Star drop and Northern Lights Aurora Borealis effect

hamlett22

Member
Hello,

I'm looking for advice on creating a night starry sky with a Northern Lights effect. We're doing 'Almost Maine'.

My initial thought was to:
Rent a star drop and hang that on our 'cyc' pipe.
Hang translucent fabrics (cut in irregular shapes) 6 feet or so downstage of the star drop, refocus our cyc lights to hit the translucent fabrics from behind, and mess around with timed chase sequences on our lighting console.

Thoughts on that idea?

Perhaps you have a different solution?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Have a great weekend.
Chad
 
I have done the show a few times. The first time we had a good budget, so we rented a fiberoptic curtain. The color change and twinkle options worked great. The second time was had a much smaller budget. I used a standard 3 color cyc, but took 2 Source IV's with gobo rotators and some breakup patterns at wide angles, slightly out of focus on the patterns. That gave me some fun options that worked well.

Good luck! It is a fun show.

~Dave
 
Light your cyc like you normally would, use a groundrow. Now float the cyc, so it can move a bit. Add the northern lights from extreme side angles. As the cyc drifts through the beam you'll get that diffuse, rippling movement you're looking for.
 
Hello,

I'm looking for advice on creating a night starry sky with a Northern Lights effect. We're doing 'Almost Maine'.

My initial thought was to:
Rent a star drop and hang that on our 'cyc' pipe.
Hang translucent fabrics (cut in irregular shapes) 6 feet or so downstage of the star drop, refocus our cyc lights to hit the translucent fabrics from behind, and mess around with timed chase sequences on our lighting console.

Thoughts on that idea?

Perhaps you have a different solution?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Have a great weekend.
Chad
@hamlett22 Have you used Control Booth's search function to find cheap and cheerful stars made by randomly tying tiny bow ties of Rosco's mirrored Mylar on lengths of thin matte black fishing line suspended downstage of your cyc' or sky cloth and INTENSELY cross lit by the cross lights another poster already spoke of?

Approximately 18 months to two years ago there was a lengthy, and very detailed, thread extolling the economical joys of creating and illuminating stars utilizing small amounts of Rosco's mirrored Mylar.
Don't try your Granny's tin foil oven wrap, it's NOWHERE near as reflective as Rosco's mirrored Mylar. Granted the Rosco mirrored Mylar's not cheap but try requesting a sample, a little goes a long way and you can store your mirrored Mylar stars for decades in very little space and possibly also rent them out to needy neighboring groups.
Make your little bowties of varying sizes; in general, smaller is better, they'll appear more distant.

Weight each string of stars at the bottom with something the size and weight of a couple of 1/2 - 13 hex nuts to keep the stars from blowing sideways like pendulums in the breeze. Keep the weights one or two inches off the floor so the stars are free to rotate axially. Paint the weights matte black if they're not hidden by your ground row and / or its masking.

When you focus your intense cross lights, focus them off (behind) your masking legs on the opposite sides but leave the shutters as open as you can manage rather than wasting light, generating excess heat, and potentially warping your shutters.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
 
Try using a couple glass gobs in a rotator. Makes a great northern lights effect. Rosco has a video of their X24, but it can easily be replicated in a standard fixture with a rotator.

+1 on this. I’ve done it before with glass gobos in a dual rotator and it worked great and we just did it using a 36 degree S4 but it will be even better if you can rent the Rosco X24. I’ll try and post a video later.
 
"There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales

That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,

But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge

I cremated Sam McGee."
-Robert Service
 

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