Strobe hitting mirror ball

[david.elsbury]

Hi there

I'm very quickly designing my rig for a high school production of The Wizard of Oz (not my high school, I do this professionally now).

 

One of the effects that I'm wanting to try is a strobe hitting a mirror ball. Has anyone tried this?

Specifically, this will be a Diversitronics 1500w (?) DMX strobe, with "Hyperblast" which gives a very grunty flash. Gelled red, and pointing at a medium sized mirror ball (stationary).

 

To be (hopefully) used for the scene where the wicked witch throws fire at the scarecrow.

 

My thoughts are that either it will work really well, or the strobe beam won't be focussed enough.

And I can't hire the bits first to just see them, and I'm not keen to just do it incase it doesn't work.

 

 

Thanks... if anyone can help :** laughs out loud **:

David

[Liam FitzG]

I would guess you will need to barn door the strobe down using blackwrap or the like. Rather than hiring out the gear just ask your local friendly hire company to try it out in their warehouse, we do things like that here... it breaks up the day when someone comes in and asks to play; ring ahead and check that they are not too busy.

 

A flat panel of mirror mosaic may give a better use of the flash than a mirror ball, unless you can get your hands on a large (900mm or so) ball to catch more beam.

 

Liam

[ojc123]

I've no idea whether it will work or not but...

 

...You've probably thought of this but check the school allows strobes (if they have given it any thought at all). We have a blanket ban because of the epilepsy thing. Many years ago we had a dancer collapse during the dress. She didn't know she would be affected. I hadn't given enough thought nor had we time to try it all out until the tech and we'd decided to keep the dancers out of the way for the tech (They distract the lads in the crew.)

[david.elsbury]

Already have done so... in fact they asked for a strobe in another part of the show.

But before I do, I'll be talking to the cast and crew, discussing the usage of strobes etc.

 

Besides, I'm not using them so much as strobes... one of them for this scene, as a couple of bright single flashes, and another on a random, slow strobe during the twister. And AFAIK the "danger" flash rate is between 5 HZ and 25 HZ. I don't plan to even get as high as 5....

 

Thanks for the warning though- goes to show that it's always worth a "dry run" before opening night, with people and procedures on hand to handle any issues that may come up. Will bear it in mind

 

David

 

Edit: Should probably add, that as I've just started working full time in a completely unrelated job, I get tomorrow off and have pretty much no spare time to go to the hire company between now and next Tuesday when I start rigging. Oh well.

[Nicktaylor]

And looking at your CV a bit far away for most of us to help! Good luck :** laughs out loud **:

[paulears]

barndooring it down removes most of the light output, a red gel makes it even weaker. I suspect to make this work you'd need some kind of lense and focusing mechanism - after all, even really powerful follow spots irised down don't work as well as proper mirror ball lights close in.

 

So I'd guess it would be, well, unexciting.

[Dweeks]

I know you can get Parcan lamps that are strobes... assuming you can get them in the normal focus settings (CP60, 61,62 etc), you may be able to get a very narrow spot for a Par64 lantern... more focused than your average wide atomic style strobe.

 

Try hire co?

[Pete]

I know you can get Parcan lamps that are strobes... assuming you can get them in the normal focus settings (CP60, 61,62 etc), you may be able to get a very narrow spot for a Par64 lantern... more focused than your average wide atomic style strobe.

 

I dont think they do come in flavours as such.

 

What you want is a divvy Source Four Strobe!

[maeterlinck]

How about rigging the strobe as close to the mirror ball as you can and using tin foil to create a shroud towards the ball. Top and sides. Irises, lenses are the like won't really work. I would also be tempted to have the ball spinning as this will increase the randomness of the look, but the shards shouldn't appear to be moving.

HTH

[Ekij]

Would an LED MR56 not be good for this (since it can produce a pure RED very efficiently and isn't a point source so will get more reflections off the mirror ball, one from each LED)?

 

Edit: Need to get out of the habbit of calling LED MRnn's LED Par's

[the kid]

I have no idea if this will work but what about getting a make your own strobe from a electrical shop, and have a fiddle with the power and get it to run of a birdie transformer.

 

Then put in to a normal profile ... Not sure if it will work but thats what came to mind.

[Dweeks]

Interesting idea but not too much fun to focus!! Loathe strobes at the best of times, let alone having to focus one!

[goochr96]

Unless you could go for something a bit brighter, a Martin Atomic 3000w stobe for instance?

[GRisdale]

As a lateral suggestion: forget the mirror ball and put an appropriately abstract break-up in front of the strobe...? Can be surprising what you can do with a knife and some black-wrap (cut, slash, puncture). Though it won't be the "mirror ball" effect you're after, it could be made to look a bit more unusual (shards of fire striking across the set?) and is a perhaps a bit "safer" given the various strobe/mirror ball issues raised above...

 

Just a thought.

Gareth.

[Jamtastic3]

mmmm is your strobe rectangular in shape, like an Atomic 1500W? I don't think you will get great results by hitting it off of a mirrorball since the strobe bulb is fairly long in length and the reflection is not as narrow as in rounded shaped strobes. Putting the strobe closer to the mirrorball won't do you any favours really, it will just make any reflections alot larger and less indivually visible. It's like focusing a pinspot onto a mirrorball - the filament needs to be covered so it isn't spilling excess light out apart from the reflection it's giving to the mirrorball and it needs to be a fair distance - too close and the 'spots' become too big

 

Obviously your best bet would be a moving light a couple metres away from the ball, focused and the iris brought in around the diamater of the mirrorball. This way you will have far sharper and more distinct 'beams'.