Flying Effects

[Grayson Merchant]

Hello all!

Next year, we will be doing The Wizard of Oz for our musical. We are a high school. We want to hire a company to do the flying.

Which company would you recommend?

How much was it in the end? Was the fee done by the amount of shows?

Do they rig from the grid?

Are we still allowed to rig set from battens if they come in?

Thank you so much!!

 

[Lextech]

ZFX, Hall Associates and Foy are the three companies that come to mind.

Cost, what do you want to do? Cost is based on many factors, talk to the vendor.

The last two questions are all wrapped up in part two, it all depends on what you want to do. I have used the first two vendors and Foy has been around for a long time, ask them, they can help you out.

 

[JohnD]

Here is the CB wiki article:
http://www.controlbooth.com/wiki/?title=Flying-Effects

 

[RickR]

May I just say, THANK YOU for knowing you need to hire experts.

We get a bit tired of trying to convince others.

 

[Colin]

I've only used Foy, and they're great. For a high school, their "packages" are fine. They have package deals for common flying effects in Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan, etc, which come with all the necessary props (except Mrs. Gulch's bicycle, as I recall). Pricing is clearly stated (although you may have to contact them to get the brochure) and much more affordable than a custom design (I recall about $2.5K for a 1 week run at a school). There are different price points for each show depending on which effects you order (spring for the Wizard's hot air balloon and you're paying more, etc...). Last time I had Foy in a fly house we hung their tracks from counterweight battens, flew them to the grid, chained the arbor off and guyed to the grid for stability. Just a lot easier in the average fly house than hanging straight from the grid if you don't have a big lift and some chain motors. They'll send their (experienced and fully insured) rigger to lead the install and train the run crew.

As for scenery playing nice with the flying effects, they'll give you some guidelines for safe clearances. Best to have scenery completely loaded in before flying effects arrive. As long as you only have flying tracks running stage left/right not up/down you should be able to fly some scenery.