Singing in the rain. a lighting effect for rain needed.

[Crisp image]

Good evening CB community.
Our youth theatre company is mounting "Singing in the rain jr." this year and I am looking for a lighting effect to simulate rain (I could make it really rain but cleaning it up later might be a problem)
Equipment I have to work with-
Nomad 1024
4 Rogue 3 spots
a small number (30) conventional
12 SL155 zoom pars

No projector (possible to hire but would also need media)
Potential to hire lighting fixtures to create what I need.

Located in Australia (SE Victoria 100 miles east of Melbourne)

Any suggestions?
Regards

Geoff

 

[Benjamin Fink]

I haven't found the show to try this idea on, but I've always wanted to try sidelighting a bunch of clear monofilament line (or maybe mylar strings) with a few ellipsoidals with gobo rotators. It seems to me that if you shutter the instruments tight on a dim enough stage, the light interacting with the strings would look similar to the way it would hit the drops in a rain curtain. If you have the resources and equipment to do some experimentation before tech, I think there might be something there.

 

[Crisp image]

Forgot to say we don't have a fly and the R3 dont't have shutters. But I will keep it in mind show is not til October so plenty of time to try stuff.

 

[Benjamin Fink]

If you have some conventional ellipsoidals, you could probably rent some drop in gobo rotators to use with them for relatively cheap, but you could make a quick mock up of the monofilament and play around with the rogues to see if the effect works. If you have an upstage cyc, I'd plan to hang the monofilament just downstage of your cyc lights. That way you might be able to get away with leaving it in place for the run of the show, since it should go pretty invisible when it's backlit and only show up when it's sidelit with a dim background.

If you have a rental house that you work with, they may also have a GAM Film/FX or something similar. It'd drop into an ellipsoidal (either one of yours or a rental fixture) and give you a linear effect. They have a rain strip, but I haven't seen it used.

 

[microstar]

I once saw a university theatre production of "The Rainmaker" that used a video projector to project the rain. Came from a very low angle, ie straight on, and the acting area lights were just at a high enough level to make faces visible. Very impressive.

 

[RonHebbard]

I once saw a university theatre production of "The Rainmaker" that used a video projector to project the rain. Came from a very low angle, ie straight on, and the acting area lights were just at a high enough level to make faces visible. Very impressive.

@microstar Within the projector, was it projecting only rain without any background, rain against video black, or rain + some other background?
Also; what was the projector projecting onto; the performers performing in front of black velour or the performers in front of what background?
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard

 

[microstar]

So long ago that I'm just speculating but pretty sure there was no background being projected with the rain.
No clue whether the rain itself was black or clear/white.
The cyc was in so the rain showed up there in addition to on the the performers. If you are familiar with the play, the audience was quite taken when the rain started.

 

[macsound]

Something I've never seen in theatre, but seen on the Winnie the Pooh ride in Disneyland, projecting raindrops onto hanging fabric strips. Much like the monofilament idea from above, but a fun technique because the projector doesn't have to be very far from the string (just enough to mask).
If it was me, and not wanting to reinvent the wheel, I'd rent moving lights with a vertical effects wheel and use them as sidelights. Then you don't have to worry about shadows or spill. Some moving light's effect wheels have a finite amount of travel so picking one that can truly create a continuous vertical effect is what you're looking for. I've only done it with a GLP spot one, but that's just cause I don't do this type of effect often.

 

[MRW Lights]

GAM Film FX Reel - http://www.gamonline.com/catalog/filmfx/index.php

It's a harder sell for Singing in the Rain, but at least for set elements and a general look these will help.

 

[macsound]

As much as I used to love the Film FX, you really need something brighter than a source 4 in order to make any impact.
Also with the moving lights you can adjust zoom, focus and intensity remotely so the rain is more obvious at the beginning of the song and becomes gradually less distracting as he continues.

 

[almorton]

Couple of ways my theatre has done rain in the past:

Simplest was to make up a movie of drops falling and project it. Actually surprisingly effective.

The other, which was more of a storm than rain used a ripple tank rotating so that the apparent movement was downwards, some side lighting on the talent and a flown fogger (ZR33) with a flown fan driving the fog downwards too. The ripple tank on the fog gave the effect of driving rain in a foggy storm, and side lighting the talent avoided lighting the fog too much and getting a whiteout. The fan also picked up slightly on the talent's hair.