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My Fair Lady - flame effects unit.


Ynot

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Looking at a production of MFL in June and want to see if anyone has knowledge a decent flame unit for hire for the Hertford, Hereford & 'Ampshire scene.

for those who don't know what I mean :)

 

I've found a manual version so far from

which uses a button to coincide with the H sounds, but one that acted as the movie version does would be nice.

 

E2A - just found an old 2008 BR topic on just the same question.

Silk flames seemed to be the preferred recommendation then, but this company is one that would like the real effect if possible - and as I'm SM I'm happy to support it from my side :)

 

 

Just heard back from Especial Effects and seems that the effect they have in the above link is no longer available - it was built for a specific tour. Which is a shame. :(

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To remain completely flame-less, what about a very bright orange LED source in the end of the tube and then a small smoke machine sending up a jet of smoke that becomes lit orange? That could handle the jets and then something like a Seuthe model train smoke machine running permanently just in the end of the tube (or an ultrasonic mister somewhere in line) could handle the constant flame with a much smaller stream of lit smoke.

Otherwise I think you're heading down the flames or pyro route, at which point I'll bow to the superior knowledge of my fellow blue roomers!

 

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I would like if possible to use an actual flame effect in this case. LED or silks may be a backup option but only after I've exhausted the flame opportunities.

 

I've spoken with Brian's contact who don't have anything pre-built but can construct something for me - costs involved in that however are as yet unknown, or whether he would build for hire or just as a purchase option.

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There's an old magic trick idea that might (with some adaptation) provide the answer.

 

Magician would pick up an old gas mantle style lamp with a rubber hose running in place of the gas supply and put the hose in his mouth. The mantle could then be lit and the magician change the brightness of the light by blowing harder/softer, the implication being that the magician was somehow breathing out gas. Then they whole mantle arrangement was removed and a raw flame lit which again the magician could make different sizes.

 

In a nutshell, the rubber pipe was actually stuffed with cotton wool which was then soaked with lighter fluid; by blowing (surprisingly gently) in one end the performer could quite accurately control the amount of gas that flowed out the other end and thus the brightness of the mantle / size of the flame. Obviously you couldn't have a performer in MFL shoving a pipe in their mouth but I'd imagine using this principle in a Heath Robinson style machine with pipes and tubes that the professor held in their hand (giving them the ability to subtly squeeze a rubber bulb / bellows) would produce something very similar to the original movie effect. If lighter fluid doesn't fit with your RA requirements then the same sort of method but using lycopodium powder and a small spirit burner could also work?

 

http://www.zauber-pedia.de/index.php?title=Datei:ShaxonFeuer.png

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Thanks, Tom - that could well be a possible solution.

The trick with self-build will be getting someone with the right sort of gas-safe head on to likely construct and pass the actual gas end of things - I'm more than happy to look at building the physical stuff like the box and the fittings for the glass mantle end - I just wouldn't want to sign off on the gas supply and control (and safety measures) personally unless checked out properly - it may well be a very simple mechanism, but whilst electrickery I'm more than happy with, gas I'll put onto someone more expert than I :)

But the idea of a tube with bulb on the end to force lighter fluid/air thru the flame source is actually something that sounds doable...

 

 

 

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But it’s not pressurised gas, it’s fumes from lighter fluid (not aerosol) - it’s shocking just how low-tech the method is. Get a bit of pipe, some cotton wool, lighter fluid and try it yourself; you’ll nail the basics of it on your first try
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But it's not pressurised gas, it's fumes from lighter fluid (not aerosol) - it's shocking just how low-tech the method is. Get a bit of pipe, some cotton wool, lighter fluid and try it yourself; you'll nail the basics of it on your first try

Ah - MUST learn to read proper and not skim when in a hurry...

Sorry, tom - misinterpreted the 'gag' - my earlier thoughts were that there is an actual gas mantle which is SUPPLEMENTED by the lighter fluid fumes...

 

Hmmm...

I will indeed be playing with this then, though curious to see whether the pipe-bound fumes would last long enough for the length of the scene...

This is certainly something I can play with.

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bellows/bulb on one end - vapour wont escape that end, stick a tap/valve on the other end and you've got a sealed unit that will last for ages.

 

just to make it abundantly clear, you're aiming to blow the vapour that the lighter fluid produces to create the flame (hence the cotton wool in the tube) DON'T try squirting raw lighter fluid in to the flame as a) its quite dangerous and b) you'll run out very quickly

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  • 1 month later...

Ynot: Did you get this sorted?

I have just finished a silk-flame version for our production next week. It is manually triggered by squeezing the handset, which operates a servo driven shutter on the air outlet.

Happy to send some photos/video :-)

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Yep - sorry - I had planned to post again.

Another BR member put me in touch with a guy from a company about 90 mins away who did the show recently and he'd got a contraption that he'd used on MFL about 4 times over the years. That was picked up and it's presently sat in my garage awaiting cast training.

 

And yes it's a real gas flame box which does exactly what Tom suggested earlier in this topic - squeezy bulb to add air into a bunsen burner to fan the flame from a camping Gaz cannister.

Works really well.

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