Crappy Up-Lighting, wow...

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maestro

maestro

Mac Daddy DJ
Aug 30, 2006
3,694
1,388
60
British Columbia
www.musicmaestrodj.com
I'm at a reception right now where the decorator did the uplighting. The bride wanted a nice lilac / purple to light-up the room, instead she got crap... The uplights are sooooo weak and the color is washed out; it looks terrible. What a waste of money. I checked the gels and they used one sheet of a pink tone with a 2 inch wide strip of purple over it. Some of them are melted. Brutal... They are also freaking hot! I tried to move one that was in my way, ouch!

I am starting to think that LED is the only way to go for uplighting. At least their bases are nice 1 foot round and painted black. Another reason for the DJ to do the uplighting is that they are onsite all night so if one gets moved by accident, the DJ can put it back in it's place. Did I mention that it looks like ****?

Love the orange extension cords though... :sqwink:
 
maestro said:
i'm at a reception right now where the decorator did the uplighting. The bride wanted a nice lilac / purple to light-up the room, instead she got crap... The uplights are sooooo weak and the color is washed out; it looks terrible. What a waste of money. I checked the gels and they used one sheet of a pink tone with a 2 inch wide strip of purple over it. Some of them are melted. Brutal... They are also freaking hot! I tried to move one that was in my way, ouch!

I am starting to think that led is the only way to go for uplighting. At least their bases are nice 1 foot round and painted black. Another reason for the dj to do the uplighting is that they are onsite all night so if one gets moved by accident, the dj can put it back in it's place. Did i mention that it looks like ****?

Love the orange extension cords though... :sqwink:
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Steve do I sense a smidge of negative? dude we have talked about this ad nauseum we live in a backwards world here. Live it, love it, own it. It is so BC.
 
Bill Kexel said:
How much do each of you charge extra for uplighting? (how many lights?)
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Personally, I don't look at charging per each can....I look at what the job entails. If it's something simple & basic, like a one-wall setup behind the headtable, it doesn't take much to do that. For something like a full-room wrap, pin-spotting the wedding cake, etc....of course there's more involved and requires more money to do so.
 
Randy A said:
So, you sell a package? Is that regardless if you know the site or not?
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Yep, it's a risk but has worked every time so far. It costs me about 2 hours of extra time which pays me an extra $500. To date, I've already paid for the cans and making profit from them now. This package is not a stand-alone offering. It requires the DJ package. Keep in mind also that uplighting is a relatively new concept in this market. I'm still having to educate brides on what it is and why they want it.

I went the package, in keeping with my KISS principal. I don't bombard brides with a myriad of options and they seem to be responding to it very well, according to my date book. To date, I've done a few <200 events, a couple at 200-400 and one at 500 (prom). The way I present my packages is that it's like a buffet. Here's what I offer and if you want to leave anything off, that's your choice. The price stays the same, however.

One more thing. The first several events I strung the cans together and synced the colors. I've since ditched that and gone to having all cans stand-alone and color-changing all night. The clients seem to love it and it drastically reduces setup/tear-down time. I have a rolling bin with all my cans that I just roll in, pull out the fixtures I need, plug and go.
 
When I decided to get into uplighting this year, I was gambling. I really didn't know if it would go over well or not. So far, it has! Remarkably well, I might add.

Like you, my cans are paid for and making me money already. I like your package option. I need to round up a few more pieces to compliment my uplights and then I'm going to move into the direction. In fact, I can see it working much better for me, as now I'm having to explain it pretty in depth and try to work additional lights into the mix. By offering it within a package deal and displaying photos of such on the website, I think I can cut some of that time out.

Big Thanks!
 
Randy A said:
When I decided to get into uplighting this year, I was gambling. I really didn't know if it would go over well or not. So far, it has! Remarkably well, I might add.

Like you, my cans are paid for and making me money already. I like your package option. I need to round up a few more pieces to compliment my uplights and then I'm going to move into the direction. In fact, I can see it working much better for me, as now I'm having to explain it pretty in depth and try to work additional lights into the mix. By offering it within a package deal and displaying photos of such on the website, I think I can cut some of that time out.

Big Thanks!
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Randy, what cans are you using? Do you ever find you have too much light/color on the walls?

I've got the Deliya par64 leds. Kinda big/bulky but they throw a LOT of light. I've got 8 ft extension cords that I use to string them but am coming to the conclusion that this is (perhaps) too much light. Here's a shot from my first event, last December:

IMG_3565.jpg

After this one, I threw them up, synced colors in a small room for a 100 person Christmas party. Started getting complaints from one guy that he was getting sick at the intensity of the green color. That's what pushed me towards independent colors, non-synced fixtures. Something inside me wants to still have them all synced, maybe running off my DMX controller so I could sync to music, later in the evening.

Your thoughts?

BTW, I had my first paying lighting gig in February. Gave away 3 of them to get my feet wet.
 
Funny you ask...I was just finishing up a uplighting project today. I purchased some of the Ikea trash cans that Kevin Nichols mentioned. I needed to cut the bottoms out of them.

I'm using a can from Cheaplights.com ...the Stallion. It's a par56 flood and these things are rock solid! Bracket is also plenty tall for allowing access for dmx cords. In fact, I just ordered another batch of them and will have a total of 35 of them in the arsenal soon. :)

IMG_0951-1.jpg

Here's what my covers will look like.

IMG_0952.jpg

Not sure I even need them at most gigs, but it does help to conceal wiring and clean things up alot, so I like them for that.

Don't mind the missing ground post --- it was a casuality of war at an event where I ran out of adaptors and all they had were antique two-prong outlets. That's why it's sitting in the shop. ;)

My spacing is typically about 10 to 15 feet apart. That allows each can to really shine it's own area instead of washing out the one beside it if they are too close, imho. For now, all of my clients are choosing a static look, but I've been buying more dmx cords to prepare for doing something more elaborate in the future.

As for power, I've made my own custom cords with the zip cord and add-a-tap. Info can be found in this thread: http://www.ourdjtalk.com/showthread.php?t=31927&highlight=add-a-tap.

Here's a pic from a recent gig earlier this year. They are a bit closer in this one due to the features of the wall; fireplace with stone all the way up. It highlighted well.

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And, this was this past weekend.

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maestro said:
Rick, when you say you run let them color change all night now, do you mean that they go through all the colors with a slow-fade?
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Yes that's exactly it. I'd like to be able to switch over to beat-sync but I'm already over-taxing myself as it is. Guess I could have the asst go do it, once the dancing starts.
 
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