How do I make a ghost appear?

[Erwin]

I too am working on a production of Christmas Carol (tis the season) and we are looking for cool/creepy ways for the ghosts to appear onstage. There is already a thread talking about these ghosts
http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/s...st-effect.html

But what I am looking for are 3-4 different ways for these ghosts to "appear."

If anyone has any suggestions on how to make a ghost come through a wall, appear from no-where, rise through the ground etc. I am open to all suggestions.

The set is not yet designed, so if the effect is cool enough, we can work around it.

Best Regards;

[philhaney]

Originally Posted by Erwin

... 3-4 different ways for these ghosts to "appear."

If anyone has any suggestions on how to make a ghost come through a wall, appear from no-where, rise through the ground etc. I am open to all suggestions.

The set is not yet designed, so if the effect is cool enough, we can work around it.

Best Regards;

Well, rise through the ground - the actor comes up through a hole in the deck (this is a platform incorporated into the set) on a lift, or just climbs a ladder. Put stuff around/in front of the hole so the audience can't see it (tombstone or brush, a piece of furniture, a pile of clothes, etc.) You could also do the Austin Powers "I think I'll take the elevator" bit (an actor stands up from behind a sofa making it look like they're coming up in an elevator).

Come through a wall - design a set with a wall like the one in the picture below. You can have the panels in the green outline swing out, or have a panel (that goes almost to the floor) like the one the red arrow is pointing to that swings in (just have the panel overlap the moulding by 1" and put hinges on the back.

Dimly light that section of the set. Have an actor or actors do something on stage to pull focus away from that area. The Stage Crew opens the panel, the ghost steps through, the Stage Crew closes the panel behind the ghost.

There must be no light behind the panel and everything back there must be painted flat black...



Does this help?

[Erwin]

all suggestions are welcome, but we are looking for something a little creepier. The perfect effect will be one that we watch, not one that we hide. Our director wants to see the ghost enter, so more of an illusion than diversion.

We will be using a trap door, but our theatre has a balcony, so we need to get creative to hide it or incorporate the door. We are thinking of having the trap door cut in such a way that when we open it, it looks like the floor boards are lifting/breaking upward.

[philhaney]

Oh, OK. I was going for more of a "how the heck did that ghost get there" they just appeared out of nowhere kind of a thing.

I'll think about it some more and see what I can come up with. Do your ghosts just need to be seen (meaning can they stay in one spot so you can use a Pepper's Ghost effect) or do they enter, move about the set and exit (is there blocking involved)?

[philhaney]

There's always the "project the ghost appearing on the falling curtain of mist and then the actor steps through" routine.

[shiben]

A lot of fog or mist might help out a bit... and cover the places where they might show up from...

[mstutzman]

Even easier than a Peppers Ghost is to project onto glass, window film or a wall of atmosphere (i.e Co2 or Fogger). I believe Le Maitre makes a unit to create a flat atmosperic surface.

Might be more costly though.

[Van]

"As Scrooge touches the Ghost robe the scene dissolves into an Edwardian London Street with people passing by, snow falling....."

The Above is an actual quote from the stage directions in a script I was once given to design a set for. I looked at the Director and said , " Wow, I think my dissolve machine is broken, could you settle for a fade?"
Some thing are not meant for the stage. We can be real good at illusions, misdirections, and tricks but actually walking through walls is still a bit beyond my capabilities, sorry to disappoint. That being said, I can tell you a few ways we've done some fun stuff with Carol in the past. I once did a version where the walls were made of Lycra. < this was before my Tricot fascination days> Several flats had Lycra covering and the ghost was able to press up against the wal and stretch the cover which showed really cool contours etc. This same effect was used in the TV version of Carol that had Kelsey Grammer < SP?> Jason Whatshisname from Seinfeld, Jesse Martin, in the Marley scene. Did a fun one once where scroges bed moved to the center of the room and a special focused straight down grew brighter and brighter, Scrooge opened the D.S. curtain to look around and suddenly the Upstage bed curtains flew open and there was Christmas PAst. She had been hiding under the bed, rolled out U.S. as was masked by the curtains, good trick, if I do say so myself.

[Erwin]

Originally Posted by Van

"As Scrooge touches the Ghost robe the scene dissolves into an Edwardian London Street with people passing by, snow falling....."

The Above is an actual quote from the stage directions in a script I was once given to design a set for. I looked at the Director and said , " Wow, I think my dissolve machine is broken, could you settle for a fade?"
Some thing are not meant for the stage. We can be real good at illusions, misdirections, and tricks but actually walking through walls is still a bit beyond my capabilities, sorry to disappoint. That being said, I can tell you a few ways we've done some fun stuff with Carol in the past. I once did a version where the walls were made of Lycra. < this was before my Tricot fascination days> Several flats had Lycra covering and the ghost was able to press up against the wal and stretch the cover which showed really cool contours etc. This same effect was used in the TV version of Carol that had Kelsey Grammer < SP?> Jason Whatshisname from Seinfeld, Jesse Martin, in the Marley scene. Did a fun one once where scroges bed moved to the center of the room and a special focused straight down grew brighter and brighter, Scrooge opened the D.S. curtain to look around and suddenly the Upstage bed curtains flew open and there was Christmas PAst. She had been hiding under the bed, rolled out U.S. as was masked by the curtains, good trick, if I do say so myself.

Jason Alexander We will be using a variation on the lycra thing. Marley's face will appear in the door knocker that way. I can't wait to see that. That will be cool! We are also going to have Marley appear in the bedroom from the bed. We will make the mattress as a box and when scrooge gets out of bed to lock the door, Marley will rise from below the sheets.

Still need another spooky effect or two though. I know we can't do what Hollywood does, but there are some bright and creative people around here, so I figured I'd ask.

No room for peppers ghost, but maybe some projection could be in order.

[kiwitechgirl]

If you get clever with gauzes you can do some trickery - gauzes with a split in them so the "ghost" can appear behind it and then walk through it, which I've seen done to great effect. If you have the budget, a fog curtain could work well - there are commercial units available or get creative with a heavy fogger on the flyfloor and piping - I've done it this way as well! Also, think about diverting the audience's attention - it can be surprisingly easy to make the audience look one way and then when they look back to the other side of the stage, someone has appeared - this can be as simple as flashing blinders so the audience is momentarily unsighted and get the ghost on stage in that moment.