Young Frankenstein "Electrodes"

[Robert F Jarvis]

Director wants two post, pillars, towers whatever that create effect of tall electrodes going bananas to energize the monster. Best I can come up with so far are two 4" diam cardboard tubes painted black and with three RGB LED tapes wrapped around them in spirals. Between choices of color and three tapes thought there would be enough combinations for interesting effects. But wondering if anyone has done this show and has something better.

 

[Van]

When I last did a Frankenstein we had a big rigged unit that flew down it had two Jacobs ladders on top and some insulators on the bottom that wires were clipped to and a couple of old lights and all sorts of flashy things. My big part was building the monster table which had lamps in side it and a 14" lexan top with a metal grid underneath there were holes in it and a fog machine ducted in... it was quite the spectacle. and way before LEDS were commercially/easily available like now.

Now, If I was doing it today? yeah you could build some really cool looking insulators out of cardboard tube and builds the little step thingies out of rings of cardboard. Me? I'd make a wrap of LED tape in between each step of the insulator and stick them all on a relay pack on different circuits and run them in a chase going "up" the insulator. Now, for the very top, you want a ball right? Guess what? you can buy over-sized metallic Christmas Ornaments from all sorts of on line sources right? Most of them are made from Translucent plastic. I used a couple not too long ago to build some over-sized magic wands. Sand all the metallic off the outside, the plastic was a dull white-ish color which would be pretty good for an insulator top. Stuff the inside of that puppy with multi-color LED strips and go to town with the flashy lights. Man, I'd like to build these. You may want to experiment with a few different balls as the plastic may vary. Jacobs ladders are easy to build as well but you HAVE to keep in mind safety factors. Insulation and fire protection and plastic or glass cylinders around the electrodes are a must. Post pictures, what ever you do.

 

[jtweigandt]

My electro re animator worked with gelled cutouts between the electrodes. Rotating mirror bouncing a source 4 so that it scanned up the chain (think the guts of a car top cop light)
Camera here was too sensitive to get the progressive run effect.. Today I would light it with one of my cheap chinese movers and some cheap makeshift shuttering.

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[jtweigandt]

And on Broadway, I swear for the storm/earthquake before his Grandfathers ghost appears to Freddie, they used one of the neatest tricks. I saw the entire set shake !!!!.. Was seated first row balcony..
Looked over the rail.. I saw what I thought were projectors.. Projecting an image of the set onto itself and oscillating the image.

 

[Robert F Jarvis]

And on Broadway, I swear for the storm/earthquake before his Grandfathers ghost appears to Freddie, they used one of the neatest tricks. I saw the entire set shake !!!!.. Was seated first row balcony..
Looked over the rail.. I saw what I thought were projectors.. Projecting an image of the set onto itself and oscillating the image.

Oh, my gosh - that was one heck of a neat stunt. Thanks for popping that in here.

 

[jeepXJ96]

You could also use a digital projector or two, with a program like MadMapper which you can load video clips into so in this case some animated lightning- then use the software to mask out places you don’t want the lightning projected. You can even use the software to warp the image (think keystone correction, but on steroids) so that if your projector isn’t perpendicular to the surface, you can make it look right for most of the audience. It can make straight lines look kinda off at odd angles to the surface- but for lightning- it should be perfect.

 

[Stuart R]

You could also use a digital projector or two, with a program like MadMapper which you can load video clips into so in this case some animated lightning- then use the software to mask out places you don’t want the lightning projected. You can even use the software to warp the image (think keystone correction, but on steroids) so that if your projector isn’t perpendicular to the surface, you can make it look right for most of the audience. It can make straight lines look kinda off at odd angles to the surface- but for lightning- it should be perfect.

Can MadMapper be used to project onto a proscenium frame so the image only lands on the panels (on the top and sides) and not on the stage itself?

 

[Robert F Jarvis]

Can MadMapper be used to project onto a proscenium frame so the image only lands on the panels (on the top and sides) and not on the stage itself?

We will be using an overhead on the cyc and really want a sort of a black tube/pole structure with 'white insulators at intervals. And have bright lights between the insulators we can control independently. We can then chase the lights up and then down the pole to look like current sparks going up and down.
my original idea was to wrap three led tapes around a 4' tough cardboard tube and then put the 'insulators' over them. BUT! that wont allow me to send the sparks up and down.
Currently thinking I will have to make several little LED panels by lying 4" sections of LED tape side by side, glued on a piece of cardboard and soldered in parallel. Bit labor intensive but scratching my head for something better.

 

[dmx512rdm]

Director wants two post, pillars, towers whatever that create effect of tall electrodes going bananas to energize the monster. Best I can come up with so far are two 4" diam cardboard tubes painted black and with three RGB LED tapes wrapped around them in spirals. Between choices of color and three tapes thought there would be enough combinations for interesting effects. But wondering if anyone has done this show and has something better.

I worked on Frankenstein on Broadway over 35 years ago - gear was a bit more primitive then. Bran Ferren had a big VanDerGraff generator built which cost a fortune but looked spectacular.
I'd suggest you add a couple of high power strobes on top of your pillars/towers etc, and chase the LRD strings up one tower and down the other.
Have fun! And please post the outcome.
Bob Goddard
Goddard Design Co.

 

[Robert F Jarvis]

Wow! a VDGG big enough for a stage - that would be fun but really, not in our budget. I like the strobes on top idea.

 

[aeh20s]

You can see if this guy will build something for you.

https://www.controlbooth.com/threads/backyard-tesla.48380/

 

[Robert F Jarvis]

Shocking!

 

[jeepXJ96]

Can MadMapper be used to project onto a proscenium frame so the image only lands on the panels (on the top and sides) and not on the stage itself?

Absolutely, given the right projector(s) with the right output. (You’re gonna want a lot of lumens- unless the place is gonna be pitch black) It’s great at stuff like this- it’s pretty much what it was designed for. You can also control it with DMX through Artnet.

I’ve used it off and on for several years now. When I first started using it, I would use it with a program called VDMX by Vidvox. That would be where I had all of my video and image files to playback. I could add effects to the video too. Then VDMX would feed the video to MadMapper using Syphon- which is a Mac protocol that allows programs to pass video from one to another.

Then I’d use MadMapper to apply perspective correction, and mask out things that I didn’t want the projector to shine on-

For example- one time I set up a three panel “video wall.” The three panels were about 22’ wide by 12’ high side by side. The outside edges of the outside screens were about 5 or six feet downstage- so the wall formed the back of a hexagon.

We ended using two projectors mounted high above the stage on a catwalk- we only wanted video on the walls- but if we came lower we’d hit people on the stage. The projectors crossed on the center panel- so we used MadMapper to skew everything back square and then edge blend where the two projectors overlapped on the middle panel.

There’s actually a way to hook a Canon DSLR up to a Mac running MadMapper- then use MadMapper to take a picture (it does this thing where it launches black and white patterns out of the projector)- so you can work out your projection mapping without having to be in the space. I haven’t personally tried that though.

 

[Robert F Jarvis]

I cobbled together a simple cardboard pole with six separate LED tape segments wrapped around. Plan is to put a kids playball on top stuffed with LED tape and pulsed dark red. Showing director tonight to see if he likes it.

 

[DrewE]

Wow! a VDGG big enough for a stage - that would be fun but really, not in our budget. I like the strobes on top idea.

If you ever get a chance, visit the Boston Science Museum and see their mutli-story VDG. It's quite impressive.

If memory serves, it was originally constructed to conduct early research into atomic and subatomic physics, housed in a zeppelin hanger; the scientists would sit inside one or the other of the two main spheres (which have since been married together), and make observations of stuff being zapped by discharges arcing between them.

 

[almorton]

I saw a huge Van der Graaf at UMIST in the 70s. They had it in the same hangar as a massive Tesla coil and a series/parallel capacitor disk stack that was put into parallel, charged to several hundred kV, then switched to series to cause a MV discharge. This was the high voltage lab where they did research into lightning. We watched as they made discharges jump tens of yards across the hangar. They had previously shown us the "low voltage" lab, where we were shown a discharge jumping the glass insulator from a power distribution pylon. Scary stuff, as an impressionable soon to be student.

 

[sk8rsdad]

I worked in the high voltage lab at the University of Waterloo in the 80's for a co-op work term. Fun stuff. FWIW, my brother earned his doctorate at UMIST. Small world!

 

[almorton]

It certainly is.

 

[garyvp]

When we did Frankenstein I built two Jacobs Ladders and a 1000 watt tesla coil, plus lots of insulators from the local power company. We are considering now doing Young Frankenstein but the lab is the least of our worries; there are so many scene venues the set may be too much for us.

 

[121 Gigawatts]

Director wants two post, pillars, towers whatever that create effect of tall electrodes going bananas to energize the monster. Best I can come up with so far are two 4" diam cardboard tubes painted black and with three RGB LED tapes wrapped around them in spirals. Between choices of color and three tapes thought there would be enough combinations for interesting effects. But wondering if anyone has done this show and has something better.

Go to the "Electroboom" youtube channel, and "BigClive." Big Clive is an eectrical/ electronic geek and also works the outdoor amphitheater on The Isle Of Mann.