Haze and Bubbles

[Synchronize]

I've been looking into getting some bubble machines and hazers for well... bubbles and haze. I was thinking a little bit about it and the thought came to mind, can water based haze or bubble fluid damage the stage or make it slippery in any way. The stage that it will be primarily used on is basically painted plywood, so I dont know if that has any bearing on what the effects would be.

[kiwitechgirl]

If you put the hazer above floor height, you shouldn't have any issues. Our water based hazer does cause a slippery residue in front of it if it's sitting on the floor, but if it's up in the rig (which is where it works best for us anyway) there are no problems. Bubble machines are a little trickier - if there's decent airflow and the bubbles drift away then you're OK, but if they all burst in the same spot it will be slippery as anything. And I've had techs spill bubble fluid on the stage and you may as well be on an ice rink then....the open reservoir is something you need to be aware of! Neither is likely to do permanent damage to the stage, but the safety factor definitely needs to be taken into account.

[Synchronize]

I've never used water based haze before, only mineral based. I know that the ladder disipates before it sinks, unless you use a TON of it. And I've heard that water based doesn;t show up as well, but will it evenly fill the space betweent he unit and the stage floor or will the be a ton at the top and very little at the bottom?

[cdub260]

If you're going to use a bubble machine I would recommend placing it at least 20 feet off the floor and that you use some form of "dry" bubble fluid. For the 2007 Pageant of the Masters we had 12 bubble machines in use at the end of act 1. They were all installed 20 to 25 feet up in the air and we used one of the bubble fluids recommended by the manufacturer. We never had any issues with slippery spots or residue.

[TheDonkey]

When a film crew came in to do some shooting in our Audi, they hung a bubble machine with regular generic fluid about 10 feet off the stage,

When it was just painted plywood, it got deathly slipperly within 30 seconds, we tossed a rubber/carpet mat over the spot where teh bubbles landed and it was alright.

[BDS0111]

It is very unlikely that any hazer is going to leave a slippery residue on your stage floor, especially plywood. What will create a problem, would be if you spill haze fluid!! If you do that, then you'll have a real mess!

[Dalamar]

Haze fluid of any kind will leave residues if the following conditions are met :

- The haze generator's outlet is obstructed, therefore failing to properly break the haze into smaller particles (Clogging effect)
- The particles generated by the haze generator are larger and heavier (Particle size effect)
- The particles are not properly dispersed and pull each other together (Coalescence effect)
- The particle flow collides with a solid object before total dispersion (Proximity effect)

As stated before, if you make sure those four conditions do not happen, there is little reason to believe there might be an accumulation in the proximity of your haze generator.

I can’t help for the bubble effects. Sorry. I’d only think that bubbles are made with a viscous substance and that time and use would make the floor surface slippery, but that’s an uninformed opinion.