Atomic Bomb

Our school is producing a play called Chinese Wall, and we need to create an atomic bomb explosion simulation. My director wants the auditorium to shake and possibly flashes of light. We have a high powered strobe light that will light the entire house, and we would love wind and heat, but those are extras. Any suggestions on fairly inexpensive meathods of doing this.
 
Go rent waiting for Gufman, and don't do that for starters.

Got any subs, whats your soundsystem light? As far as heat goes, that could be a hard one to do safely.
 
Go rent waiting for Gufman, and don't do that for starters.
Got any subs, whats your soundsystem light? As far as heat goes, that could be a hard one to do safely.

Yeah we just did Cherry Orchard that ended in an "Atomic Bomb" (no seriously...) and the sound system shook the room pretty **** well...that with a few high powered strobes should do the trick.
 
I was out playing "aggressor" witht the National Guard once when a Tactical Nuclear Simulator, was exploded, about half a mile away. You can't do that onstage.:mrgreen:
Crank the subs and flash the strobes, sounds good to me. Maybe a bank of "Audience blinders", ACL's and the like hidden around the set would help too.
 
Go rent waiting for Gufman, and don't do that for starters.

"This whole idea of 'in your face theatre' really affected them. The conceptualization, the whole abstraction, the obtuseness, of this production to me was what was interesting. I wanted the audience to feel... the heat, from the fire, the fear, because people don't like fire 'poked, poked' in their noses. You know, when you get a cinder from barbecue right on the edge of your nose and you kind of make that little face; that's not a good thing. I wanted to have the sense memory of that.

So during the show, I had someone burn newspapers and send it through the vents in the theatre. Well, they freaked out. Course the fire marshal came over, and they shut us down for a couple of days."

Sorry. I love Guffman, and when you mentioned that, I had to post. :D
 
We have strobe stuff, and we need some subwoofers to add, which we might put inside the front of our stage. We build a ten foot addition onto the front of the stage, and it is hollow, with 1/4 inch plywood on the front, so that might really get the room shaking, since it would spread along the wood. As far as heat, we were thinking adding heat lamps facing the audience, which would give off some infrared heat, giving a light sensation. He still wants wind though, so we are thinking an air cannon or something along those lines.
 
Yeah, you want a couple very high power strobes, and some big subs. Rent a show-sized ButtKicker and a high-power power amp if you have the budget to. That'll do the trick. And you want to go with the portable industrial heaters as mentioned if you even do heat. I wouldn't reccomend it, but if the director really wants it, make **** sure that those things are safe. And for wind, get the 48" blade construction fans that are used for worksites to provide airflow in large indoor workspaces. Your local construction products rental company might have some.
 
I've seen the ButtKicker LFE used to induce shaking in the floor when full powered. But you'd need a few of them. You might also look in to down-firing subs, we use a single 18" powered down-firing subwoofer to great effect.
 
it needs to be a jet of air, and a blast of heat, not constant. That is why I was thinking infrared, you just feel a warm sensation for a second or two
 
it needs to be a jet of air, and a blast of heat, not constant. That is why I was thinking infrared, you just feel a warm sensation for a second or two

Just don't go getting the kerosene heaters for construction sites, those things are really just a jet engine without the fans.
 
no burning, we have tight pyro regulations, and one of our teachers is the president of the fire and rescue squad, so we would be in double trouble. I have untill the beginning of February to figure this out, so I thankfully have time to think it through.
 
considering the fact that an atomic explosion is one giant fire ball, why would you have strobes going? That would remind me of lightning more than an explosion. I would go with Van with the audience blinders...flood the whole space with as much light as possible as fast as your dimmers allow, then fade out at the mushroom cloud rises. Maybe a quick blackout right before the explosion...to get an idea of what I'm talking about, go watch The Fountain.

And what about confetti cannons without the confetti? I know there's a lot of air moving through those things, and since you're rocking the house with some massive subs, the noise might go unnoticed. I don't know about the heat though.

I'm coming to see this show... are you guys in Cappies?
 
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No, we are not with Cappies, but I might start now, thanks for mentioning it to me. When is your show, I want to see it.
 
If you are really creative you can find the resonance frequency of the auditorium, reproduce that with your sound system, and the whole place will shake! Just don't shake down the building.

Atmospheric effects like heat and wind won't really be effective unless you can get the effect through the entire house, which you probably don't have the budget for. That and the fact that if you blast the audience with air, they won't be too happy. Audience blinders and sound will probably do really well.
 
In the seventies a film called "Earthquake" I think toured the world. In selected venues it had "sensurround sound" they used subs and tuned them to the space. It was a factor of very loud sound and subsonic harmonics but it scared the hell out of me.
 
Well actually....

Never used it in a show, but I did a of of sound work in school, my focus was lighting AND sound. A couple of my friends and I were testing some of the old equipment we had unearthed, and in sweeping some frequencies we did hit some that made parts of the theatre resonate in a perceptible fashion. It borders on the realm of psycho-acoustics.
 
if you want to shake the foundation..Servo-drive subs can't be beat...
 

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