Low Fog Effects

[gherriott]

I am currently designing the LX for a college production of Jesus Christ Superstar. I am using quite a bit of log fog during certain scenes, and was wondering the best way to create some interesting LX effects on the smoke. At the moment I am thinking of using 3 cyc batton floods (500w) per cell, and the floor facing the audience. Would this work to create an effect on the smoke, or would it not really penetrate it enough. Would it be better to light it from above instead? I am basically trying to acheive a state where only one character is in a single spot, and then the rest of the stage is in darkness, apart from the low fog. Any ideas? Am still learning and any ideas will be greatly appreciated to help with this and future designs too.

 

Thanks.

[Sam_Lowers]

hi,

 

what does the rest of your rig consist of?

 

I think that if you have movers available to wash the stage. Try a UV blue all over the stage so the smoke (as long as it is thick) should hopefully pick up in bright white, a bit like clouds.

 

if using generics then I would recommend doing the same but using gel - something along the lines of L181 - Congo blue

 

obviously it depends on your budget and dimmer power. if you can afford movers then I would go for this as long as you are happy using them and have the facilities because it means that a large wash in your rig doesn't have to be there for just one effect. you can probably do a lot in some of the other scenes to make some nice effects - I would really recommend the robe 575at because it has a good frost filter in it if you are unable to afford spots and Wash's

 

let me know what you think

 

sam

[gherriott]

Hi there, the rest of the rig consists of a four colour generic wash: L079 L106 L777 and L128. I have 84 channels of dimming power, however I only have 4 cheap movers, and they are non-dimmable spots, so they won't really help. There is room on the rig for a congo wash, however, I am a bit worried about how much power would be needed behind it to generate enough colour to pick up the fog. I am also thinking now of using the four movers on the floor in a sqaure, maybe they might be able to create a better effect being down there. I do have other colours on the rig such as L013 L154 L052 and L010, but they are not as a four point wash.

 

The generic lamps I have available are 500w cct fresnels, 1kw starlits 1kw par 64's (long) and 500w and 1kw cct profiles and T84's. My main problem at the moment is as said before, creating a state that makes ppl think 'wow', for when there is only Jesus onstage, lit by an open white colour corrected profile to make it more of a halogen white from above and just downstage from him. And I only want Jesus and the smoke lit, everything else in black. Would rotating gobos from the movers on the floor shining across each other in an X shape look tacky do you think? I can't try any of this out for myself as the rig is currently undergoing an upgrade for me to have 84 channels! Otherwise I wouldn't be so lazy and actually try these ideas out!

 

cheers for your suggestions...keep them coming!

[paulears]

There's no reason why you can't put a few lanterns at ground level so they'll be covered by the fog - this looks quite spooky, but the fog does act as one big diffuser. Do you have enough fog to do the job properly? JCS has always been the kind of show where it's wierd enough to do unusual things and get away with them!

[johnhuson]

One thing you need to consider is the type of low fog effect your using. If your using a glycol based unit such the chill's the smoke to produce a low fog effect, then warm sources on the floor will cause the fog to lift around them as the effect relies on the fog being chilled.

[gherriott]

Am using a water based fog fluid, through a machine that uses ice to cool the fog. Running the fogger without ice produces quite a dense fog, so I presume it will be even denser when I use ice in it. The machine isn't a cheap one either, it was just under £400 for it! Hence the reason I am trying to get the best effect out of it as possible!

[gnomatron]

it doesn't really matter what sort of fog it is, if it's made "heavy" by chilling then your lanterns at ground level will heat it enough to make it rise a lot at that point.

 

LEDs might be good for the floor battens, as they'd not heat the fog so much, though they're pretty expensive. I've also seen the UV wash effect described above on low fog, and it did look very good.

 

Mind you, neither is a cheap solution! the congo blue idea sounded like the cheapest alternative, and would probably work given the high contrast you're going to have.

 

oh, one thought - how is jesus going to hit the mark for your profile's focus? You can't mark the stage, as he won't be able to see it...

[Ynot]

I only want Jesus and the smoke lit, everything else in black.

Top lighting with anything is likely to be a problem with this idea - after all, the fog will be white which is going to reflect everything you throw at it to an extent. diffused reflections, but all the same. You may have to live with that aspect.

 

The LED option for lighting IN the fog is perhaps one worth exploring. See who in your area has LED's - we have a load of the cheap Showtech LEDs and do hire out (not touting - just an observation) so other hire co's may also.

 

Use a good solid profile as a backlight as well as a top-heavy front, and that should reduce the spill.

[johnhuson]

Well having had a lot of experience with a JEM Glaciator X-Stream which has a list price of £6749 and has an in-built refrigeration unit which chills down to -45 degrees Celsius, I think it's safe to say that you will encounter problems with cyc floods on the floor. These would represent quite a large heat source which would serve to warm the smoke up, causing most of it to rise in front of the floods rather than flow over them as you might hope.

 

As for effects which might work the deep blue idea would work but as you say would require quite a few fixtures to get enough level. However a simple gobo breakup using the smoke as a surface would look good. This could either be from your moving lights (though your's don't sound that suitable for this application) or from a few profiles if you have stock available for this.

 

EDIT: Beaten to it again!

[gherriott]

Thanks for those ideas, I will have to experiment with the heat affecting the smoke. I do have 2par 56 LED lamps, however am using those to light a piece of truss which is flown in and Jesus is then crusified on it, with the led's focused down the length of the truss, and a profile from above to create a cross of light almost. I might have to try using the leds on th floor and normal 500w fresnels on the truss, and see how he copes with the heat!! More worried about the smoke to be honest! (Joke!) I think the only way to find out is to play, so will have to wait around for the new rig to be installed for me to do that. If you have anymore ideas, please let me know though, as I said I am still learning, as I am a upper 6th student, who is wanting to go into the theatre tech side of things. So all your ideas gives me that bit extra knowledge that will always be useful!

 

Cheers

Greg

[the kid]

Is there anyway of doing it in a almost /\ shape so the person is the in middle?

 

If you have the /\ the fog at the pinical will spread out some will go over the edge other bits will go to the light edge and rise which in turn might add a nice effect.

[Ynot]

The machine isn't a cheap one either, it was just under £400 for it!

Actually, £400 for a fogger isn't that expensive, either! :D

[gareth]

movers

AAARGH! The OP asked a question about lighting low-lying fog effectively. He didn't say anything about having moving lights available to him, he didn't ask whether he needed them, he didn't so much as mention a moving light, and there are much better ways of lighting fog. And yet it only took ELEVEN MINUTES after the OP's post for the first respondent to mention bloody movers!!!!! :D

 

FWIW, for lighting low-lying fog, I'd be thinking about Howie battens with some narrow-ish lamps in them, focussed horizontally through the fog. Or if they're not available, perhaps some profiles (or even PCs) at floor level opened out quite wide and cut top and bottom to give a 'strip' of light a couple of feet high. Is that the kind of effect you're looking for? LED battens as mentioned in one post would be a nice way to go, I think, but possibly beyond the budget of a school show.

 

You say you want most of the stage in darkness - cyc battens on the floor pointing upwards won't really help with that, as they'll spill a lot of light all over the place. As others have mentioned, any toplight onto the turns will light the fog around their feet in the same colour, quite brightly. For better isolation, can you get the scene blocked so that you can hit the turn with a low crosslight (about chest-height) which you can shoot straight across into the opposite wing and cut off the floor?

[Sam_Lowers]

And yet it only took ELEVEN MINUTES after the OP's post for the first respondent to mention bloody movers!!!!! :D

 

Gareth

 

the only reason I asked gherriott about using mover is because the way I was thinking is about him using some nice wash's with a good cmy system inthem to help his effect. I suggested this because I know the feeling of trying to do a really good lighting rig in a college theatre and not having the dimmable channels - hence why I mentioned movers because for my college we have plenty of 13amp sockets to use as hot power and no spare mains power to run dimmers!!

[b1nuzz]

we have plenty of 13amp sockets to use as hot power and no spare mains power to run dimmers!!

 

We have 3 spare 63's and a spare 32 if you really needed them, but thats beside the point.... carry on.... :D