Formatt Gels For Lights

Just did a job where we used a vendor I haven't used in a while. The equipment was all very good and I was very happy, but they didn't stock Lee gels, instead all their rolls had the name "Formatt".

I'm not familiar with these gels and was wondering what others' experiences with them might be.

The only one I really got a chance to examine was the 1/8 CTO and it seemed to have a noticeably more pink cast than the normal Lee 1/8 CTO.

Phil Badger
gaffer, LA
http://home.earthlink.net/~badger111/index.html

I'm familiar with "Format" filters in the UK. Bogen reps them in the US. I just tested their "ProComp" green screen filters with some success. They have magenta cc with diffusion (a crystal sparkle) The heavier sets have small black crosses, like soft FX or star filters. I didn't have much success with them, but the 0 15cc really help saturate the green well, we tested the key without a screen correction (a shot of the green stage without talent to be used by the software to cancel out any irregularities) and it looked great, I'm still waiting for post to see the final product.

Richard W. Gretzinger
Director of Photography
www.richgretz.com

Richard W. Gretzinger wrote :

>I just tested their "ProComp" green screen filters with some success. >They have magenta cc with diffusion (a crystal sparkle) The heavier sets >have small black crosses, like soft FX or star filters.

Yes, I'm familiar with the Formatt filters for camera, but these are gels, in rolls, for lights. I was wondering if they were the same company, if anyone had used them on lights, etc. This was the first I'd seen of them. If I use this lighting vendor again (and I'd like to) I might want to have them switch out to Lee unless I can hear of other people's positive experience with these.

Phil Badger
Gaffer, LA

Phil Badger writes :

>Yes, I'm familiar with the Formatt filters for camera, but these are gels, in >rolls, for lights.

Same company, they're fine, I've used them, no problems.

I don't know those gaffer things tho', you know, how fast they fade etc but that's not something I know about Lee or Rosco either.

I'm going through a CalColor phase at the moment

Cheers

Geoff Boyle FBKS
Director of Photography
EU Based
www.cinematography.net

>I'm going through a CalColor phase at the moment

Great stuff, innit?

Mark Weingartner
LA based

I usually avoid me too many e-mails, but what the heck, I'm into that stuff these days too. Especially the cyan’s and the yellows. It's finally nice to have a true yellow gel that isn't the color of a warning sign.

Ted Hayash
Los Angeles, CA