Peppers ghost effect

Hayden Ball

Member
Hi, my director has given me kind of an unique idea for his production of Tempest. He would like to do make ghosts appear intermittently throughout the show. He wanted it similar to the effect used most famously at The Haunted Mansion in Disney Land. The peppers ghost effect came up as being used for them. After further research I discovered that the peppers ghost would be incredibly expensive to hire a professional company for. Does anyone have any way that I can do this effect with the peppers ghost DIY or is there another way to create a translucent figure on the stage? Technical specifications: Very small 100 seat auditorium, decent sized wings and a fairly average HS budget.

Thanks,
Hayden
 
Now that is a challenge! No way is the original method going to be usable. The only thing that come to my mind is using a thin scrim (almost like window screen) across the front of the stage and projecting an image on it using a video projector from a high angle so the light that gets through hits the floor, hopefully out of view. As such, you would need a projector that you could keystone the image to correct for the angle.
 
JD, I have heard of your idea before. The only problem is that I dont have a fly space in the theater. And the lighting bars are not able to fit the kind of space that a scrim would bring. And it would look quite awkward for a scrim to stay there for the entire show.
 
For thoughts on using Pepper's Ghost, you may want to use the search function of the forum. There has been a lot of discussion on it previously, such as this thread. If you want the ghost to appear in different places, you will need something set up in each of those locations. Personally, something I would try is a portable unit consisting of a flat screen monitor (the bigger the better) with the mylar material directly above it at the appropriate angle. This would be a fairly self contained set piece that could be moved various positions and not require as much precision as a projector set-up.
 
All cool ideas, but being a former high school teacher, I want to direct you to a trick you can do easily and for very little money.

Design your set with small scrim panels all over. Light up the person behind the panel and Ghosts will mysteriously appear inside your walls. Scrim is amazing stuff, but it has it's limitations. Adding a second layer of black material which is removed before the trick is done and then put back when it's over, insures that the audience can't see through the scrim the rest of the time. Black "Broad Cloth" from your local sewing supply store, sprayed with fire retardant will do nicely and is cheap. Hang it with a strip of velcro or build a frame of 1x2 and staple the fabric onto the frame. Also you need to be a little careful about the angle light hits the scrim, avoid straight on direct light as the audience will see through at the wrong time. You can make this look really cool for cheap.

Call your local scenic shop and tell them you are looking for black sharkstooth scrim remnants , or check the Rosebrand remnant page. Rosebrand currently has a 20'x5' remnant for $75. You can build a lot of cool hiding spots with that.
 
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actor in separate room black background in dark room with on light on them, camera aimed at actor, hang a sheet of plexy glass of some other see through material, and map the camera's output (mess with contrast and brightness until there is no background but the actor) onto the glass. if you can attach it to a fly line then can bring it in and out as you wish to help the effect. you might get some light behind it on your backdrop but it is one of the cheapest ways of doing it.
 

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