Explosions without fire?

[lieperjp]

Originally Posted by Conner8809

while safety is my first concern. we have 700$ as a budget as of now. hehe. this may not go over so well.

Safety is more important that a cheap fix that could hurt, permanently injure, or kill someone. If you don't have the money, tell the powers that be to either give you more money or they can pay the medical bills and high insurance premiums that may result from a cheap fix gone bad.

[Van]

I think the basics have all been covered; here's some cost-cutting techniques. If you can't afford the solenoid option for the confetti cannon idea, then simply use a blower valve to run it manually. If the area is kept clear you can use Rye Flour in the tube as a smoke / dust effect. Rye Flour seems to be the most hypo allergenic, and Equity-approved way of making good dust on stage. I don't recommend anyone walking into a thick cloud of it, but if they do it's much less likely to cause any issues than any other powered material.

Important Safety Tip: If you are using anything for a dust effect, DO NOT USE TALCUM POWDER. It's very dangerous to breathe; Talc and Asbestos come out of the same mines. Use either corn starch, or rye flour; as mentioned above you'll find rye flour to be even more hypo-allergenic than corn starch.

[icewolf08]

We did this show two seasons ago. Our TD and special effects engineer had a "blast" cannibalizing Nerf guns so that we could hook them to our air compressor and shoot the rockets through the door. We also rigged the door to be able to release from the wall and fall over. We used a fogger and a strobe to get some flashes and smoke. The whole sequence was tied together with sound effects. It worked quite well.

Originally Posted by Van

If the area is kept clear you can use Rye Flour in the tube as a smoke / dust effect. Rye Flour seems to be the most hypo allergenic, and Equity-approved way of making good dust on stage.

Rye flour is also one of the best to use to make your own sourdough starter!

[Conner8809]

Originally Posted by cdub260

We had a firecracker effect in last year's Pageant. We used, American DJ Flash Rope, and stapled 8 of them to an 8 ft. long 1x12 board. We used 4 dimmers to power the effect, via a linked cue sequence, with sections of the board powering up in sequence, starting at the bottom, and working up to the top. This was paired with a firecracker sound effect. While it wasn't perfect, as Flash rope cannot be set to fire in sequence, it did a pretty good job of simulating firecrackers. The most difficult part of this was synching the light and sound cues, and even that wasn't too hard.

A google search for American DJ Flash Rope yielded more potential suppliers than I cared to sift through, but the average price I saw was about $80.00 a piece. I would, however recommend using a cable tacker or some other cable fastening device to install the Flash Rope. You should be able to find something at your local hardware store. If you don't have the dimmers available, look into renting some variation of a backpack dimmer from your local supplier.

Oh, and before I forget, Flash Rope is a strobe effect, so you will need the appropriate signage posted at your venue.

Hope this helps.

Incredible ideas. I spoke with my director today and she asked if it would be possible to somehow put the "firework" onstage, there are no blackouts near it so an actor would have to bring it in.

[cdub260]

Originally Posted by Conner8809

Incredible ideas. I spoke with my director today and she asked if it would be possible to somehow put the "firework" onstage, there are no blackouts near it so an actor would have to bring it in.

PM me if you need any more advice, and I'll try to go into a little more detail.