Star Effect

[Hunter.tech]

Hello,
I need either a cheap star drop, a cheap way to do a DIY star drop, or figure out someway to put stars on the cyc. Will just a couple fixtures with gobos on the cyc work even if the cyc is also being lit itself? I know cheap is a subjective term but I'd say I have around $500 to get a star background for two scenes in "The Lion King". Please help me try and figure this out... Thank you!

-Hunter

 

[RonHebbard]

Hello,
I need either a cheap star drop, a cheap way to do a DIY star drop, or figure out someway to put stars on the cyc. Will just a couple fixtures with gobos on the cyc work even if the cyc is also being lit itself? I know cheap is a subjective term but I'd say I have around $500 to get a star background for two scenes in "The Lion King". Please help me try and figure this out... Thank you!

-Hunter

@Hunter.tech Let's start with queries then move on to cheap and dirty.
Can the stars remain in front of your cyc' for the entire production or do you only want them visible for night scenes?
If you have a fly-tower and an available pipe in front of your cyc' for your stars such that they may be flown out of sight for day scenee, no problem.
CHEAP stars: Hang lengths of thin, matte black, fishing line about 12 to 18" down stage of your cyc'.
Cut small pieces of double-sided, highly reflective, silver mylar, twist them like tiny bow ties and glue them randomly on your vertical matte black threads. Adjust the lengths of your matte black threads so they end just barely above the floor.
On the lower ends of the matte black threads, tie large, heavy, nuts as weights so the stars remain stable and don't blow about in the drafts of back stage when the HVAC system fires up mid-performance.
Cross light your highly reflective stars from both sides with the best, brightest, sharpest focusing, ellipsoidals you've got. Position two or three of these per side and focus them so they light off-stage into their opposite wings WITHOUT lighting on your cyc'. Keep the weights on the bottom of your matte black thread off the floor so the strings are free to rotate axially but make the weights heavy enough to resist air currents. Experiment with no-color blue gel in some of your cross-lights.
That's the recipe for CHEAP stars.
Gobos are often less effective.
Fiber-optic drops can be fabulous but are definitely NOT CHEAP.
I KNOW this has been covered here on CB in the past year.
EDIT: @Hunter.tech NOTE: Buy a small piece of Rosco's highly reflective, double-sided, silver mirrored mylar. DON'T waste your time and efforts with aluminum foil from the grocery store. Granted, the Rosco foil is quite expensive but you'll only need a very small piece and if it works to your satisfaction, save your stars in a small bag for another year, they won't take up much shelf space. Also, when you're cutting the Rosco double-sided mirrored mylar, don't be too precise, having stars of different sizes isn't a bad thing. Cut the double-sided mirrored mylar into small rectangles, maybe 3/4" x 1.5" rather than squares and then twist them into little bow-ties. Over-twist them a little as they'll spring back somewhat.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.

 

[ship]

Bulbrite and other companies/mostly Amazon have "Starry Lights" which are really cool for a concept for both battery and line voltage but not dimmable. https://products.bulbrite.com/810066 as example. Something perhaps to look into . Believe TMB also has something similar.

Dependent on drape size, you could poke thru the drape/drop and silicone in many circuits of control for such lighting. The Bulbrite version has a few strings with very small nodes which would be easier to work with in punching the node thru the fabric. (Other similar products on Amazon.) There is larger bulb versions also which while there would be larger holes, be easier to work with especially for the tangled micro wire tangle which will follow with the Bulbrite version, be easier to use or roll up to save or transport. The little micro wires on the Bulbrite version might not roll or fold well without wire fatague etc. & the nodes are more like bubbles in the wire than X-Mass like light actual nodes sticking out perpendicular to the wiring. The larger bulbs and wiring will while able to roll or fold etc, but be harder to mount to the fabric. You might need to apply a secondary to the fabric disc of heavier cloth - say Duck or or thicker Muslin discs around the nodes so as to get a base to glue to.

For this project, I’m not recommending the Bulbrite - (or many similar small node "Starry Effect" Amazon products.)https://products.bulbrite.com/81006

It’s nodes are more like bubbles on the fine stranded and easily tangled strings. Cutting oval holes and mounting the lights might be easy to say a solder gun burn thru an oval hole and hot glue/epoxy gun/silicone + tape to hold the nodes for dry time and support if duck or Muslin drop. 　

Don’t tape the rear of Duvetyne - ever, it will pull out the front fibers from the drape if that tape is removed in leaving a bald spot. Short of taping to hold the node in place, it’s not feasible to use such nodes and hold them to dry. Plus the glue might bleed thru the drape in making it less black around the node or where wire is glued.

Main reason not to use small node starry effect lights on a drop is in transport, folding/rolling or storage. I don’t believe the small wires feeding the nodes are flexible enough to sustain application to other than a rigid install such as a prop or set piece. Cool concept but not for a drop.

There are other "starry effect" lights on the market with larger nodes & more flexible wiring more like X-Mass lights, and indeed LED X-Mass lights are an option. Multi-circuits run all over the drape will give control over stars in groups. Some dimmer, some twinkling etc. The bigger nodes especially if perpendicular to the cord or a X-Mass light will be easier to stick thru the drape or attach to the net, and it is using a little more rugged wiring. You might need to glue say a duck disc to the back of the hole for a more solid double layer of support of fabric to the hole to glue to, but rollable it would be more so. Years ago, I remember weeks long incandescent X-Mass lamp net projects in fixing them.... long days in finding the bad lamp without even shunt.

Most Starry Effect or X-Mass lights are low voltage if LED. If the case, one can get rid of the wall wort adaptor and go to low voltage transformers and DMX decoders if run off DC low voltage. (If using DC power in the line) Possible they are than dimmable, or if not, there is universal decoders on the market which will also dim many types of nodes which are not normally dimmable thru other means. Or if not even than, your electronics department might be smart enough to figure out how - ours has made such lights dimmable for past projects and even converted RGB neon 24v tape to 12v RGB sign nodes. (We made a lower case cursive "dot" to a "i" given a little work on their part electronically and my part in a lot more work in fabricating a lens assembly.) Electronics experts have many options in making non-dimmable LED stuff dimmable - its normally possible to do.

If not dimmable, there is normally a small dimmer curve anyway which could be helpful for as much as you need in making some strands of stars dimmer than the others, or ways you can add perhaps a resistor to make one line of stars dimmer when mixed up on the drape dimmer. + that when dimming down a non-dim LED circuit to it’s threshold, that flickering level is a cue say for a circuit in adding to effect.

Lots more details, but possible if you have time to make such a thing. R&D in some budget will take time but save hours in final product.

That all said, gobo rotators, actual starlight drops, projection onto... I cannot think it more expensive to at least rent a multi-channel fiber optic fiber drape than it would cost in labor + parts & R&D to make your own. That plus one drape or drop that can never be used for anything else. 20 years ago, I might have attempted this and given today’s knowledge and what’s available today, I could probably do it in a great way per the old style of doing it. Where I work, my department maintains some scenic effects LED stuff for some shows in using nodes attached to drape, and some nodes for twinkle. They are fairly high maintenance in keeping the old way to do it going. Just as Rons idea will also work as a limited or somewhat flexible concept, but one that would take time to make. Ron's advantage however is if you carefully remove the reflectors from the drape once done, the drape might be salvageable especially if sent in for cleaning and fire proofing as wil probably be the time for anyway, for a fully ready to go and safe drape afterwards.

Still, why not just rent?

 

[ship]

Hello,
I need either a cheap star drop, a cheap way to do a DIY star drop, or figure out someway to put stars on the cyc. Will just a couple fixtures with gobos on the cyc work even if the cyc is also being lit itself? I know cheap is a subjective term but I'd say I have around $500 to get a star background for two scenes in "The Lion King". Please help me try and figure this out... Thank you!

-Hunter

Sorry I more speed read thru your post in providing thoughts on star drop as opposed to what might be helpful. Ron's Idea is an interesting idea for how to do it as with doing say a scrim drop with the same attached upstage. My idea of the nodes popping thru the drop/cyc would also apply in while out - if small enough, invisible or nominal given distance to audience.

But given a cyc, with amber shift and getting darker... the cyc will show up fine pricks of light at a higher intensity on it brighter than what the cyc is lit at it. Simple enough I think to project some gobos by way of Leko in shuttering for horizon onto the cyc from down stage electrics positions if not even FOH positions. This will be a challenge to your teaser height, but given you over output the fixtures from such positions over the intensity of the cyc... should work out cheap and easy + good.

Perhaps add a few specials with wide focus with stars gobos' but with some holes black tack tapped over projected onto the horizon of the cyc. You than get individual control of some of the stars - in addition to some of the stars / planets being dimmer or bright, some few that can be controlled to flicker some. The more Leko's with gobos, the more control over intensity or dimmer. Add a few more and you control flicker and more diverse projection.

All projection onto the otherwise getting darker cyc. Easy and will look good.

 

[cbrandt]

If you need more power than you can get out of an ERS, for that budget you should be able to rent a 2-3 movers that have some sort of standard star gobo in them.