The Amazing Flying Chair... help please?

[BrianWolfe]

Can you get under the stage or deck to rig a spring loaded release that can be handled by the stagehand either by line or RC?

[Cashwalker]

My group is doing the show next spring, so I'm starting to put together my thoughts on how some of this needs to be accomplished.

The fishing line ideas are the first people think of, but in reality, probably won't work so well, because before the chair needs to flip it is going to be sat in and possibly moved around a bit, not to mention actors needing to be able to move around the stage, with no tripping hazard.

Building a second deck is an idea I hadn't thought of. Not going to happen with my budget, but it would allow some shenanigans with levers. I can screw to my stage, but I don't think I could drill THROUGH it to put a guy down below to stick a rod up.. and that would still require the chair to be perfectly aligned.

Some sort of remotely actuated solenoid or pneumatic cylinder would be my first reaction. In Ghostbusters 2 the dancing toaster had very obvious pistons of some sort.

There's another effect I recall while reading the end sequence - throwing a couch cushion. It says in the script that it doesn't have to come from the front of the couch, more like thrown from behind.... So I need to send a hand out during the blackout to hide behind the couch.. somehow I don't think that's going to happen.

Knocking stuff from shelves is easy. Making pictures fall is easy.

[MarshallPope]

What about triggering it from above? Attach a 45 degree metal track to the deck and one chair leg so that when pulled from above (or slightly to the side), with black wire and pulleys, the chair would both lift and move to the side, going off balance and falling over?

[bull]

I actually just got done with blithe spirit... do you have a rigging system?

And I'm guessing this is for Charles' monologue at the end?


One of our tactics for this effect was easy. Looking through the script you see that there are many times where people go upstairs... so when building the walls for the interior simply make a gap, or literal staircase implying the upstairs, and only show the bottom of it. Then during the finale, simply hide an actor in the implied upstairs area and have them throw things like the pillow, and a vase etc. You can also hang pictures etc on the wall, drill holes in the wall behind them, and use wooden dowels to knock them off... (or wire hangers, less visible)

The chair however I will have to think about more, this was for a One Act competition and we didn't have time for special effects so we simply used implied rooms.