Lighting effect for passing train
Alan Salmon
how to do the lighting for the trains.
The set is the railway waiting room, the tracks are beyond the back wall.
There is a door and two windows upstage, where the light from the passing
train is meant to shine through.
The lighting system is rather old, controlled by a tempus 36 board. We
can stretch to hiring a few lanterns, but nothing more.
Any advice appreciated.
David Lewis
<al...@salmon.clara.spamtrap.co.uk> writes
I may be mistaken but I thought the effects for THE GHOST TRAIN were
published in the back of the script!
I know that these were designed for the 30s but they still work - and
work very well indeed. I saw a production at Bolton Octagon, directed
by Lawrence Till, a couple of years ago where they reproduced the
effects in the way published - to great effect (no pun intended!)
Regards
David
--
David Lewis
postm...@nodanw.com
Frank Wood
rotating mirror. Call it a 'mirror cylinder' rather than a mirror ball.
About a foot tall, with six or eight sides, rotating about a vertical axis.
I don't remember how the speed control was done. One profile shining onto
it.
We must have hired it, but I don't know where.
Frank Wood
fr...@woodf-l.dircon.co.uk
Alan Salmon wrote in message ...
Alan Salmon
Lewis) wrote:
> I may be mistaken but I thought the effects for THE GHOST TRAIN were
> published in the back of the script!
That was the sound effects for the train, not the lighting. In fact the
lighting plot doesn't even mention the train; but the producer wants it!
Alan Salmon
(Frank Wood) wrote:
> When we did this, some years ago, the 'passing train' effect was done
> by a
> rotating mirror.
Ah, thanks for that. That sounds a good, simple idea. - as you say
speed/rotation control is the most complicated bit - one of the
stage-hands spinning it perhaps? :)
Tom Baldwin
back:
We mounted a DC motor in a thin metal case, with a hookclamp on one end.
Dimensions were such that the height of the motor spindle was about the same
as the height of the centre of the lens of the lanterns used. This box was
hung between a pair of Patt 45s, which were hung side by side and as close
together as possible (given the motor box between them) A hardboard disc was
fitted to the motor's spindle, with two cutouts in. They were at about 150
degrees to each other, and were large enough to let the light from the
fresnels through. By rotating the disc, the light from first one lantern,
then the other, hit the stage. Varying the speed and direction of the motor
(using a basic bench power supply) allowed trains to travel in different
directions at different speeds.
You may want to consider brighter lights, and if you do, consider using a
metal disc because of heat issues.
Email me if you'd like a diagram sent, I'm not sure that I've explained it
particularly well above!
HTH,
Tom Baldwin
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Alan Salmon wrote in message ...
>We are performing Ghost Train in January; and I would like some advice on
>how to do the lighting for the trains.
>
S M Waldman
: We are performing Ghost Train in January; and I would like some advice on
I've heard of something similar being done by putting a couple of parcans
on a track and sliding them across the stage... only trouble is there's
usually a loud POP as they hit the other end and the lamp goes... so if
you can afford new PAR lamps every night...!!!
Alternatively, if you have
the channels simply put a row of lights outside and find a pianist who'll
do a gliss on the flash buttons!
Or, somewhere I saw a PAR-36 'scanner', ie a pinspot under a motor that
swung it from side to side - a couple of these bodged somehow so that the
lamp was only on in one direction, shining onto the back of a white cloth?
Or, thinking laterally, fixed lights and a cut-out of a train's windows
moved past in front, rather quickly?
Just some random ideas...
--
Indestrooktibul spel chequer virrus on rimpoge
--------------------------------------------------------------
Simon Waldman, England email: swal...@bigfoot.com
http://www.bigfoot.com/~swaldman/
--------------------------------------------------------------
Andy Broomsgove
al...@salmon.clara.spamtrap.co.uk (Alan Salmon) wrote:
> The set is the railway waiting room, the tracks are beyond the back
> wall. There is a door and two windows upstage, where the light from
> the passing train is meant to shine through.
>
It's not a show I've done myself, Alan, but someone I know told me he did
it by mounting two par cans on a piece of wood and the piece of wood onto
a stand. Position the stand right and then just rotate the wood (by hand)
so the beams move across the window at the appropriate rate.
Andy
Alan Salmon
Alan Salmon
abro...@cix.co.uk (Andy Broomsgove) wrote:
> It's not a show I've done myself, Alan, but someone I know told me he
> did it by mounting two par cans on a piece of wood and the piece of
> wood onto a stand. Position the stand right and then just rotate the
> wood (by hand) so the beams move across the window at the appropriate
> rate.
Thanks Andy - I'm trying to imagine this ... the wood rotates horizontally
around the stand? How do you stop the cable tangling?
Andy Broomsgove
al...@salmon.clara.spamtrap.co.uk (Alan Salmon) wrote:
Yes.
> How do you stop the cable tangling?
You don't. The rotation required would be no more than 90 degrees 'ish and
it isn't a problem (just like a follow spot).
If you're the Alan Salmon of Portishead Players/Winterbourne Operatic Soc
fame then give me a ring at Theatek ( 0117 963 5927) and I'll talk you
through it (I can also supply the bits on hire at very reasonable rates,
I'd probably make it up for you if you ask me nicely).
If you are another Alan Salmon, again feel free to ring me, but you'll
have to be reasonably close to Bristol to make sense of the hire offer.
(You might get the answering machine, I'm up to my eyeballs this week in
rigging/doing shows, but leave a number and I'll get back - or leave the
call till after the weekend).
Andy
Alan Salmon
effectively a pair of headlights. The producer actually wants the lights
from the carriages flashing by; which is why I thought the whole thing was
spinning fast at first.
S M Waldman
PDF format at http://www.northernlight.co.uk), they have a suggestion for
a gobo/animation disc combo for a passing train. Don't know how much it
would cost...
--
The only way to escape criticism is to do nothing, say nothing and be
nothing.
Andy Broomsgove
al...@salmon.clara.spamtrap.co.uk (Alan Salmon) wrote:
Ah right, with you.
OK alternative suggestion for that effect.
Unless you have enough stage depth behind the window, you'll have to do
this front FOH through an imaginary window in the "fourth wall".
What you need is a suitably sized profile (assuming you are generally
using 650W stuff then either a Cantata, a Source 4 or an SL) with a train
window gobo in. (Train window gobo's are a stock pattern, or you can cut
your own) with an animation disk in front.
The animation disk will give the impression of movement quite well (I've
used this in the past for this very effect in a production of the railway
children).
As I say, it probably is best coming from FOH, although you might be able
to do it through a set window with a wide angle lens.
Andy
Alan Salmon
I may be in touch later.
Alan Salmon
Andy Broomsgove
al...@salmon.clara.spamtrap.co.uk (Alan Salmon) wrote:
> Thanks for your help Andy.
>
> I may be in touch later.
>
Hokey Cokey
Andy