalists were and why their designs were so useful. But most of all, we loved adding all of the finalist designs to our catalog – especially the winning gobo design “Square Radiant” from Lighting Designer Philip Treviño!

 

How To Paint Stunning, Realistic Stained Glass

Rosco Spectrum blog

Think about all of the scenes that take place in churches, castles or other settings that may feature a stained-glass window. That’s one of the reasons why this article is so popular. Scenic painters around the world are always looking for techniques on how to create this popular set piece. Plus – did you see how beautiful that faux stained-glass was? Thanks again to Scenic Artist Rachel Reynolds for sharing how she built it.

 

Five Lighting Techniques For Dance Performance

Rosco Spectrum blog

Years ago, we sent out an email blast that featured the work of Lighting Designer Susan Hamburger. The problem with email blasts is that once you send them, they’re kind of gone forever. This particular email had wonderful information about how to light for dance. Knowing that the contents of that email would be a helpful resource, we reached out to Susan and asked her if we could re-purpose the content into a blog article. She replied, “that would be fine, but I’d like to freshen it up a little.” Instead of just "freshening it up a little," she delivered a brand new article with a completely different approach to showcasing her techniques.

 

Creating Three-Dimensional Foliage Scenery = The Most Fun You’ll Ever Have

Rosco Spectrum blog

This is the oldest Rosco Spectrum blog on the Top-10 list. It has been racking up page views since 2012. The article showcases how scenic artists from Rutgers University created 3D foliage for a scenery installation at USITT. Fun Fact: the secret to this blog’s success is Pinterest! The images in this this blog have been pinned again and again over the years. Pinterest has turned this blog article into an excellent resource for anyone that needs to make faux foliage.

 

MIXBOOK® A Digital Swatchbook For Previsualizing LED Color

Rosco Spectrum blog

When we launched MIXBOOK last year, we knew we had a hit. Everyone wanted to learn more about the new tool that could help them pre-visualize their LED lighting color choices. This blog article answered all of their questions. Speaking of which, don’t forget that we’re giving a MIXBOOK to ten lucky winners. Keep reading to find out how.

 

Ghostbusting Marley The Top 8 Myths About Marley Floors

Rosco Spectrum blog

Why are vinyl dance floors called “Marley Floors?” Can you use carpet padding underneath the marley to make a sprung floor? Should you use cola on your marley floor to improve the grip? This article answers these – and five other frequently asked marley floor questions.

 

MIX From Rosco & DMG Lumière Be A Part Of The Color Evolution

Rosco Spectrum blog

MIX was the first LED fixture we launched after acquiring the French lighting company DMG Lumière, and it has turned out to be a set lighting game-changer. We used this blog article to introduce our MIX technology during NAB 2018. Since then, our MIX LED fixtures have been used to illuminate commercials, music videos, television shows and feature films all around the world.

 

Pro-Tips & Recipes For Mixing Off-White Paint Tones

Rosco Spectrum blog

In the fall of 2016, I paid a visit to Norcostco – one of Rosco's largest scenic paint dealers. During my visit, I asked Becky Bechel, one of the Norcostco managers there at the time, what was the #1 Rosco question they received most. Her answer was: “how do I make off-white paint?” I told that story to my friend, Scenic Artist Angelique Powers, and she wrote this wonderful How-To blog post to answer that question. Well, it turns out that A LOT of people have that same question, because this blog article is not just #1 – it is #1 by a very large margin! Thank you Becky for asking the question, and thanks to Angelique for writing the article to answer it!

Joel Svendsen August 27, 2020 Questions?

About Joel Svendsen

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.