vaudeville-style moving waves

[theatrix]

Greetings, all -
Wondering if anyone has experience making an old-style ocean wave effect, where two or more layers of cut-out wave panels are moved back and forth stage left and right to simulate the ocean motion. I've poked around and can't seem to find anything on this. Cutting the waves and making the panels is not an issue, but we're looking for a way to create some sort of lever at the ends of the panels that would achieve the motion. The levers would be operated onstage in view of the audience, and part of the gimmick of the thing.

Any thoughts most appreciated!

 

[derekleffew]

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(One only need watch the first 57 seconds. With sound off, if you must.)
"The cardboard seas, the painted trees, the sound here..."

At ~0:28, note the mini stage jack s. These could have furniture glides or small fixed casters on the bottom to make the motion smoother/easier.

 

[theatrix]

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(One only need watch the first 57 seconds. With sound off, if you must.)
"The cardboard seas, the painted trees, the sound here..."

At ~0:28, note the mini stage jack s. These could have furniture glides or small fixed casters on the bottom to make the motion smoother/easier.

Well, that's what i get for being a theatre dude that has never seen an episode of Glee! I didn't think of it just sliding on the floor...i was thinking of some sort of crude mechanism to the thing.

 

[StradivariusBone]

We actually just dismantled one we found in the back of our prop room from ages ago. It was two cutouts of luan, framed with 1x3 and casters mounted every 6-8' and a piece of 1x3' sticking out at both ends for a handle. Where the casters were attached another piece of 1x was hinged with a carriage bolt (just dropped in from the top, no nut) and then hinged to another identical wave-piece. They'd stand up by themselves if the hinged pieces were 90 degrees or close, but two stage hands could easily work it back and forth and it was a lot thinner since it could fold down on itself. We just dismantled it for storage, I wish I had a photo. It's basically the same thing, but just the flat part and connected to each other.

 

[scenerymaker]

I have one in this scene but I don't have any pictures of the working parts.

The waves hang on a set of vertical levers that ride in bearings at the bottom so they travel in an arc both vertically and horizontally. The hangers are mounted on a frame that is sandbagged in place. A 60 rpm electric gearmotor has a crank with 2 throws 90 degrees out of phase to get different motions on each of the 2 layers of waves. While the motion is repetitive, the audience only sees this scene for about 2 minutes before he drives to the next scene so the repeating waves are not really noticeable. This scene, as well as the 13 others, run for 3 hours each show, outside in Indiana in December so I did not want to have people operating it if I could find a way around it.

 

[len]

A cam could work. But make sure not to make the "action" too big or when the waves get to the bottom of the stroke it will be hard to keep moving.