We tied some fishing line to the space bar and some miscellaneous keys and
the return bar, then had some people back stage pulling on the strings. Teh
drawers were rigged with a push rod through the wall and a peice of string
to pull the drawer back. As I recall when we did the effects it was just
before the final blackout and the house litterally went beserk, and all the
cast was back stage pulling pushing and moving something.
All of this can be rigged wtih solenoids that are controlled with effects
sequences from you light board too(granted you have the dimmer capacity to
handle that many 120V circuits). I have seen pneumatics used as well, but
this can make an unpleasant hissing sound whenever something has to move,
envision the head that jumps out of the cascet at the haunted masion in
Disney land.
My 2 pieces of copper for the day.
Chris
Post by islanderGeting some good ideas here...Chris, tell me how did you rig the
mechanical typewriter.. We are staging this - period mid 1930s so an
old underwood upright would be appropriate on the set. Love the idea
of the drawers open and close... very visual. and easy to do as long
as the chest is against a back wall. We do have some budget for tricks
byt we are only doing 6 shows.. so cant be too elaborate. Just
visually good.
cheers
Marv
Post by Chris WarnerThe way this was done when we did it (lite the show in 1997 so it's been a
while) was that one actor had a notch in the back of a ring, and a T-pin was
hidden on the table, when the actor placed the ring over the T-Pin he had
complete control of the table, flying books can be done with fishing line,
with the caveat that the books be not too heavy. We also made a typewriter
operate and drawers open and some other odd things...
Just some ideas to think about.
Chris
Post by Ken WiebeThere's the tried and true pedestal table with foot operated lift device
hidden by long table cloth or if the table is light enough thumb holes for
the talent to pick it up with.
The flying books well......Depends on your budget, at the Shaw Festival we
had a combo of hydraulic rams and human pulled fishing lines.
Ken
Post by islanderHave any of you done this one... I am looking for some bright ideas to
levitate the table. The set designer suggested strong wrist watch
bands with 6 in wire hooked twen the wrists and the table.??
cheers
Marv
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