Witches of east wick, flying

[robarmstrong]

Hi folks,

I'm trying to grab some ideas for flying people in the production Witches of East wick.

 

The space is small, with a pros arch at 5meters tall and width of 7 meters, there are no flying bars or decent suspension points,

I need to fly 3 people at the same time and they must hover around in a circle, As ever budgets are tight, although saftey is important.

Any ideas folks would be most welcome

Cheers, Rob

[tivoliproduction]

your best bet is to speak to flying by foy, have a google for them, they are very helpful and they can best advise on how to achieve the effect safely and cost effectively.

 

hope this helps.

 

good luck :)

[GridGirl]

Definitely get the professionals involved, flying people is not something you want to undertake without the right equipment and advice. Foy's is great, but there are a couple of others as well:

 

Foys

Freedom Flying

Hi-Fli

 

I'd definitely get in touch with one of them, they'l give you the best advice.

[paulears]

It does strike me that if you go to the professionals, they will undoubted tell you that flying 3 people in a circle is certainly possible, but very expensive. 3 people means 3 tracks and normally these tracks are static. With operator and flyer practise, doing an out and back circuit with a 180 degree turn is possible, but 3 at once? Not with static tracks.

[Jivemaster]

The flying companies will have all done several shows of "Witches", Get their best advice, input and assistance. Remember you only ever fly expensive names!

 

Is there a safer way? can you suspend disbelief in preference to suspending people. If you really have no suspension points then there is the initial structural survey and building work to install the loadbearing points.

[Seano]

What jivemaster said (more or less). Forget flying, you can't afford to do it safely. (You really can't afford to do it unsafely, but I digress.)

 

You're going to have to get creative, see if you can come up with something a bit less literal and maybe ask a little more of your audience in terms of suspension of disbelief.

 

hth

Sean

x

[Just Some Bloke]

To be honest, even in the West End version into which a whole pile of money was thrown, you could still see the lines when the witches flew. No matter what you do it will be obvious how the flying is done. Bearing that in mind, is it really worth it? I second the previous 2 posters (or do I mean "third"?!) - if there's another way of doing it (maybe stand them on some rostra and project moving clouds/skyline behind them?) it may work better.

[Liam FitzG]

I was told a few weeks ago that flying the witches is a criteria of getting the amature rights to do this show. I haven't scene this on paper yet, just what I was told third hand.

 

Liam

[timpman19]

Yes my group got the rights but one of the rules was that you must have capabilities to fly three people simultaneously.

 

I cant provide evidence of this however, it was just what the tech crew were told by the director.

[blackbird]

Surely that is just encouraging dangerous practises. If all an amateur group needs to do is say they have the capabilities, irrespective of the truth of this statement, then they are going to try and achieve flying by whatever dangerous means so they can do the production.

 

Think that's rather irresponsible behaviour from the rights holder, let alone quashing the imagination of potential directors.

 

[Edit for speel chunking]

[timpman19]

Yes, similar thoughts crossed my mind,

 

I fear this is drifting off topic but the information we were given about this so called "rule" may just have been an attempt by our director to guarantee that we used flying within the show rather than looking for an alternative??

 

As this is just word of mouth don't take it as a definite.

[Jivemaster]

Flying is the easy bit, Paying for a pro flying company and insuring it will both be necessary and expensive. Do you own your premises? Landlords and hirers may not be happy about you making the structural fittings to their building. They could say NO amd scupper the whole plan.

[Jivemaster]

For flying you NEED suspension points, Start by finding one, if there isn't one, can you put one in? Structurally or as ground support trussing. Remember your director doesn't have the authority to make you do things that endanger your life or that of others, - If you are the responsible person in your company (pro or am) then you will face the coroner if people get hurt.

 

Any venue licence holder who permits untrained, inexperienced people to do their first three person suspension in their venue without proper supervision shouldn't hold a licence. You ARE messing with the risk of three people being badly injured in front of an audience if you haven't done it well.

[DavidLee]

Hi folks,

I'm trying to grab some ideas for flying people in the production Witches of East wick.

 

The space is small, with a pros arch at 5meters tall and width of 7 meters, there are no flying bars or decent suspension points,

I need to fly 3 people at the same time and they must hover around in a circle, As ever budgets are tight, although saftey is important.

Any ideas folks would be most welcome

Cheers, Rob

 

Remember the old proverb "If the mountain will not come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain". An alternative to flying the witches upwards is the effect of the scenery moving downwards - in a dark state, just highlighting the three witches, this could be an effective possibility.

 

In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, on a very small stage, we simulated the "Up and Out" flying elevator by lowering the backing cloth to reveal a sky cloth. More recently three characters in an in-the-round performance of "Skellig" were supposed to dance together in a tight circle and fly upwards. This was accomplished with the characters surrounded by a circle of narrators who slowly dropped to their knees as the three characters turned in a tight down-spot. Looked pathetic from where I was sitting up behind the lighting desk but the effect was magical from the audience at floor level!

 

David

[Fletch]

Hi,

 

Don't know how far you got with sorting this out, but I worked for a company a while back called Stage Technologies, who did all the flying for Witches when it was at Drury Lane (except the harnesses if I recall - I think universal might have supplied those) Perhaps they could help, I believe they do rental systems now.