Can I take a moment to say I'm extremely concerned about this project. Falling through a
trap door, even for a profesional is a dangerous thing to do. if it doesn't
release perfectly, and if the actor is not positioned exactly on spot then they can be dropped off center and it will wind up dropping them at an angle which will result in them smacking their heads on the framing. I'm not being a nervous Nellie here I'm being a realist with "Years of experience" doing all sort of Staged Efects. I know it seems easy, we see it in the movies all the time. Well, In movies the profesional stuntmen are usually tied off in harnesses and supported by wires. We don't have that luxury on
stage. Forgive me if this sounds pedantic but even an 18"
drop, if not done perfectly, could result in some serious injuries. I would not attempt this stunt in a
stage situation. Period. Think of the factors. You have to have a
trap wich will
release completely with no hesitation. you need to have the actor positioned perfectly ontop of the
trap. Preferably you will need the
trap to be made of two doors with the actor stnding directly on the seam between them. You are going to want a mechanism which once activated does not allow the doors to
swing back and smack into the actor. Because the framing of the doors must me sufficient to withstand the weight of people the rest of the time, there will be some significant mass to fight. I would want the doors either Pnuematically or Hydraulically actuated to get them out of the way as fast as possible < faster than a gravity
system alone> You are going to want a wireless actor interlock
system so that the
trap cannot be actuated until the actor is prepped for it. At the end of the day I would be asking myself even with all these
safety measures, "Is it really worth the risk of injury ? Is there another way to accomplish the same
effect.?"