Phantom of the Opera

[squigish]

Anybody know how they do the chandelier effect in the phantom of the opera?

[DJErik07]

Ya if you have lots of $$$ and plenty of time.

[avkid]

cheap fixture, block and tackle, rope and frosh!

[LDSFX]

Well in laymen's terms: It invloves two main parts. The "track" cable (on which the chandelier slides) and the "traveler" cable (which actually raises and lowers the chandelier up and down the track cable. Theres also a power cable that travles with it to power the lights. Thats about it.

[squigish]

Originally Posted by LDSFX

Well in laymen's terms: It invloves two main parts. The "track" cable (on which the chandelier slides) and the "traveler" cable (which actually raises and lowers the chandelier up and down the track cable. Theres also a power cable that travles with it to power the lights. Thats about it.

And the traveler cable is just connected to the normal fly system?

[LDSFX]

No, if you think about it, the chandelier moves on a completely different axis than a traditional fly system. It is most likely powered by a computerized winch system from Stage Command (the main theatrical mechanical effects engineering corporation.)

[Peter]

Completly random comment here, but I just thought I'd share what was probably my first tech crew experience.

In third or fourth grade me and a friend managed to convince the teacher to let us out of class for a while and go down to the gym. We threw two long lengths of fishingline over the rafters and back down the ground. Our class had made a large colored cutout of santa's sleigh and raindeer out of cardboard. me and my friend went and did some serious tapeing and taped straws to the back of all the cardboard and attached all the cardboard with fishing line. We ran one line of the fishing line throgh the sraws and tied that line off on the opposet side of the gym. We attached the other line to the first piece of cardboard allowing us to pull the whole "train" right up to the rafters across the gym. (it was supposto be pulled by a motor, but that didnt pull it fast enough, so we just did it by hand) During lunch, at some prearranged time we few it up to corrispond with something the teachers were doing. (notice how much i remember about the device and how little i remember about the activity! lol) anyway, i had GREAT fun doing this and i guess it was a kinda distant precursor to all my tech crew work!

anyway, I think that is a smilair (although lowtech) version of what would be required to "fly" in a chandelier in a manner simliar to what is being talked about here

(sorry if that was completly random!)

[What Rigger?]

Well, if you're doing the chandelier in Vegas, you have a FTSI automation system to control each piece with a minimum 4 axes of motion.

And money to BURN!