How should I format a Gel Filter Request Sheet for my students

[Austin Travis Littleton]

Hello. I am a Teaching Assistant in my college's video technology program, and my primary responsabilities lie with lighting and camera. We have an class lab where students learn how to correct the tungsten lights in our lighting kits to match an area with a lot of daylight, or vice versa. Specifically, one of the setups calls for them to secure gels to a window that is in the background of the shot. We have a specific spot in our building that is good for this setup, and I precut a bunch of CTO and ND to fit the windows in that location. The main problem is that normally, they will just check out some of them and just spitball which ones fit in what window and try to guess how much they need. The professor and I want to make the process as real world as we can, so that it is actually like they are buying or renting our equipment. This  semester we are going to have them calculate how much ND they need and how much CTO they might need for the windows, fill out a calculation sheet, and then "place an order" for the gels they need. We have our own checkout sheets for the rest of our equipment, but I would like to create a specific checkout sheet for the gels. However, I do not have any experience in the process of purchasing or ordering gels, except for just the variety packs you find on B&H and other sites. This is probably a stupid and simple question, but I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for how I could format it? Thank you.

[Christopher Santucci]

Well, it comes on rolls and you would normally order a roll or a half roll, unless you were getting it from a rental house in which case you would do the same, but they would calculate how much you used by weighing what was left when it came back. I suppose you just need to know how much is on a roll and a half roll, so they could order the correct amount to cover their needs.

Edited February 22, 2021 by Christopher Santucci

[Ed Conley]

Pre Cut sheets that fit the windows is not real world ?


Are these true expendables? Do they actually pay for the gels?

 

[Matthew Parnell]

We order by the roll, and often have a couple of rolls of most ND gel in the truck, which is usually enough to do things on the fly.

If it’s a substantial job window gelling job needing more than a roll or two we will order more beforehand in advance.

if it’s going to be a location we keep returning to, we often will get sheets of acrylic/Perspex in the desired density custom cut to fit the window. 
 

it’s also worth noting that most ND gel also comes in 5’ wide rolls, which helps with getting coverage on windows.