Wol Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 During certain shows, usually more upbeat / dance style shows, I'll try and use a hazer to try and emphasize the beams from lights to give a greater effect. However, the venue I'm going into with a show in a couple of months won't allow us to use a hazer. Does anyone have any good suggestions of an alternative way to enhance the lights which will be more 'venue friendly' / 'fire alarm friendly'? Thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richiestix Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 During certain shows, usually more upbeat / dance style shows, I'll try and use a hazer to try and emphasize the beams from lights to give a greater effect. However, the venue I'm going into with a show in a couple of months won't allow us to use a hazer. Does anyone have any good suggestions of an alternative way to enhance the lights which will be more 'venue friendly'? Thanks in advance. AA Snow? , Dust???, HA That is tuff,Try to aim and focus the lights directly in to the audiance that will get noticed!. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ynot Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 Hmmm... Unlikely. Your problem will be that anything that you can make airborne and dense enough to pick up light beams is more than likely to set off smoke alarms. You may well be at a dead end there... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wol Posted February 25, 2008 Author Share Posted February 25, 2008 Dust??? This had gone across my mind. Get a few of the old chalkboard erasers (yes, we do still have some at uni!) and smack them around a bit... Not quite the effect I want really! Your problem will be that anything that you can make airborne and dense enough to pick up light beams is more than likely to set off smoke alarms.You may well be at a dead end there... That's what I'm thinking. As we can't actually hang any lights in a rig in the venue, some of the lights are going to be floor mounted and making effects shining upwards into their ceiling or on the brick wall, rather than being able to shine down onto a stage. Hopefully they'll have enough brightness to catch some general dust in the air. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryson Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 ...Or. Why don't you just light the dancers? If a hazer is a no-no, why put in any "beamy" stuff? Why waste the power and the fixtures? Just concentrate on lighting the "show" - forget the effects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wol Posted February 25, 2008 Author Share Posted February 25, 2008 Why don't you just light the dancers? Ive got fixtures for this already, but the raised stage on which the dancers will be is only about half the width of the actual auditorium stage, and in the past when we've done shows in this venue, it's looked a bit bare either side of the stage so am trying to use the whole space a bit more than previously in the lighting design. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frazer Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 You may need to think of alternatives to beams of light such as strobes, LED's and Video, all of which can give a visually spectacular performance (when used well) without forcing the evacuation of your audiences because the fire alarms were set off. I actually prefer it when a lighting design works well without smoke as it demonstrates imagination, creativeness and skill. Frazer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wol Posted February 26, 2008 Author Share Posted February 26, 2008 You may need to think of alternatives to beams of light such as strobes, LED's and Video I was looking around a couple of months back with respect to video walls, or video effects which could be used with projectors, but decided against it as we don't have anywhere to rig a video wall, or screen, and don't have access to two projectors bright enough for the job, or the hardware required to go along with them without having to hire in. I'll leave it at that as it's starting to go off topic a tad and spreading into the Lighting / Video forum realm! Cheers for the replies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J Pearce Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 Hang some coloured drapes, or sails, or giant socks in the gaps and light them in lieu of hazy beams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niclights Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 Any kind of cyc work is a lifesaver for when smoke isn't an option. But, bringing it back on topic there are some (realistic) options looking at smoke type. It might be worth asking exactly why they are not allowed. If it is for smoke detectors then mineral oil types might be ok. Also the LeMaitre ones using Glycerine base could be acceptable. Slightly more difficult but applying the same principle are water vapourisers. The only machine I know of was the Jem Hydrosonic. Discontinued due to some reliability problems but an amazing effect if you can find someone still stocking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wol Posted February 26, 2008 Author Share Posted February 26, 2008 Hang some coloured drapes, or sails, or giant socks in the gaps and light them in lieu of hazy beams. I might see if we have any white gauze lying around which we could use. The problem then comes back to the fact that we don't have anywhere in the venue to hang them easily. It might be worth asking exactly why they are not allowed. If it is for smoke detectors then mineral oil types might be ok. Also the LeMaitre ones using Glycerine base could be acceptable. We're not allowed to use them as they're worried it'll set the smoke alarms off, and that they'll have to pay the duty electrician to come over and isolate the system, for several visits, and at time and a half as part of it is at the weekend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrg198 Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 I think you should point out that the venue is a 300 ish seat concert hall rather than a theatre so it's pretty open (no pros, no tabs etc) and about 15m wide x 7m high. The walls including back wall of the 'stage' is exposed brickwork apart from the full blown pipe organ in the middle section of the wall. And then there's the wooden parquet style floor... and the precious venue staff. See http://www.turnersims.co.uk/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J Pearce Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 Light the brick wall then. If you light it at a fairly narrow angle you can create some very textured shadows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wol Posted February 26, 2008 Author Share Posted February 26, 2008 and about 15m wide x 7m high. The walls including back wall of the 'stage' is exposed brickwork apart from the full blown pipe organ in the middle section of the wall. According to their blurb, the performance space is "16.5m x 5.75m" and the height of the auditorium is 9.14m. (picture) We can't get anything particularly near the back wall as there are pianos sitting there which we're not allowed to move around. But I am hoping to put something a bit further forward to project onto the wall though, as well as being able to hit the organ pipes which give nice reflections. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niclights Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 In my experience mineral oil will not set off smoke alarms, but the sensors vary in type and I guess it would be a risk unless you can do a one-time test to prove? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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