Scary Moment

[TechDirector]

My Student Director went to go see a play that a local high school put on called "Little Shop of Horrors". YES it is the same show that we are putting on before this school year ends. Well the entire ceiling was decorated with vines that were "from the plant" and were strung up to the ceiling and added a very cool effect of being in a green house sort of setting. At the end of the show when all the characters were "eaten up by the plant", the vines on the ceiling were released and fell down toward the audience and stopped about half way. She said it was really scary because she didn't know what was going on. And when she found out, she was quite suprized.

 

[dvsDave]

How were the vines operated?

 

[TechDirector]

How were the vines operated?

I have absolutley no idea!!! There might have been somebody or maybe a few techie's up in the ceiling and had operating strings and released them at the end when their cues were called. There is a big open spot in our loft where our lights are in the ceiling and it looks like somebody took an axe and put a hole through the wall. but that must be how they did it. Or maybe they tied a bunch of string together and rigged it that in way, if you pull it, it will all go loose. I wasn't there, but my student director was. I'll ask her about it though.

 

[tm1000]

How were the vines operated?

I have absolutley no idea!!! There might have been somebody or maybe a few techie's up in the ceiling and had operating strings and released them at the end when their cues were called. There is a big open spot in our loft where our lights are in the ceiling and it looks like somebody took an axe and put a hole through the wall. but that must be how they did it. Or maybe they tied a bunch of string together and rigged it that in way, if you pull it, it will all go loose. I wasn't there, but my student director was. I'll ask her about it though.

Was it in your theatre or another high school theatre?

 

[delnor]

Thats really cool, I like that alot. I went to a show called "Once on this Island" and they hung flash type light things in the audience so when it was raining the lighting seemed like it was in the audience. It was cool but not as cool as that.

 

[TechDirector]

it was in a different theater. I think they went in the catwalk and punched a hole in the wall or something to get into the ceiling and maybe had other ppl operate it in there. there's this enormous hole in my catwalk wall and thats where i got the explanation from.

 

[ship]

I once had a large amount of camelfloge netting left over from a past life in the military. Got my chance to use it on a legendary Halloween show our theater did that had the exploding pyro and the full raked stage. Great show, but it's in the past.

We had someone not operating the weeds above but laying in the grid above for that one moment in the script as it was, when the shill amongst audience members at the sayonce table was to be slimed. Now that was a great moment in every show, that time when the cast member was slimed from above, by that die-hard tech person laying upon a platform in the grid, and who was willing to sit thru the production and from above pour a bucket of slime on a cast member seated at a table. Now that's spectacle and fun.

Anyway, vines dropping on the audience with a drop length, not difficult, but what an effect to be doing. Very well thought out. Given the type of production appropriate I would hope that the rest of the budding designers out there hold such ideas and concepts in the back of their head as opposed to going for the simple and easy.

As a designer, I slimed someone from a netting grid, but the idea of vines dropping about the audience, what can I say but cool.

 

[who_touched_the_patch]

a little unrelated... sorry...

theres this interactive movie thing on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia where there are several interesting efects.

1) The classic rumbly-things under chairs technique - whcih happened when things blew up.

2) There was this one scene involving very large spiders (like Shelob if ur a LOTR fan) where they dragged fishing line over the audience. Very creepy in a dark space involving spiders.

3) One scene involving giant seagulls whcih pooped over everything - they spattered the AUD with a bit of water here and there - quite gross really.

 

[avkid]

sort of off topic actor and maglite story, a friend of mine an actor ,who was not watching where he was swinging my 3 d-cell maglite hit a stage crew member in the head near his eye causing him to have a black eye for a week!

 

[CHScrew]

My friend and his mom saw "Little Shop of Horrors" on Broadway and at the end of the play, when the plant ate all the people, the plant took up the whole stage and there were little leaves that had all the people's heads on them that the plant had eaten already. Plus, The head of the plant extended out over the pit and the first few rows of the AUD. That would be awesome to see.