Low Lying Fog Effect without using Dry Ice or Fog Machine

[amwindl]

So here is the deal. The director and Set Designer want a low line fog effect for pretty much the whole show (70min). The space is a studio theatre that has pretty much no air flow in the space so when you use fog in the space it hangs around for a long time. This is the reason why we cant just use a fog chiller and a fog machine because when the fog warms up it just hangs around in the air and makes the whole room smokey. We would use a dry ice machine but the audience is sitting within 3' of the stage an the artistic Director is afraid of the dry ice getting within the audience and causing problems. So does anyone know of any other way to create the effect?

-Thanks

[sk8rsdad]

You could try using some defocused slow moving lighting ripple or cloud effect on the stage floor to give a sense of motion without having anything for your actors to walk through.

In my venue it could be done with our Roboscan 918's with the prism, glass gobo, and a static breakup gobo in the beam, with some variation in the gobo and prism spin directions and speed to make it a little more random. I expect you could get similar results with enough conventional fixtures and some dual gobo rotators.

[cprted]

The director is concerned about exposing the audience to dry ice fog, but its a-ok for actors???

Chilling the fog will give you a similar effect to dry ice, but it isn't quite the same. I would talk to the TD of the space and see what they recommend and what has worked well in the space for previous shows.

[amwindl]

The problem with the dry ice is the space is basically a black box, and the actors are on a 3' high platform and the audience are on the floor so when the dry ice flows past the stage platforms its going to go right in the audience's faces.

When cooling the fog, wont it just rise and hang in the air once it heats up?

The effect has never been done in the space so really we are looking for ideas.

[icewolf08]

I would be less concerned with audience exposure and more concerned with the amount of fog you are talking about. To put out dry ice or chemical fog continuously for 70 minutes will eat through consumables like crazy. If you were to do this with dry ice you would need a pretty large supply of ice per show and you would need a really good fogger than can keep the water hot enough for 70 minutes. If you go the chemical fog route with a chiller, you will eat through a lot of fluid over the duration of the show.

The space that you are in has to have some air flow or it would not be a space that you could have an audience in. It may not generate strong air currents, but there has to be some kind of air movement. The dry ice should be safe enough to use in terms of air quality (unless you have people laying down in it). You should also consider that the dry ice may make the floor wet and slippery due to condensation. On the other hand, there have been many studies done on the health risks of chemical fog commissioned by Actors Equity Association and overall, they don't recommend extended exposure.

Probably the best bet is to find out what scenes you really need to use the effect in and then go from there.

[BDS0111]

Question... is this show in the round??? You said it was a studio space. Is the audience going to be surrounding the stage on all four sides??

[amwindl]

Originally Posted by BDS0111

Question... is this show in the round??? You said it was a studio space. Is the audience going to be surrounding the stage on all for sides??

Its a three-quarter trust set up.

[BDS0111]

What kind of platforming are you using?? Sounds like what you might want to try is to duct the fog up from underneath the stage and then create some air flow with fans to pull it upstage and off the stage. You'll have to do an experiment to see what would work for you! Is this a drama or a musical? Would noise from a fogger be an issue?

[Van]

Perhaps a nitrogen fog effect migh be in order, but again 70 minutes a night ? You better have a HUGE budget. Make that HUUge.
Google Nitrogen Fog systems you find a variety of manufacturers.

[amwindl]

Originally Posted by BDS0111

What kind of platforming are you using?? Sounds like what you might want to try is to duct the fog up from underneath the stage and then create some air flow with fans to pull it upstage and off the stage. You'll have to do an experiment to see what would work for you! Is this a drama or a musical? Would noise from a fogger be an issue?

The show is The Queens and unfortunately the Upstage wall is the back wall of the set, there really is no Upstage and off. The space has three door ways, it a black box. The noise from a fogger and fans might be distracting. And they have tried using fog in the space before and it just hangs in the space for a very long time.

Any Ideas that are outside of the box, because foggers dont work in the space and Dry ice has many issues besides the audience such as the amount needed for the run of the show.