Create a collapsing wall set. Advice sought.

[PRuges]

Hi there,
I am seeking advice/ideas on how I could create a collapsing wall. We are doing a college production of the biblical battle of Jericho, where the walls of Jericho collapse. I need a way of a timed collapse of wall sections, that will be reusable. The wall sections range in height from about 3 meters tall to 1.5 meters wide to 1.5 meters tall. Any ideas on how to achieve this effect without injuring cast or destroying the set.
Look forward to any ideas.
Peter

 

[bobgaggle]

K here's my .02. The wall is some netting or muslin with faux rocks attached to make it look like a stone wall. Its supported by a pivoting arm. When it comes time to drop the wall the stagehand jiggles the pivot arm to make it look like the wall is trembling to hide the movement of him removing the support brace. After that he grabs the pivot arm and just lowers the wall. It lands on the stop wall. the stop wall is there to make it look like a rubble pile and to hide the pivot and stage hand, who crouches behind it. Maybe you wedge some foam rocks in there that shake loose and fall independently, but its hard to make foam bounce like a rock... No idea if this method will sell the effect, but that's the first thing that came to mind.

 

[DRU]

How big of a wall are you trying to make? What's your budget?

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[bobgaggle]

Slow day at work, here's another idea along the same lines. Build a hinged knee wall at an angle. netting or fabric is supported by the pivot arm and lets you stack loose rock on top of the knee wall. on cue a hand pulls the wall US, letting the loose rocks fall, pivot arm lowers the fabric behind the knee wall somehow (gotta do some math and figure out where it'll all fit). I feel like this effect will read more like the walls are collapsing from the bottom. More dramatic too because you'll have rocks flying everywhere...

 

[PRuges]

How big of a wall are you trying to make? What's your budget?

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We will need 6 sections of walls, ranging in height from approx 3 metres high to 1.5 approx metres high. Budget is about 1.5k.

 

[PRuges]

Thank you for the ideas already Aaron. Here is an attachment of the overall scene idea. The middle rotating set will be made up of 3 scenes showing outside of city wall, inside a house, and a street facia scene. The other 6 panels are what we want to collapse. Kind regards,
Peter

 

[Amiers]

What do you have for stage hands. I would say two per side one to pull the master anchor other to launch some rocks.

Like Bob said you could make it a half wall too if you want to leave a few thing intact. With the half wall you could eliminate the second person and let gravity be the rock bag and Velcro the rock that are to fall attached to the top half of the wall. But I feel like they won't fall unless the wall is jarred a bit before the drop. If you use cheap velcro someone could accidentally knock a rock off. Just spitballing sounds like a fun experiment.