Hanging Someone

[emj]

It probably would have been from Mike Frost @ Hi-Fly He is value for money to deal with

[la grande homme]

off topic: is it hanged or hung? I never know...

People are Hanged... meat is hung :blink:

[Chris M]

For a play called Habeus Corpus we did a similar thing. Hired a specialised bit of kit. Which was a harness with a steel wire. The noose was the tight cylyinder of rope with literally like a bit of rope just threaded through. So any weight and the end would just pull through the centre. When it came time for him to hang himself, said actor (my old housemate) came onstage, stood on a chair in the back ground and clipped on the carrebena to a secure point specially made, but made it look asthough he was attaching the noose to the steel point. Then when scripted he transfered 99% of his wieght to the harness, and someone walked up and as scripted kicked the chair out and he hung there and acted like was actually being hung. Then Kabuki drop came in and covered where he was for the interval so he could get down.

 

It worked really well. I'm sure one of the other Rosebruford Students here might remember the name of the company, if not I'll try and find it out and posted it here. The gasps from the audience were great every night as they wernt expecting to actually see the hanging.

[Guest lightnix]

If it's going to be in silhouette, could you do something with a shop mannequin ?

[Dave]

You may find this web page worth looking at - it may be what Ike was referring to.

[nataliebc1]

My Uni did a show last year where three people were hanged, we did using harnesses, ropes, and stools being kicked from under the actors. Luckily we had some very competant production managers and somebody who had done it before. I would, as every body else has, suggest you try to avoid it, as it had many complicated systems so that any one, both crew and cast could stop it happening. Its not a good effect to use in an amateur way (especially in a school, as you are minors the rules and regs are a lot stricter) and having qualified people around is the only way. Theatre is important, but not as important as life itself.

 

Nat

[Chris Higgs]

There are several ways of doing this, but I think that the general thread is correct -if you are not sure, don't do it.

I have done the traditional harness hanging for many productions, swinging drops for Judas in JC and other more gory ones at the RSC.

Mike Frost at Hi-Fli in Manchester rents Habeas Corpus rigs, which is the best way if you need to 'see' the person hanging. Mike will help you out, he has done a huge number of these, I'm sure.

As someone else suggested, the best way may be the way with greatest impact, so a silhouette or other arresting image might be a better way to do it risk free.

Please bear in mind when you do your risk assessment - you don't need to have a noose that tightens to kill someone, just pressure under the throat will expand the tongue and choke you (something I learned when researching for the RSC production of Bingo) and make sure you have a rehearsed and available means of getting the person down very quickly during every rehearsal and show.

Another good idea is to have a code word or action to enable technical staff to know something is amiss at the 'sharp end' so you can stop things getting ugly.

Hope that helps

[Shaun Foster]

Just to clear a few things up. As this is going to be done in silhouette, the person does not need to hang, and will remain stood on their feet all the time. They need to appear to have a rope round their neck though, so it will look like they are hanging. I know that I cant just rig a noose or rope with a loop in for them to place around their neck incase they were to fall over etc. I was planning to rig a rope and break it, and then join it with something very weak, which will take only the weight of the rope, but I still feel slightly uncomfortable about this, so I will try to achieve this effect without having a rope around someones neck at all, but if I have to use a rope around someones neck, I will make sure there is no way it will take any weight.

 

Thanks for all the advice

[ace]

If it is in silloette then you can get away with loads. Why not just have a roap hanging down with another short length wrapped around it to make the fake looking knot. Drop the rope so it lies just infront of one shoulder, loosesly loop it under the chin and then just throw the loose end over his other shoulder.

 

Alternatively could you tie the second rope around to make the false not, but leave a loose end, so that you have 2 short loose ends from the knot. Drop the rope just in front, or behind of the doomed guy, and throw the 2 loose ends, one over each shoulder. If it is a silloette then there will be no way to see that the rope isn't attatched.

 

Just my 2p's worth....

[Ellis]

I remember seeing, years ago, a noose which had a metal tube holding the noose and the substantive rope together. The two ends of rope were inserted into the tube by friction alone. Friction was barely enough to hold the weight of the noose, let alone anyone with it around their neck. The tube itself was very close to the noose.

 

Having recently done a run with a 14' guillotine, I would suggest that making anything as potentially dangerous as a noose safe and letting actors any where it will lead to artistic failures such as the noose becoming detached.

 

(The guillotine dropped at the wrong time with no-one near it, failed to 'chop' the fake head off, was hard to release and generally misbehaved about 50% of the time! - I am glad to see the back of it!)

[Brian]

I'm in the 'don't do it camp' here. Do not put anything around their neck.

 

For a play I'm working on (in school),

 

In professional theatre this stunt has many risks attached to it but will usually be executed ('scuse the pun) by trained professionals with a real budget to hire the right equipment and have the right procedures in place should anything go wrong.

 

The potential for it to all go tragically wrong must be many times greater in an amateur environment and even more so in a school. No matter how well intentioned people are, it would only take one idiot to mess with the rig and someone is dead.

 

Any homemade contraption which has the potential to fail probably will.

[Wilf dLampy]

If you just want to fake it in sillouette, how about (and this is just a suggestion) a rope that comes down from above (the gallows?) which is attached to the "noose" bit of rope using a small piece of electrical tape. Any sudden movement, in fact anything not done carefully, and the "noose" is detatched from the vertical preventing someone from really hanging themselves.

 

Does provide for the comedy moment when the noose is accidentally knocked and drops off, or the "hangee" (a rarely used theatrical term I guess) walks off before the lights creating the sillouette have been dimmed out. Make sure there's a video camera running at all times just in case :** laughs out loud **:

[PeterT]

If (and that's a big if ) you want to just put a noose around someone's neck then I suggest you make up a special noose out of several pieces of rope, one piece forms a loop and the other makes the coils . The noose itself is attached by an elastic band and will detach if any pressure is brought to bear on the rope. I must emphasise that this is only something I have seen a professional flying effects company use and if you are in ANY doubt whatsoever about it DON'T DO IT.

[peternewman]

Unless I am missing something here (and this may have already been said) if its a silhouette, then why does the rope need to be anywhere need the person, as long as they are all in line with the lamp the silhouette will look fine. This would be nice and safe and you would have no issues with how the noose is made, however you still may need it to break in case a punter found it.

 

PN

[jagardner1984]

would it not in many ways be easier to rig the system with the noose - it can therefore be a real noose behind the person (Hangee!!!), but with another line attached to the noose that could be pulled to make the rope taught - hence giving the impression that the person was being hung. I think anything which is attached to a fixed point and around a person's neck - whether you use LX Tape -bits of thread, a bit of rope tucked in somewhere or any of the other suggestions here - is extremely stupid and dangerous. The reason why professional theatres use experts and expert equipment is because it is not worth their while - let alone their insurance premium to risk killing an employee. In addition the point of Risk Assessment is to eliminate all avoidable risk and to minimise necessary risk.

 

The application in this scenario would lead me to make the following conclusions:

 

If you need to place a noose around someone's neck - this is a necessary risk. Are you able to perform this in a 100% safe fashion - NO - unless you have had training and experience (i.e. not - I've done it once before and it was OK). Therefore you need to get someone who can do it. As has been mentioned the advantage of a outside professional company performing the effect is that the risk is devolved to them. In addition the kinds of compensation payouts that would happen if an accident were to ocur make it prohibitive unless the company is sure it is safe - let alone the reputation of the company. If you cannot afford it, you would need to consider:

 

NOT placing around someone's neck - eliminating the particular risk. But creating a good effect in a safe way.

 

James

 

P.S. I did this once in a school production - it became so difficult to work out a safe way that in the end in full light the actress just swung her head - accompanied by a sound effect and lighting cue. The effect of the scene and the emotion in it was not diminished by the fact that we hadn't put up a working fake gallows!!!

 

BTW it was Frankenstein - in case you're interested.