# Lighting Gobo Halloween Patterns Instructional Video Slide Show



## Fright Zone (Sep 28, 2006)

My customized gogo pattern idea using a bat shape cut out of a paper plate and custom set-up with bricks to hold flash light and gobo to project pattern onto wall. Also shown are two of the plastic gobos that came with a 2-pack of small flashlights labeled Halloween Mini Projector Lighting from Target a few years ago.

Definition from wikipedia: A gobo (or GOBO) derived from "Go Between" or "Goes Before Optics" is a physical template slotted inside, or placed in front of, a lighting source, used to control the shape of emitted light.

Note: There's no audio in this slide show.


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

We've noticed for the last couple of years that the spiders and web we put on our front porch for Halloween are an unintended GOBO, in that the porch light behind them causes shadowy images to be cast on the side of our neighbors' house. With this little set up you have, it would be easy (and fun) to do it on purpose

Does the flashlight "flash" or is it a steady beam?


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## Fright Zone (Sep 28, 2006)

My flashlight has a steady beam. But a strobe would be an interesting test. My problem is I couldn't use a gobo on the front of the garage because of a street light right in front of the house. Which also hurts the lighting of my display but at least it gives off an orange glow fwiw.

(I put cut-out bats on the garage door I'll show in a separate post to address that problem.)

Now that you mention your happy spider web bonus effect ...

Here's what they did intentionally to a pirate prop with a professional gobo on a par can (professional stage light). A nice ship's rigging to continue their Pirate theme.






Another recent vid shows a themed gobo projected on the ground at an entrance to a Steampunk themed outdoor haunt. They have the advantage of the par can being attached on a scaffold. You could do it from a roof though.






It should be noted that an LED flashlight won't really work because they have multiple small LED's inside to make it bright. A test I did resulted in a bat pattern that had multiple overlapping edges that were not well-defined.

A regular flashlight didn't work either because the light gets, I guess you might say, refracted thru the plastic or glass.

SO the way it should work is a bare bulb. That's what those little mini projector flash lights are. I could've probably took a pic of it. But I think you can picture it. I note it in a subtitle.

fwiw an Internet search is interesting to see what a professional gobo looks like on a par can light. Pros also use what they call a cucoloris which is a random pattern cut out wood they use in photography and movies to break up a light source. Those usually need a huge light source or soft box though.


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## Fright Zone (Sep 28, 2006)

Update thinking about it this year.

I was thinking about using what they call a cucoloris in photography to break up lighting like in front of a flood light. I'm not sure how well it would work. But with the right pattern, or maybe even just branches in front of a flood light hid behind a tombstone, it could cast a creepy pattern on the props and front of the house.

https://www.google.com/search?q=cuculoris&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

My paper plate cut-out bat in the video is along those lines. It could be a random pattern as small as that. I'd make a 'cookie' out of wood or cardboard and keep it a distance away from the flood.

Technically a gobo is the ghost that came with the little flash light in my video. Someone reminded me you can make a black & white pattern on the computer and print it out on clear presentation transparency paper. Place it in front of a flood for a larger gobo. But again you have to prop it up a distance from a flood I'd think because they get hot. Tough to say. What's the melting or burning temp of transparency paper ;


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## Fright Boy (Oct 1, 2014)

Could you cut it out of really thin metal? Something thicker than tinfoil, but thinner that sheet metal. We have this thing at work that has a metal disc in it that rotates in a machine in front of a light. It produces a nice moving pattern. Not that you want the motion, but the discs are cut out of a metal that is about the thickness of an 18 or 20 ga. wire. You might be able to print out your design, glue it to some metal, and then cut it out with a Dremel tool or something else. I will look tomorrow at work and see if I can take a picture of the machine so you can learn more about it.


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## Fright Zone (Sep 28, 2006)

That's a good idea! Maybe even a metal pie tin(?)

Looking back I like Roxy's happy accident of the spider web. Could make something like that out of pipe cleaners close to the flood because that wouldn't burn but could still break up the harsh light. Even though we have a street light to combat I might try it.


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## fontgeek (Jul 24, 2006)

maybe using something like one of those disposable roasting pans, that gives you plenty of flat surface to play with for very little money. And you know that they can take the heat.


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## Fright Zone (Sep 28, 2006)

True. That's a good idea. And just don't touch a pie tin, roasting pans, or baking sheets without oven mitts lol But you could get a head start on Xmas cookies ; (A baking sheet would be too hard to cut-just being silly.) We do have those disposable pans that are really thin. I would probably make a couple patterns out of paper and shine a flash light thru them first to see which one is working before I tear apart a bunch of tins. And you could spray paint the tin black. I would think that would hold up to heat.


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