GridGirl Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 We've got an upcoming show where the script calls for a set wall to be splattered with brains when one of the characters is shot. Currently we're considering ways and means of doing this, and I just wondered if anyone has ever built anything to create a similar effect, or has any advice! The set allows us to hide a reasonable-sized mechanism of some sort - catapult, slingshot, paintball gun (!) - so long as it's not too wide, as the opening where the "brains" fly through is about 250mm wide. We're thinking that whatever we use for "brains" (probably canned boysenberries with some golden syrup and cream) will be in a water balloon, so we'll need reasonable projectile speed to burst the balloon. Anybody got any pearls of wisdom?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stee_cri1 Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 I have one, and it may or may not work guess you could try it though. first of all baileys and blackcurrent make a nice effect and in a pub is actually called babies briand due to the way it looks. Secondly how about a CO2 cannon, could make one or use a fire extinguisher and some plastic tube, make sure it is not an extinguisher in use though :unsure: THey are quite load buy you would get the propultion you needed. Hope this helps Steven Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 My immediate thought was to use a CO2 powered confetti cannon with a 50mm tube. I've never tried them with anything but fetti but given that they'll launch 250g of fetti over 15m they ought to have enough oompf to fire a water balloon full of brains. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreatBigHippy Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 My first thought would be is there a requirement to have them fly across stage? If you could get away with it what about some kind of blood bag hidden in the wall? Just time it with the gunshot. At least then you know it will hit the same place every night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidLee Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 Would this perchance be for Christopher Hampton's "The Philanthropist" - where a disgruntled playwright manages accidentally to blow out his brains against the back wall of the set? I stage managed a production of this show back in 2001. After experimenting with a wide range of effects we finally went with a pyro solution. Two lengths of steel electrical conduit were screwed into a substantial machined aluminium breech block. Each barrel was loaded with about 3 inches of a mixture of rolled oats, tomato sauce and a little red Rosco supersat paint (initially we had tried red food colouring but couldn't get a bright enough effect to be convincing). Propellant was a Le Maitre Small Maroon with the firing wires exiting through a small hole in an end cap the other side of the breech block. The breech area was boxed into a substantial 3/4 ply enclosure for added safety and elevation control. The effect was fired using a LeMaitre Pyroflash 6/24 controller. The result was a convincing gunshot and nicely concentrated mess of gore and brains on the flat behind the dead talent. The fouled wall panel was hinged to the flat and swung out and was replaced by a clean equivalent - hinged on the other side of the opening - in the scene drop. The effect was very reproducible - although we did need to use the second barrel on one occasion - at the first tech - when we had a dud maroon in the first barrel. A very pleasant suprise was that the blood mix wiped off the scenery without any need for repainting - so we got to the bar much earlier than expected! The effect was truly nauseating and produced a very convincing spread of blood and brain matter above and behind the seated victim. The effect is seriously hazardous if not properly managed and an early trial with the "brain gun" set too close to the experimental backing blew a hole clean through a sheet of 4mm ply, so it's essential to develop a safe procedure of operation - as indeed with any pyro device. Fortunately, in The Philanthropist, this effect is right at the top of the show and there is only one character moving on the stage (the victim is pemanently seated in a chair) so it was very straightforward to ensure that no-one entered the hazard zone before the effect was fired. Cheers David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitlane Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 We did this many years ago for the world premiere of 'Blood Money'. The character being shot was sitting in a chair. Behind her was a table upon which was an ice bucket. In the ice bucket were the brains made up of small pieces of natural sponge soaking in Problood. The brains were tied on to individual fishing lines which passed through tiny holes in the wall and ended tied all together to a piece of dowel. When the gun went off the operator smartly pulled the dowel causing the bloody brains to splat pleasingly against the wall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grahame Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 I've also done this in 'The Philanthropist' many, many moons ago. Although I love DavidLee's pyro solution (any excuse for a pyro!), we rigged a spring-loaded arm on the back of the chair with a small baked bean can attached, which was filled with a suitably gooey mixture. I can't remember the exact mix, but I think it involved raw mince and Ribena! A string release mechanism led off down the chair leg and off through the back wall of the set, and the splattered flat spun round on hinges during the brief blackout. S'easy! :unsure: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GridGirl Posted March 6, 2009 Author Share Posted March 6, 2009 It isn't for The Philanthropist - it's a New Zealand play called The Gods of Warm Beer during which one of the characters is shot by her rather unpleasant Bill Sykes-like husband (fortunately he's not visible when he shoots her) with a .303 rifle. Thanks for all the suggestions; unfortunately pyro is not an option as the pyro laws in New Zealand are rather stringent and we don't have a licensed pyrotechnician on staff and can't really justify the $1000 it would cost to get one of us licensed; I think a CO2 option sounds like a good possibility, or a spring-loaded device of some sort. Blood bag in the wall isn't really an option either due to the nature of the set. The production manager is planning to do some experimentation this week, so I'll take the suggestions to him and he can play! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidLee Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 I've also done this in 'The Philanthropist' many, many moons ago. Although I love DavidLee's pyro solution (any excuse for a pyro!), we rigged a spring-loaded arm on the back of the chair with a small baked bean can attached, which was filled with a suitably gooey mixture. I can't remember the exact mix, but I think it involved raw mince and Ribena! A string release mechanism led off down the chair leg and off through the back wall of the set, and the splattered flat spun round on hinges during the brief blackout. S'easy! We did try a sort of mediaeval siege-catapult design, before moving on to the pyro but couldn't get enough momentum for the gore convincingly to reach the back wall of the set. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidLee Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 Before we decided on the best way to stage this effect in The Philanthropist, I also sought advice from the online community in this thread on RATS. I had several replies, including one from Kit suggesting his blood-soaked-sponge trick. Because we had a lot of experience with pyro and access to a professional machine shop we never followed up this avenue but it certainly sounds promising. Another suggestion that sounded promising was to use compressed air. It should be possible to replicate our steel conduit "brain gun" almost exactly in this way, but without the problems of using pyro. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitlane Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 Before we decided on the best way to stage this effect in The Philanthropist, I also sought advice from the online community in this thread on RATS. I had several replies, including one from Kit suggesting his blood-soaked-sponge trick. Because we had a lot of experience with pyro and access to a professional machine shop we never followed up this avenue but it certainly sounds promising. Another suggestion that sounded promising was to use compressed air. It should be possible to replicate our steel conduit "brain gun" almost exactly in this way, but without the problems of using pyro. David Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear., I had completely forgotten about RATS. I haven't looked at a newsgroup fro years. Those were the days! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidLee Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear., I had completely forgotten about RATS. I haven't looked at a newsgroup fro years. Those were the days!I'm still subscribed to RATS but there is very little activity these days - only a few posts per week. I think that the move of UK discusion to the Blue Room has put an end to it. I do miss dear old FW, though! David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GridGirl Posted March 19, 2009 Author Share Posted March 19, 2009 A compressed air solution has been the answer; one of our casuals who has experience in this kind of thing has built it for us and it's working brilliantly! It's pretty simple, just a piece of conduit connected to an air hose, then back through a solenoid to an air tank which we'll charge up with the compressor pre-show. After some experimentation we're actually just using stage blood, but with a couple of cotton wool balls dampened and pushed into the tube first - the cotton balls soak up a bit of the blood and disintegrate nicely on impact with the wall to provide suitably realistic "bits"! The director is happy and it hasn't cost us a fortune so everyone is happy with the result! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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