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Smells making and masking them


melissatyler

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Hi I am doing a show that is going to have some very strong smells. I was wondering if anyone has experience with containing smells (any brands of tupper wear that work really well) and then getting rid of them. One smell we are definitely doing is going to be the smell of horse manure... any help is greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks!

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I can tell you not to get the ones from Ikea, I had some spag bol in my bag and it went everywhere.

 

The implications of that with horse manure would be so much worse.... Febreze is the best for odours as it gets it out of the fabrics too so your actors won't be wandering about smelling like crap (unless they already do, quite likely I suppose).

 

Could also get some of those vacuum pack bag things, they might work well?

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Oh dear.

 

I'd say that you might want to completely rethink your options here...

Using smells in theatre (especially bad ones) has been discussed here before and to be honest you will struggle immensely to get rid of odours once released in the sort of 'volume' that you'll need to hit your audience.

 

And unlike light or sound, smell is a sense that will never hit everyone at the same time - ie when it's important to your script. So the back row may be detecting the horse-sh!t 15 minutes after the front row, and possibly a scene or two after it's needed!

 

Trying to stop those odours lingering as well without some super-duper air-con (which would likely be very noisy as well) is going to give you nightmares.

 

After all - do you REALLY want your punters sniffing the dung well into the rest of the show?

 

I take it this is an idea from an arty-farty (pun well intended) director who's thought "Wouldn't it be good if....." ?

 

Seriously - take stock and consider ALL of the implications of this!

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As a possible odour neutraliser, fresh coffee beans are sometimes used in perfume selling shops for a "neutral" smell in between scents, so somehow fanning the smell of fresh coffee beans might help? But I'm not sure if freshly brewed coffee would do the same trick!

 

And fyi, I found this out sorting a computer out for a perfume shop a friend of mine worked at, when I was given a free "taster" (so to speak!) :(

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All of your points are excellent and yes it is an arty farty director. However, smell is rather integral to the show and I forgot to mention that the audience will be on the flat with the actors moving between them thus allowing for smell to be brought to the audience at the right time.

 

We are looking into fans and odor eater...

 

Thanks all advice.

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There is a company who make smells in a smoke machine type item but I can't remember the name, they do seem to appear in LSI every so often though.

 

But a quick google finds this and this

 

The 2nd company might be able to help out and at £26 for a cartridge that probably doesn't need the £462.08 fan, you might be ok.

 

 

Ps someone who I work with has produced "horse ######" smell, it is not the nicest way but it was AGES ago. Take one camping stove, one pan, and one fresh but not too fresh horse poo, place one poo in the pot and stir to avoid burning. Aparently it worked rather well.

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the Effects company also do the aromatech machine, never used one, but its supposed to be good, and IIRC there is a Neutraliser cartridge for removing the scent quickly as well.

 

We used an aromatech a few years ago - works quite well and DMX controllable. Didn't try the Neutraliser though.

 

Aromatech

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