Wall must drip "blood"

[Hoffer]

How would you make the rig for the three or so gallons of "blood" so that it tips or sprays or opens or drips a 15 foot wide course on cue? Our next production has a plastic-covered 15 foot wall on which we need to drip "blood" from the top to about 7 feet down and about 15 feet wide. I figure we'll need a catch trough at the bottom because the plastic gets hosed down after every performance.I think we'll use pink dishwashing liquid mixed with blue dishwashing liquid and glycerine for our "blood" since the color will be enhanced with red light.

 

[kiwitechgirl]

re: Wall must drip "blood"

I think I'd use a piece of drainpipe at the top of the wall, and drill holes at small, regular intervals along one "side" (I'm sure you know what I mean, even though circular drainpipe has no sides as such!) and then rig it so that it can be rotated on cue. Fill it with as much blood as you need, with the holes facing up, and put an end-cap on it, then rotate it on cue so the blood comes out the holes and runs down the wall. Might take some experimentation, but should work for you!

 

[gafftaper]

re: Wall must drip "blood"

A company here did a show a few years ago that had a huge wall drip blood. I didn't see it, but a buddy of mine got a look at the rig. He said they built the walls out of sheets of 3" or 4" thick insulating foam. Then they drilled holes from the back side that tapered. On the back side they were wide enough to hold a small pvc hose in place, on the front they were barely pin holes. They had a huge network of tubes all over the wall. turn on the pump real low and blood oozes everywhere.

The real trick is clean up, especially over a long run. I read stories about Evil Dead The Musical having all kinds of nasty issues because of sugary blood everywhere.

 

[Hoffer]

re: Wall must drip "blood"

Great! Thank you for this reply. We've built something like this but open so that when rotated, the blood concoction pours voluminously down the wall...We're testing it soon. This tapered hole idea is a definite keeper, though. It's all about the pressure.

 

[What Rigger?]

re: Wall must drip "blood"

As far as clean up goes, Slayer had to deal with this a few years ago when they (finally) figured out how to make it rain blood onstage during "Raining Blood". Part of their problem was solved by laying carpet on the stage to act as a sponge. Then it could be moved outside and hosed off/tossed out.

Now, keep in mind this was for a DVD "one off" performance, so they didn't have to do it night after night. But it seemed like an ingenious idea to me. If you can get ahold of the "Still Reigning" DVD, there is a bit about how they pulled it off.




(and as I always say: "Hey....Slayer!")

 

[Hoffer]

re: Wall must drip "blood"

This is how we managed the effect:
Our blood wall rig has a 16 foot length of 4" plastic pipe with one quarter of it cut out lengthwise. That long cut edge was attached to the plastic sheet "wall". The plastic sheet wall actslike an apron to catch the blood when the pipe was rotated a bit. The ends of the plastic pipe were capped and fastened to large homemade wooden spindle with a trough for the fixed rope that pulled all of 8 inches to tip the blood contents onto the sheet wall. The rope end was fixed to one edge of the troughed spindle which was in turn fixed to the cap end of the pipe, and caused the spindle to rotate the whole pipe like a steering wheel a little bit. The whole thing simply hung on aircraft cable slings which allowed the pipe to rotate within the slings when someone pulled the rope going around the wooden spindle. The length of the wall is about 20 feet, and the blood runs down about halfway.

The blood mixture was bubblebath ( pinkish) and dishwashing liquid (blueish) and made a nice viscous easily cleanable mess. The blood poured out of the trough like cake batter out of a cakepan, then fingers of the mixture trailed onwards to the floor...
Cleanup involved wiping off the majority of the blood with a sponge, and then taking the rig down to be hosed off. The floor is seald so it simply gets mopped. Clean-up does take some time.

It is worth it to see the glee with which students pour buckets of blood mixture into the trough to preset the effect. The wall of blood is very effective.

Major problems come in the method of fastening the plastic sheeting to the pipe. We used staples, and needed to reenforce that with strapping tape.

 

[Hoffer]

re: Wall must drip "blood"

Yeah. I love the carpet idea.

 

[CrisCole]

The real trick is clean up, especially over a long run. I read stories about Evil Dead The Musical having all kinds of nasty issues because of sugary blood everywhere.

That's why I NEVER use the typical sucrose mixture for blood. I find it's much more ant-free if you use stage blood. Tis very expensive, but much less antie.