IanJ
Member
I'm tech director on a superhero show where we want to fly small objects, to provide a telekinesis effect -- things like foam-rubber dumbells, plastic prop knives, etc. I realize that this is skirting close to the "no flying discussions" taboo, but I thought I'd ask, since this is pretty far from the level of things that kill people. For context, this is in a very small theater with 12 foot ceilings and a miniscule budget (we can afford invisible thread!).
We had our first flying-objects rehearsal last night, and it didn't go as well as we might have hoped. None of us have the special effects/illusion experience necessary to pull off what we wanted to do, and we're probably going to end up doing vertical-only levitation using pre-set wires and magnets, and use willful suspension of disbelief to "show" the horizontal movement. What we really wanted to do was to have a character levitate something out of her hand, and then "telekinetically" throw it at another character (who would catch it, to avoid the inevitable swinging that comes from a two-wire system like we were using).
Are there any tricks besides the obvious two-wire systems that I should be considering? I'd appreciate feedback, but if the only answer is "hire a professional," I'll understand that as well. Thanks!
We had our first flying-objects rehearsal last night, and it didn't go as well as we might have hoped. None of us have the special effects/illusion experience necessary to pull off what we wanted to do, and we're probably going to end up doing vertical-only levitation using pre-set wires and magnets, and use willful suspension of disbelief to "show" the horizontal movement. What we really wanted to do was to have a character levitate something out of her hand, and then "telekinetically" throw it at another character (who would catch it, to avoid the inevitable swinging that comes from a two-wire system like we were using).
Are there any tricks besides the obvious two-wire systems that I should be considering? I'd appreciate feedback, but if the only answer is "hire a professional," I'll understand that as well. Thanks!