I need to know the lighting for black light puppetry...what wattage
uv bulb u need?..also, how do u protect ur eyes from looking into the
light source since it is harmful....

Cheers
Bhanu

Bhanu,
    a regular 18" - 24" bulb is 40w.  You don't need anything to protect your eyes.  The scale that the uv falls under is not harmful to the human eye.

I'm not sure what watt the new LED flat panel are, but I'll check and get back to you.

Julie

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Black_light

Good source about blacklight safety.

http://www.chauvetlighting.com/led-shadow.html

These are really great.  Two will light up and very large auditorium.  You will want to mount them on stands as high up as possible out in front of your stage in the audience.

Julie

Julie,
Do you like these LED panels better than the 4' fixtures?  I thought I had heard good and bad about them.  I'm really interested in this...let me know what you think.
Sara

They used the led lights at the OneWayStreet Festival we went to in November.  They are powerful, but I thought they lit up TOO much.  You could see a lot of background things that wouldn't show up with the cheaper blacklight tubes.  But they did cover a lot of area.
They used 3 of them.  Two up high like Julie mentioned and one in front, center stage down on the floor.
Very expensive to me!  We will stick with our tubes for now.

jmho

Hmmm, it would be nice to be able to try them in a smaller area, to see if they are too bright for that.  They would just be soooo nice to travel with!  Much less work and trouble to set up.

Thanks Julie for your reply & the links....I have to get these
bulbs here in my city (Chennai-India). I have not seen anybody
using blacklight bulbs here except for some dance
programmes. I guess I will get the bulbs & experiment.
I have located some of the materials I have that glows
in uv light...this I checked using money cheker.

BTW I am planning to get the DVDs that is
available with you on blacklight puppetry through
my friend who will be visiting US after 20th. He
will return by April end so gives enough time for him to chek
your web site & order the DVDs. You have listed three titles...what do
you recommend for a beginner like me ? May be I should
get all the three??...Can you recommend any book on blacklight
puppety? Thanks.

Cheers
Bhanu

 

We purchased the Chauvet LED panels about a year ago. We use two of them - positioned on stands in front of our platform, and love them.
They do light up everything on the stage.  We previously used 4 -18" blacklights, two on each level of our stage.

As for travel - they would be ok if you drive, flying is a little difficult, as they have to packed well. The pros of traveling with 18" tubes is you can replace one easily if you arrive with a broken one.

We purchased ours online and paid about $120 each for them.

They do light up everything on the stage. 
 

Have you ever done bunraku out front of the stage?  If so, does it light up the people too much?

Flat panels.  I have only seen them used in a sanctuary that that also had white walls behind the stage.  They do seem to bounce the light off the white walls, but as long as your program is captivating your audience is not going to notice.  If you are planning on using the BL for an whole program more than one 3-5 min song you might want to use a technique call blinding.  In between the songs/acts raise the house lights or blink a strobe.  This will cause the audience's pupils to contract again and help hide the shadows. I like them because you only need a couple, they are light weight etc.  Yes, they are expensive and when we had a team we probably would not have purchased them for that reason, but we would have put them on our wish list for the future. 

Bhanu,
    I would recommend the Neato Vol 1 and 2.  The "How to start a Blacklight Ministry" gives the basics of choosing a blacklight, staging, where to find materials, props etc.  Since most of the things in the "How To" would be found in the states you would probably only want the Neato Vol 1 and 2.  Also a good resource about Blacklight is  "Let there be Blacklight" from One Way Street.  http://www.onewaystreet.com/product/120/puppet_director.  I know this might sound strange, but when we visited the Philippines and trained the missionaries, they were able to locate the bulbs by talking to the bar owners.  It was a great way to get there foot in the door so to speak.  Just an idea.

Sara,
    I like the 18" - 24" better that the 4 foot, just because they travel better.  Also, you can purchase them from Walmart for $9.96.

If I was purchasing them now...I'd save my pennies and purchase the LED's.  John Coen which made the Blacklight DVD's on my site actually prefers the tube kind over the LEDs.  I think it's really preference and where you will be using them.

Julie