Star Trek Transporter Room

[Scarrgo]

Hello all,

I have been giving the task for our opening day next year to make a person appear in the Star Trek "Transporter Room". He would like to Beam In at the start of the program to wow the crowd. He is known around our district to make the most memorable entrances, And I do not want to disappoint him, as it could effect my working here....(probably not, but you cant be to careful these days)

Anyway, does any one have any great ideas to pull this off, and by the way, the budget is a whopping $000.00.

Thanks to all

Sean...

[LXPlot]

Dim the lights to really dark, have a person about his size and shape stand by the control booth and make gestures as if they were talking, play his voice from the booth as if it were that person saying it, then have that person duck into the booth. Lights come up on stage simultaneously, and have this man standing there continuing the recordings speech without so much as stopping.

Best I can think of on a lack of budget.

[MPowers]

Pepper's Ghost. You will need to find a large piece of glass/plexi like a sliding patio door or similar. The rest is lighting. Do a little research on the effect and then ask us some more questions.

[wolf825]

If you cannot do peppers ghost--how about this--gather some scrap wood and wheels and make a small turntable/wagon with a wall down the middle....he is staged early on one side, but both sides are painted or draped in fabric to be identical and look like the transporter or something futuristic....flash the lights..run the sound effects...black out--spin the wagon in the dark and then lights up. poof...instant idiot for cheap.

Alternately without the elaborate rolling wagon you could make a stretch fabric 'wall' in the middle to make the transporter room--split down the center but overlapping slightly in the middle....light it from the front with a gobo and colors to make the scene...by doing that he shouldn't be seen by lighting it from the front and it will appear empty...same thing as before except this--flash lights--light it heavily from behind with a few floor pars from behind--it will sillouette him...run your lights to alter from sillouette to front light so it looks like he appears and disappears a couple of times...run sound effects--at the blackout he steps between the center overlap and then you go lights up--again instant idiot.

You could also probably experiment and use black or white scrim material as well for a similar effect and reveal... Not sure what you have access to or what you have to work with--so just tossing out possible ideas that come to my mind and perhaps it may give you some ideas... good luck and hopefully he won't change this 'idea' as you get closer to the event...had that happen on me a few times--work on a project and suddenly a week out they get an even 'better idea' for you to make happen for their entrance...joy.

FWIW the expensive way to do this would be with a mist curtain and a video projector...IMO...
-w

[Scarrgo]

Peppers Ghost, never heard of that one, I will have to think about that one. I had thought about the split screen, I have seen on tv several times but they have green screens and the studio audience never sees it like we do at home.

I do have access to several projectors, and thought that if I project from the front, than do a creative cross to a rear project with a nifty effect for the pad, he steps through the split with and presto, Capt. W. has arrived....I have a talented photoshop guy that could replicate the look of the Room.

The stage has 55' opening and I was thinking the T Room should cover about 10 to 15 feet wide, and I am thinking SR for some reason. The audience will be sitting anywhere from 20' to 100' away(teachers like to sit in the back of the house also so they dont get called on) so that could cover any little issues.

I like the Peppers Ghost idea also, not sure I could pull that off on such a big setup, but maybe another part I could use it... Thanks

If anyone else has any thoughts or changes please feel free to let me know...
Again thanks for the ideas

Sean...

[wolf825]

Peppers Ghost, never heard of that one, I will have to think about that one. I had thought about the split screen, I have seen on tv several times but they have green screens and the studio audience never sees it like we do at home.

I do have access to several projectors, and thought that if I project from the front, than do a creative cross to a rear project with a nifty effect for the pad, he steps through the split with and presto, Capt. W. has arrived....I have a talented photoshop guy that could replicate the look of the Room.

BTW--sorry if I sound a little grumbly with my 'instant idiot' comment--12hr load in today for a weekend show which should only have taken 4-6hrs to load in...and I'm a bit tired and grumpy.

Well if you have access to projectors you can possibly combine the ideas and don't worry about greenscreen IMO. About a decade ago I worked on a show and the lead character would make his entrance thru a split tension fabric similar to described--a good portion of the show was projection onto white tension fabric screens which also acted as backdrop and the projections were the scenes--the front which the audience saw was front projected on for the opening and in the middle of the fabric 'wall' was the split area...thinking back it was two layers thick of fabirc in wide strips overlapped and offset..framed from behind.. Anyway--the video intro had an animated cartoon character walk towards the center from bigger than life and he got smaller and smaller to about a normal persons height til he came to a 'door' and the video character opened it and went thru the door and at the same time the real actor stepped thru the fabric exactly at that time as if stepping out of the video...and the video faded out and lights came up at that area....it was a good live effect. Since you have a photoshop guru--make up a transporting scene--project it on a tension fabric screen of sorts and have the guy step thru at the right moment. Not sayin this is the only way to do it or its cheapest or best--just tossing out ideas to help...and you can bet others will have good and better ideas to help you with too..

Best of luck on the trick however you do it...and if it turns out really well--film it or at least post back here to tell how you met the challenge so others can learn. Thats what Controlbooth is all about...


-w

[sk8rsdad]

Back in the '80s we did the classic Trek transporter effect with a VNSP pointed straight down, a snow bag full of soap flakes, and a little help from the actors. They would stand just upstage of the shaft of light and at the right time would step slowly into the light to appear. It was cheap, and a little hokey but the audience loved it.

[gafftaper]

Back in the '80s we did the classic Trek transporter effect with a VNSP pointed straight down, a snow bag full of soap flakes, and a little help from the actors. They would stand just upstage of the shaft of light and at the right time would step slowly into the light to appear. It was cheap, and a little hokey but the audience loved it.

I was thinking something similar with a slit in a curtain, tightly controled light and a quick blast from a fire extinguisher... make sure you get the right kind or you'll be cleaning up all night.

[chausman]

BTW--sorry if I sound a little grumbly with my 'instant idiot'comment

I love that!

For the effect, (in theory) the fire extinguisher effect sounds like it would be cool. Rigged to blast from the top with some diffent blue lights on the top flashing back and forth. Probably with maybe some cool curtain with a slit so you don't see behind it. Maybe have the "transporter" be. Against a mid-travelor or main not closed entirely.

[Scarrgo]

BTW--sorry if I sound a little grumbly with my 'instant idiot' comment--12hr load in today for a weekend show which should only have taken 4-6hrs to load in...and I'm a bit tired and grumpy.

"Listen, I'd like to unload all 10 of your trucks, but the stage is only 25' wide and 15' deep with no wings, where do you think all that stuff is going to go?and its raining!" Like that never happens... its all good, done it once or twice myself on both sides of the coin.

The fire extinguisher idea scares me a little only because my luck someone would grab the powder bottle by mistake and i'd really have a ghost walking on stage, and not a happy one at that

I think I might head towards the split screen image idea, I can hide the front projector in a doghouse down stage. Any Ideas for the fabric walls ? and I was thinking for the little sparkly lights I use fishline with small mirrors attached and can shimmer with light as he steps through and onto the platform, maybe downlight with an intense beam...

Thanks again for all the ideas

Sean...

[FatherMurphy]

Here's another low-tech possibility - get a piece of mylar rain curtain, and tie it to a circle hung horizontally just over the set's top edge, with slits in the wall on at least one side. Start with rain curtain upstage, during the transport effect turn the circle and curtain so it comes through the slit on one side so it's downstage of the wall, actor enters upstage of rain curtain, and then rain curtain goes back offstage, revealing actor.

Otherwise, the VNSP downlight seems like a cheap and effective method, perhaps combined with mylar coins in a small snowbag.

[ruinexplorer]

I love Pepper's Ghost, but the biggest challenge is getting the audience in the narrow field of vision where it works well. If you can find the Magic's Secrets revealed (masked magician) where they do the PG effect (girl turns into the magician or something like that), you will see how off it can be if you are observing it from the wrong angle. If you've ever gone to the Haunted Mansion at a Disney theme park, you have a great example of PG in action.

I'm thinking that if you have a midstage traveller, part way open with a scrim immediately upstage and a drop or set piece upstage of that to resemble the transporter room. If you project the transporter room onto the scrim and then crossfade the projection and the light behind the scrim (maybe some sort of strobe or other effect either from the projector or other light source). Have a momentary blackout with the scrim to fly out to just above head height and have the VIP step out into a followspot or general wash while closing the midstage traveller.

[MercyTech]

I am doing this effect as well, and I have had good luck with my initial tests.

I am having the actors stand on stage (this is for beaming onto the planet) in total darkness, and I am projecting the transporter effect onto their bodies. I have made custom masks from photos taken from the projectors' lens location.

The hard part is that the actors have to be right on the mark.

Then I simply fade the projection down and fade the lights up.
It looks pretty good. I will upload a video soon.

Tim

[Scarrgo]

Opening Day has come and gone, and The Transporter Room was a big hit. I was not totally happy with the outcome but we only got to rehearse it twice on Monday, and than on Wednesday morning had two crew changes, with no rehearsal. But in the end the boss was happy.
The joy of live theater....
I hope you enjoy...




Sean...

[Nelson]

Now THAT is cool! Nice work, especially for such a small budget!

[Scarrgo]

Thanks, I think I spent $48 on the screen, used 4yrds of white Rayon spandex stretched top to bottom. Two projectors shooting the same image, cross faded from front to rear. A 19 deg straight down w/twinspin (Apollo) out of focus. and some little tiny mirrors on fish line lifted up as they appear, than dropped as the lights restored...and as my daughter would say "Tay Dahhhhh"

Thanks

Sean...