trolley, rope or something better ?

[wyptaj]

Hi All
I havr a question to ask, in a production we are working on the Director wanta the bad guy to send a pulse towards the good guy and to have him pulled backwards on stage.
We have discussed using a trolley and rope and instead of a blast, to kick him and send the good guy flying across the floor...but I think the trolley and rope or wire would be seen and look tacky.
One of the guys thought of using a pulley and rope/wire system which hooks to the good guys belt. But again I think it would look odd and the audience would see it.
Has anybody got any ideas on what works to have someone pulled backwards on stage ? A bit like on films when stuntmen are pulled through windows with a bungee rope.....
He doesnt have to travel far...
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks in advance.

 

[Footer]

I would be much more concerned about hurting the person involved vs what the audience sees. Do you have a fight choreographer for this? Do they actually know what they are doing? This type of effect in the movies is done with a flying rig and a team of people to "pull" at the right time. They then remove the wires in post. It takes a lot of training to do on both the rigging and to not get hurt while doing it. Hire a fight choreographer who can do this... who can both set up the rig and train the talent in how to do it without getting hurt. Otherwise, you will give the talent whiplash and possibly break something on that person. Otherwise... just have the talent stumble backwards.

 

[wyptaj]

Sorry I think I have caused confusion....I waned to convey the movement hence the relation to movies and how they do it. For the stage production I'm involved with its essentially someone firing an elctric force at someone else on stage and how do I get the person the force is fires at to move...
Hence the ideas of having them on the floor and then the force is fired at them so they travel (on a truck and rope) backwards as if hit by the force....
Or if they are stood up some kind of pulley system so they fly upwards.
I dont like either of these two methods because the first one you will see the truck they are on and maybe the wire or rope and look very tacky...and the second one from a health and safety perspecitive....
Does anyone havr any other suggestions ? As its not a fight scene just a electric force...

Many thanks in advance

 

[Footer]

No, that is a fight scene.

Even with the trolley idea it is still something that can cause a lot of harm and needs to be done by someone who has done it before. With the correct training both the crew running it and the person onstage performing can be safe while doing it. This is a pretty standard theme park stunt show thing... it is not something that you can do on your own without guidance. Because this involves other people making 1 person do an action that they can not control or stop themselves the safety of that person onstage will fall on the crew. You can always assume that a person falling backwards on their own will be able to keep themselves safe... but introducing forces outside of their control really raises the bar on safety level.

Just have the person stumble backwards on their own power. The audience would rather see that then have someone get hurt. Even the professionals mess this type of thing up. It is not something that is easy to do.

 

[josh88]

I have to agree with Footer. I'd look at this from a fight direction standpoint. Throw in an electrical sound with a well timed hop back and having the "victim" act the hit and stagger after the hop. It will look fine, be just as convincing and way less complicated and dangerous. YouTube has a couple of decent SAFD proficiency tests where people are using light sabers and include a force pull or push that mimic exactly what you're looking for. Sometimes the simple solution is the best solution.

 

[What Rigger?]

This actually goes into that fuzzy realm that you get when flying, fighting, and stunts overlap. Because what it sounds like you're trying to accomplish in the fashion you've described is definitely a stunt, with rigging that would be modified from flying set ups. You need (like we say around here a lot) pros for this. Fight choreographer/stunt coordinator, stunt rigger, all that good stuff. This sort of effect is not well acheived with anything a layman (or lay-tech) can build or rig, it requires very specialized gear and can become highly dangerous in an instant.

 

[gafftaper]

What you are describing isn't that different from some of the stunts they do in "Spiderman" which cost millions of dollars and has resulted in a lot of serious injuries when things get off just a tiny bit.
Your choices to do it safely are:
1) Fake it as described above by Josh and Footer.
2) Go black light/slow motion with ninjas. Put some crew in all black ninja suits. Flood the stage with black light. The energy force is some sort of glow paint treated object. It is "thrown" (ninja moves it on a stick) toward the good guy who (is picked up by other ninjas) and blown away from the attack. It would look really cool and isn't that expensive to pull off safely.

 

[venuetech]

ninja theatre

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[gafftaper]

Ha! Now turn off the lights and throw some black light on it and it'll look even better!

 

[What Rigger?]

ninja theatre

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Raddest thing ever.