stuartglen Posted May 29, 2006 Share Posted May 29, 2006 Ever had to build an odd device for a gig or show? Personally I once had to built a radio control for a smoke machine as there was no other possible way of controlling it. No switch packs and the smoke machine was not DMX Anyone else had to build any one-off/odd devices Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted May 30, 2006 Share Posted May 30, 2006 DMX Controlled Clock Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gareth Posted May 30, 2006 Share Posted May 30, 2006 Some 12-inch-high electrified nuns .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GridGirl Posted May 30, 2006 Share Posted May 30, 2006 Can't claim to it myself, but I did like the article in a recent L&SI about the prop-maker who made singing washing....the best I can offer is about 250 votive candles out of fairy lights, bits of PVC pipe and a lot of gaffer and hot glue! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mumbles Posted May 30, 2006 Share Posted May 30, 2006 Was involved in production of Sweet Charity earlier this year, with flown projectors. Ended up with CD roms acting as shutters with the tray moving when a battery was connected. Since found some more elegant ways of doing this from touring companies. Oh well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seano Posted May 30, 2006 Share Posted May 30, 2006 If you want to while away a bit of time reading about weird & wonderful one-off projects and silliness, there's probably no better place to do it online than Big Clive's website, especially the "Things to Make and Do" section.(Clive is one of the regular posters on r.a.t.s, and has built some pretty bizarre stuff over the years.) Seanx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbsy Posted May 30, 2006 Share Posted May 30, 2006 Well, I once built a sort of an "starry sky" effect with hundreds of LEDs, lots of fine black wire, and a homemade controller so individual constellations could be brought up and down separately. Alas, the sputnik that was supposed to drift through the above was never quite smooth enough! It was the same show where I committed the ultimate "knock up". I stapled my left hand to a flag pole. Don't ask! (Either how I did it or what a noise boy was doing building props at all...) Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomo Posted May 30, 2006 Share Posted May 30, 2006 No fewer than four (4) lamp posts. One battery-powered cast-mounted with a mains powered floor-mounted clone for The Magician's Nephew.One for me And My Girl and another for a show that was so memorable that I've completely forgotten it's name. Oh, and an LED floor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d_korman Posted May 31, 2006 Share Posted May 31, 2006 Four rocks with 1m silk flames - we built them from scratch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 I think the guys from Pitlochry might have a couple of additions to this discussion... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbuckley Posted June 2, 2006 Share Posted June 2, 2006 Well, there was always that projector mod for farndale: http://www.davidbuckley.name/pcs/sc8000/elmo.jpg Go to http://www.davidbuckley.name/pcs/sc8000 to read about it. Then there was the robot costume for Roberta in Santa in Space, Roberta had a front mount pack which had a small 12V sealed cell battery, A PCB I built full of 555 chips that flashed lights, and also generated a fixed length bleep, Roberta having a couple of wires taped to finger and thumb to make it bleep. Not to mention a ring modulator effect extracted from a kiddies toy to make her sound like a robot... I love building toys for shows. Oh yes, also from Santa in Space, a couple of deck mounted guns made from lots of perspex, with a 60W linear incandescent lamp with red gel round it stuck in the barrel to make the gun throb, and a strobe tube in the end for when it fired. Strobe was supposed to be synced to the sound effect, but that never quite worked... I also claim to have invented the bubble machine Can't remember when, but when my daughter (now 20) was very young she called it the "bubble sheen"... http://www.davidbuckley.name/pix/bubblemc.jpg And there was the starwall, four 8x4 (feet) sheets of something or other, with 180 christmas tree lamps stuffed in in. 36 circuits of 5 lamps. All connected to the Starwall Generator, that drove these lamps as an array of 6x6. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rowan Posted June 2, 2006 Share Posted June 2, 2006 I once had to program 4 animatronic lobsters for a show, does that count?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peternewman Posted June 2, 2006 Share Posted June 2, 2006 We made a sign for when we did Aladdin, 8ft by 2ft with about 200 cherry lights, far too many holes! It was in various sections so bits could "fail", however before you ask it couldn't do that word, because of how the sections were put together. http://s20.photobucket.com/albums/b234/peternewman/th_PB290152.jpg Also been involved in shows with a trapdoor and slide, radio controlled hurricane lamp and a tennis ball firer. We also did a combined winged chariot and steps, and a 6 part cloth drop for Joseph and made a load of giant bullrushes for Honk, but that's straying more into set than actual "knock ups". PN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pritch Posted June 2, 2006 Share Posted June 2, 2006 During a local panto, we made a cave / mountain with a sliding door for Ali Baba. Nothing too remarkable there, but it suffered a bit of a problem in one show, and during the interval when one of the lead characters was FOH extracting money from the audience for charity, he pulled open the house tabs and yelled "There's a man here fixing a rock!", to much laughter from the audience, and furious "Close that bloody curtain NOW" gesturing from the crew. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thirdtap Posted June 6, 2006 Share Posted June 6, 2006 'loAfter a fit up for a show I was given a large broad sword and told to devise a fixing so the sword could raise up from the prop rock during the show. It was a Merlin / King Arthur show. The set company had made a very nice rock and a DMX riser type thing but for some reason stopped short of completing the whole thing. Couple of bits of wood and several mutterings of the word bracket and da daaa it worked!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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