Help needed with leaf drop effect

[HiveMindFury]

I'm working on a production of Spring Awakening, and we need a leaf drop effect in one of the scenes. I was originally thinking of using a drop box, but the designer wants the leaves to keep falling for several minutes, so a drop box wouldn't exactly work.

I'm thinking of adapting a technique used in an earlier production (Candide) where a character gets snowed on. Basically there was a pouch type thing in the rig above him filled with fake snow, with a line going offstage that one of the crew pulled on repeatedly, sending fake snow down onto the actor.

Obviously there are some issues with adapting that technique, mainly that leaves are much bigger than flakes of fake snow. I believe the leaves are going to be made of some kind of light cloth so they fall suitably slowly. At this point I don't know how heavy the leaf fall has to be, or exactly how long they have to fall for (we're early in the production process, but I'd like to get this sorted as early as possible).

 

[shiben]

I'm working on a production of Spring Awakening, and we need a leaf drop effect in one of the scenes. I was originally thinking of using a drop box, but the designer wants the leaves to keep falling for several minutes, so a drop box wouldn't exactly work.

I'm thinking of adapting a technique used in an earlier production (Candide) where a character gets snowed on. Basically there was a pouch type thing in the rig above him filled with fake snow, with a line going offstage that one of the crew pulled on repeatedly, sending fake snow down onto the actor.

Obviously there are some issues with adapting that technique, mainly that leaves are much bigger than flakes of fake snow. I believe the leaves are going to be made of some kind of light cloth so they fall suitably slowly. At this point I don't know how heavy the leaf fall has to be, or exactly how long they have to fall for (we're early in the production process, but I'd like to get this sorted as early as possible).

I think some sort of bag that slowly gets emptied is the idea here. Any chance you could just have some people on the loading bridge or some other access point and have them throwing leaves over the edge?

 

[derekleffew]

...I'm thinking of adapting a technique used in an earlier production (Candide) where a character gets snowed on. Basically there was a pouch type thing in the rig above him filled with fake snow, with a line going offstage that one of the crew pulled on repeatedly, sending fake snow down onto the actor. ...

See the wiki entry snow cradle. Just make the slits/slots larger, and fewer of them.

 

[HiveMindFury]

I think some sort of bag that slowly gets emptied is the idea here. Any chance you could just have some people on the loading bridge or some other access point and have them throwing leaves over the edge?

I considered this, but the leaves wouldn't get far enough onstage to really work, and some would likely get stuck in the lighting rig, posing a fire hazard. Thanks though =3

See the wiki entry snow cradle. Just make the slits/slots larger, and fewer of them.

Ah, thanks for the info, that'll definitely help =3 and I'll post on here after the show, let you guys know how things went.

 

[kiwitechgirl]

I've done a leaf drop using flat boards and computer fans - bolt the fan to the board and put a hookclamp or other attachment on the board so you can rig it to the grid. If you pile leaves on the board then switch the fan on, the leaves will blow off. You might need to have more than one board if the drop has to last for a while, but it can be quite effective.

 

[HiveMindFury]

I've done a leaf drop using flat boards and computer fans - bolt the fan to the board and put a hookclamp or other attachment on the board so you can rig it to the grid. If you pile leaves on the board then switch the fan on, the leaves will blow off. You might need to have more than one board if the drop has to last for a while, but it can be quite effective.

Interesting suggestion, I'll consider it. Thanks =3

 

[nquinn2]

This post had a few ideas for dropping flowers: http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/special-effects/16926-how-make-rain-flowers.html#post197348

At Utah Shakes for a production with falling leaves they built a mechanically powered machine with two rollers and a long length of fabric. The leaves were spread out on the fabric and rolled up onto the first roller. As the fabric transferred to the second roller, the leaves would simply fall off. This was beneficial to the show because they could put less leaves on the front of the fabric and more on the back end, slowly building up the amount of leaves that fell. You can literally have five leaves fall, wait three seconds, then two leaves.....

 

[kicknargel]

Gotta say I LOVE the Utah Shakes idea. Almost like a player piano for dropping things.

We've done contraptions using a motor to turn a sonotube with holes in it. This dropped leaves slowly for several minutes.