Frozen Jr. Glove "flying" off... over audience

Aaron Clarke

Well-Known Member
Well, I've walked right into the fray again gleefully saying that I was reasonably confident this effect could be pulled off. I do think it is, and I have some thoughts but before I just go off and try anything that is in my head I thought maybe I could avoid some pit falls or the crowd can help steer me down the right path.

Classic case of "Director saw this elsewhere". She would like Elsa's glove to fly off over the audience instead of off stage. I have 500 seat 1920's movie house, with one balcony. Ideally I like this to go all the way to the projection booth but that is a good 70-80' from where the performer will be. The balcony rail or box booms are close to 30'. Even at that 30' it seems a bit much, not to mention the audience being there, to do a hand pulled line or fishing pole.

I first thought about a motor with a medium drum inside a open sided box, once powered it pulls the line swiftly as it spools on the drum and I'm thinking I'll need a break way type of attachment to the glove as I'm sure the motor is not going to stop exactly when the glove gets to it before smacking the heck out of the glove.

Am I missing something more simple? I may have a route to just have a line and small counter weight to do the pull with physics alone, but I'm not positive.

-Why do I say yes to things?
 
Well, I've walked right into the fray again gleefully saying that I was reasonably confident this effect could be pulled off. I do think it is, and I have some thoughts but before I just go off and try anything that is in my head I thought maybe I could avoid some pit falls or the crowd can help steer me down the right path.

Classic case of "Director saw this elsewhere". She would like Elsa's glove to fly off over the audience instead of off stage. I have 500 seat 1920's movie house, with one balcony. Ideally I like this to go all the way to the projection booth but that is a good 70-80' from where the performer will be. The balcony rail or box booms are close to 30'. Even at that 30' it seems a bit much, not to mention the audience being there, to do a hand pulled line or fishing pole.

I first thought about a motor with a medium drum inside a open sided box, once powered it pulls the line swiftly as it spools on the drum and I'm thinking I'll need a break way type of attachment to the glove as I'm sure the motor is not going to stop exactly when the glove gets to it before smacking the heck out of the glove.

Am I missing something more simple? I may have a route to just have a line and small counter weight to do the pull with physics alone, but I'm not positive.

-Why do I say yes to things?
The gloves are off. Why do you say yes? Perhaps a psychiatric forum can provide a quicker answer??
Ron Hebbard
 
I'm liking Ron's idea of pleading insanity. If it's too late for that...

Where did Herr Directress see this effect? Perhaps she has the playbill? There needs to be something upon which to do the reverse engineering, and rehearsal or POC video from that show, or tracking down the persons who built/teched show may be possible.

Personally, I think little rocket motors and showers of sparks to counter all the blue, icy existence of being frozen... in... Mouse...
 
Buddy of mine needed to do something like this for A Christmas Carol. they had wispy fabric ghosts that flew up from the stage and out over the house.
He wound up using variable speed Router motors, with breakaways as you describe. I guess you could use some other electric motor. It's the instant torque yet controllable speed you're looking for.
 
I think I’m missing something

to make this work it seems like you would have a line from the projection booth to stage for the entire show ( catching light, etc) Is this how you would have to do it or am I missing something.
 
Bottle rocket gloves 😂😂😂. On a serious note you are talking some serious work to get this effect off the ground. What is your reference point for this effect? I would love to see it.

Best case she throws the gloves off her hands in some wild fast motion and the effect is staged above on a speed track to zip across the audience and a really good spot op or throw some battery operated lights in the effect gloves to make them pop.
 
What we want is the *perception* that the glove is flying. The visual might not be a physical object, or it might not be the item the character is wearing. Think like a "magician" and not an "engineer." That comes later ;)
 
What we want is the *perception* that the glove is flying. The visual might not be a physical object, or it might not be the item the character is wearing. Think like a "magician" and not an "engineer." That comes later ;)

Especially if it goes super fast. You will want some chiffon or something similar and flowy.
 
There is an illusionist's apparatus that should be able to do this, but I have no idea how much it costs - I've seen it in action once. You might try in that sort of forum...
 
@RonHebbard What's with the frowning face? You have warehouse full of servo motors you want to use?
✅:eek::think:
 
@RonHebbard What's with the frowning face? You have warehouse full of servo motors you want to use?
✅:eek::think:
@TimMc I was sad we were abandoning reality so quickly. My employer used to have a warehouse 1/4 full of Emerson AC Servos with their related drives, limits, and failsafe brakes to prevent overhead loads from unwinding in the event of a power failure. At one point we built an illusion to spec' for a David Copperfield international tour The illusion used two Emerson AC servos and was packaged to travel by air.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard .
 
@TimMc I was sad we were abandoning reality so quickly. My employer used to have a warehouse 1/4 full of Emerson AC Servos with their related drives, limits, and failsafe brakes to prevent overhead loads from unwinding in the event of a power failure. At one point we built an illusion to spec' for a David Copperfield international tour The illusion used two Emerson AC servos and was packaged to travel by air.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard .
Just as I suspected... ;)
 
So the question starts with: regardless of where this glove flies, how does the actor wear it prior to attaching it to the fly line, and then where onstage do you hook up the flyline, who makes the connection, how do you disguise the hookup?
Elsa can't be wearing a glove attached to a line the whole time, right? Right.
Also- a flight out over the audience, or even far enough downstage to make us think that? Sounds suspicious.

The first thing I want to see is the catwalks over the house, if any, and what's above them structurally. 1920's movie palace makes me think "baroque plaster ceilings, possibly of a somewhat historic nature" and we don't want to go punching holes in that.

Are we sure your director isn't thinking of how the cape leaves the stage in the Anaheim production of Frozen? That's pretty simple and direct, still looks great. Jump to 24;30 or so.

Frozen, Disney California Adventure
 
I'll post some more details and video later, tonight is our first run through after some testing last night.

Step 1 though was abandoning the idea of going back to the booth. That was too much horizontal distance to get it there without a guide line or it dropping enough to smack someone on the balcony.
What I did do was find existing holes in the plaster arch over the house that has a plaster cornice masking it from most the audience. So there is a clear line of sight from the stage to that spot in the ceiling.

So I just have a monofilament line that runs to a set of small blocks currently set at quadruple purchase to allow for a short pull and also keep some weight to keep it taught without pulling on her hand too much.
I asked for a second glove just for this number that could always be hooked up, but nope, so devised a small hook inside the glove and we'll pull the line through a small slit in a seam and hook it on prior to the number. Testing that set-up for the first time tonight

The video the director saw it was easy for two reasons- A) it was obvious they had a cat walk over the house to pull from and B) Elsa entered from the back of the house and took it off before stepping on stage... Don't have A and of course, not doing B.. but still make this happen!

I love some of the other ideas and I wish I really had the time to play with servos and motors but good old school low tech won out do to compressed time.
 
Here a quick clip of our first run. Tweaking some lighting as the line kinda sticks out in person more than I'd like but in all it works well.

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Here is a shot from back stage

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