Fletch Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 Hi, Firstly, I'm not sure if this is the best category for this, so mods, please move if you feel else where is more appropriate.. I'm helping an amateur group put on Mother Goose this year and we require a magic mirror... simple enough... Well my first thoughts where to use some sort of gauze arrangement, as follows... As the stage is in a small studio space, this part of the scene is set in a corner of the stage area in a stage set door way, the door way is at 45 degrees to the audience and sort of cuts the corner off as it were... the idea is something (gauze frame) is put in the door hole to be the mirror. Now I thought this could work, until I realised that to effectively stop bleed through from FOH lighting getting to the person behind, I need to have the person stand approx 1-2m back. Unfortunately this means that the sight lines to said person in this position will be bad because of the narrow door way, i.e. half the audience can't see them. So what I really need is something that the person can almost have their nose against, or say 20cm back from, so that all the audience can see them when they are lit - or somehow magically revealed..... we want to avoid somebody simply stepping backwards and forwards as we think this will look naf and amateur!?!?! Possible ideas... Use a double gauze, bit like double glazing, with an air gap between. In my head this will be less see through and have more chance of catching stray FOH lights, therefore bleed though from FOH lights is unlikely to light a person behind... I could then light the person behind the gauze with small bulk head type lights fixed around the frame.. (or maybe just birdies with frost in). - would this work? Maybe we just need to move the scene... although this won't be easy as the door way in the corner is needed for lots of other things.. Perhaps there are some gauzes/materials that are really good for this but I just don't know what they are. So does anyone have any suggestions or ideas, or simply a quick description of something you've done and how it worked...(and how well it worked!) My only other issue is that it will be hard for us to test anything, as we only have the theatre space for the week of our show with half a day for the fit up, and I don't really have anywhere with good lighting to control to test this else where. Fingers crossed, cheersFletch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chocpyro Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 The thing that springs to mind is the film they use on office block windows to keep the sun out, when light hits it from the front it will look like a mirror, when from behind it will be transparent. You may have to stretch it taught on some kind of frame. I'm sure we did something like this many, many years ago to create a space ship teleporter dock type thing. Not sure where you might get the film but perhaps Rosco might point you in the right direction or if not Google is your best friend.Hope this is of some helpD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerry Posted October 30, 2006 Share Posted October 30, 2006 Hi, Firstly, I'm not sure if this is the best category for this, so mods, please move if you feel else where is more appropriate.. I'm helping an amateur group put on Mother Goose this year and we require a magic mirror... simple enough... Well my first thoughts where to use some sort of gauze arrangement, as follows... As the stage is in a small studio space, this part of the scene is set in a corner of the stage area in a stage set door way, the door way is at 45 degrees to the audience and sort of cuts the corner off as it were... the idea is something (gauze frame) is put in the door hole to be the mirror. Now I thought this could work, until I realised that to effectively stop bleed through from FOH lighting getting to the person behind, I need to have the person stand approx 1-2m back. Unfortunately this means that the sight lines to said person in this position will be bad because of the narrow door way, i.e. half the audience can't see them. So what I really need is something that the person can almost have their nose against, or say 20cm back from, so that all the audience can see them when they are lit - or somehow magically revealed..... we want to avoid somebody simply stepping backwards and forwards as we think this will look naf and amateur!?!?! Possible ideas... Use a double gauze, bit like double glazing, with an air gap between. In my head this will be less see through and have more chance of catching stray FOH lights, therefore bleed though from FOH lights is unlikely to light a person behind... I could then light the person behind the gauze with small bulk head type lights fixed around the frame.. (or maybe just birdies with frost in). - would this work? Maybe we just need to move the scene... although this won't be easy as the door way in the corner is needed for lots of other things.. Perhaps there are some gauzes/materials that are really good for this but I just don't know what they are. So does anyone have any suggestions or ideas, or simply a quick description of something you've done and how it worked...(and how well it worked!) My only other issue is that it will be hard for us to test anything, as we only have the theatre space for the week of our show with half a day for the fit up, and I don't really have anywhere with good lighting to control to test this else where. Fingers crossed, cheersFletchGo to your local car accesory shop and by a roll of film that the `boy racers` stick on their car windows.Stick it onto perspex. Very effective mirror from the front and when lit from behind becomes transparent.Used this method for the mirror in "Mill on the Floss"CheersGerry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GUSTie Posted October 30, 2006 Share Posted October 30, 2006 when I last had to do this we used a semi silverd glass same deal when lit from frount its a mirror and when lit from behing its glass. if you are carefull with lights then you can make the transition very effective. matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
w/robe Posted October 30, 2006 Share Posted October 30, 2006 You could try the 'Pepper's Ghost' effect. It takes a bit of fiddling to get it to work but it is very effective as it allows you to make someone appear and disappear without obviously changing the lighting either in front of, or behind the mirror. You have a gauzed frame behind which is an angled mirror. The actor then stands off to one side so that when they are lit the audience see them reflected in the mirror. With the addition of a bit of smoke it works beautifully as you can fade the actor in and out without the lighting state on stage changing, so long as it is fairly dim to start with. There are a couple of things to check: Sight lines - can all members of the audience see the mirror, this is particularly difficult if the auditorium is wide. Movement - the arrival of the actor can be detected if you are not careful so have them dressed in black against black and rig a black curtain that can be slowly pulled aside after they are in position. You really do need to test this before you get in to the theatre but only the mechanics of getting the mirror angle correct, you don't need to run it with the lighting in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fletch Posted October 30, 2006 Author Share Posted October 30, 2006 Hi Everyone, Thanks for all your tricks... The semi silver stuff from the wide boy garage idea sounds like one I'll look into first. Anymore ideas/suggestion please let me know. CheersAndrew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fletch Posted December 8, 2006 Author Share Posted December 8, 2006 Just a quick update on what we actually did... Well we went for the low tech option in the end, a flat with a hole/slot in it and someone poking comedy pictures on sticks through. Gets a good laugh from the audience and doesn't require any complicated lighting. Job done. Fletch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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