Problem? It takes to long to create a focus palette for a moving light.

Solution - Focus Gloves Moving lights are difficult to focus in the chaotic environment of a focus session. Difficult to clearly convey a light’s focus attributes to the light board operator Too much time is lost due to miscommunication and fiddling with programming. Time is money!

Solution - Focus Gloves Sensors in the fingertips, around the finger joints, and around the wrist convey the designer’s hand signals to the instrument via the light board. Uses a set of hand signals already commonly used among lighting designers and electricians, plus some new ones. Similar in construction to work gloves. Goal is to allow LD to talk directly to the light, instead of to the light board op.

Focus Glovesv

Use With: Ex: VL2500 Spot Luminaire, or other similar instrument

To Start Designer stands with their back to the light, hands in fists at their sides in the “ready” position. Gloves transmit designer’s position onstage, and tell the light to focus the hotspot (similar to a flashlight) on the back of their neck.

Hotspots

Sharp to Shutter Hands up, palms facing out Bring fingers together for sharper Move fingers apart for fuzzier

“Lock That” Hands up, make a twisting motion, like you’re finger tightening a bolt. This tells the light to save that attribute and get ready to program the next one on the list. Can also point with the thumbs to the left or right to move forward and backward through the attribute list

Size Hands up as though holding a ball Bring hands together to make light smaller Pull hands apart to make light bigger

Pan and Tilt Both hands make pointing motion to tilt up or down One hand points to the left or right for panning

Shutter Cuts Hands in “karate chop” position held at some point in the beam of light Gloves tell light to bring in a shutter cut to the farthest out point of the shadow

Dimming Palms flat to the ground Bring hands up to increase intensity Bring hands down to decrease intensity

Gobos “Stencils” inserted in light to create a pattern Made of metal, glass, or plastic Hands up in “picture frame” brings up first gobo Pointer finger in a circle selects next gobo “Lock That” makes final selection

Gobos Spin hands overhead to make gobo turn left or right Same palms flat motion used for intensity used to control speed of rotation

Gobos

Color Hands make ASL signs for R, G, or B for Red, Green, Blue color mixing, or C, Y, or M for Cyan, Yellow, Magenta color mixing Allow two different colors to be added to mixture Bring sign left or right to increase or decrease color saturation Move signs up or down to increase or decrease color value

RGB Color Mixing

Next Light Please “OK” symbol with both hands saves all previous selections and attributes of this palette. Designer walks to next area onstage, places hands in the “ready” position at their sides to tell next light to begin

Market Useful only for large commercial theatres Broadway - The Lion King, Spring Awakening, Jersey Boys, etc. Focusing 500+ lights takes up a lot of time! Will increase focus session speed and allow multiple people to focus lights at the same time much more effectively.

Problems with this idea Not necessary for smaller theatres using mostly conventional lighting instruments. No reason to buy them if you don’t have a lot of movers in your light plot. Light board and light board operator will still be necessary to fine tune palette settings IATSE Union regulations forbid Lighting Designers from physically interacting with their lights. Does this count? Differentiating between different signals

VL2500’s in action ated