Paintball in theatre.

[Chelle]

Afternoon.

 

 

Does anyone have experience of using paintball in the theatre? I have never played but my research says that you would have to have a min of 25ft shooting distance. Has anyone shoot a single paintball in a theatre under that length? Did you use/ is there a particular gun that would allow this? Can the guns be set so that they are not as powerful and hence can be done at a short length?

 

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

Michelle

[paulears]

Paintball in a theatre? It's just an air weapon capable of making a mess - actually, a considerable mess, and firing one isn't a problem. However, 25ft is not a specific distance. Most of us who have played have been shot at point blank range. Often by mistake, sometimes on purpose. It hurts, it will produce nice big weals on the skin. The problem will be that the audience will look pretty silly wearing safety goggles, as will the cast. They do not have safety catches, so are quite likely to go off by being dropped, twiddled with and by a shaky trigger finger. They're quite capable of blinding at considerable distances. The actual paintballs make a big mess, and the dye, although water soluble, does stain - clothes, scenery, floor - unless you're into serious scrubbing, and they splatter too, so it's not just one person or object they hit.

 

I cannot in a million years find a way to assess this activity as safe. The actual paintballs are hard - not soft (or the burst in the barrel - although they do that anyway!) so they use impact to burst, and that means pain. If you do try paintballing, you'll find marshalls who spend most of their time making sure idiots don't lift their goggles to clean them, not even for a moment.

 

It seems a dangerous thing to contemplate to me, and I suspect most players would agree - NOT the kind of thing to fire when unprotected people are around.

 

Damn good fun, though!

[Jivemaster]

There'd have to be a very good reason to use something that could wound or blind and unsuspecting person and is likely to do so. Just like you wouldn't fire live rounds from a gun unless it was a very well controlled scenario.

[Tomo]

Look for a better way to get the effect.

As an example, 'gunshots' are often done using small pyrotechnics where the impact is intended to have happened.

 

Something very similar could be done quite simply to imitate an paintball impact, with the advantage that you can easily use a pure mechanical system.

 

This means that the weapon is never actually fired, and you have total control over where and when the 'impacts' land.

[kerry davies]

http://ezinearticles.com/?Proper-Paintball...&id=2649280

I think that with missiles travelling at 200 mph with a range of 30 plus metres the answer would be a big NO!

 

Even if the cast and audience all wore armour, goggles etc the reaction of the crew to cleaning the resultant mess would be a riot control problem.

 

There are those manual "puffer" tubes that fire fluffy little balls but even soaking those in paint would risk a crew insurrection, so please think again.

 

Those Nissan Quashqai ads have a lot to answer for.

[Jimm]

Look for a better way to get the effect.

As an example, 'gunshots' are often done using small pyrotechnics where the impact is intended to have happened.

 

Something very similar could be done quite simply to imitate an paintball impact, with the advantage that you can easily use a pure mechanical system.

 

This means that the weapon is never actually fired, and you have total control over where and when the 'impacts' land.

 

For the impact point, could you make some small paint packs with a pyro detenator? Basically a blood squib in a different colour.

 

A little bit of water-soluble paint in a thin balloon over the squib, enough paint to make an effective splat and dribble, but not enough to spray over the stage (causing slip/trip risk and annoying venue techs).

[Blaize110]

I dont know how powerful or effective they are but you can get spring powered 'painball' guns aimed at the younger end of the market. These might be able to provide the necessary splat effect without the danger of blinding people.

[MrPete]

(snip).. These might be able to provide the necessary splat effect without the danger of blinding people.

 

But a gun is still a gun, it only takes one mistake or fault to cause an injury even if it is low powered. Imagine if an actor had it held behind his back but pointing towards the audience and not the back of the stage by mistake and the spring sprung...?

 

It might be more prudent to ask the OP what the intentioned effect is for, although I suspect the thin balloon over a squib might be the best alternative - or just not doing this effect if it was "just an idea" - depending on the situation that is. OP?

[jckk335]

Paintball in a theatre? It's just an air weapon capable of making a mess - actually, a considerable mess, and firing one isn't a problem. However, 25ft is not a specific distance. Most of us who have played have been shot at point blank range. Often by mistake, sometimes on purpose. It hurts, it will produce nice big weals on the skin. The problem will be that the audience will look pretty silly wearing safety goggles, as will the cast. They do not have safety catches, so are quite likely to go off by being dropped, twiddled with and by a shaky trigger finger. They're quite capable of blinding at considerable distances. The actual paintballs make a big mess, and the dye, although water soluble, does stain - clothes, scenery, floor - unless you're into serious scrubbing, and they splatter too, so it's not just one person or object they hit.

 

I cannot in a million years find a way to assess this activity as safe. The actual paintballs are hard - not soft (or the burst in the barrel - although they do that anyway!) so they use impact to burst, and that means pain. If you do try paintballing, you'll find marshalls who spend most of their time making sure idiots don't lift their goggles to clean them, not even for a moment.

 

It seems a dangerous thing to contemplate to me, and I suspect most players would agree - NOT the kind of thing to fire when unprotected people are around.

 

Damn good fun, though!

 

Couple of things that you have got wrong paintball markers do have safety catches whether they be mechanical or electronic depending on the marker. The shells of paintballs range in thickness so you can get paint that will burst with little effect I.e they can be dropped from a hand and will break not all will bounce. The markers volicity can be turned down so that there is less force behind the paintball. You can get body padding which will lesson the force of the hit.

 

However I don't recomend that anyone fire a paintball without the appropiate safety equipment as you only have one set of eyes and all it takes is a slip and that is an lost.

[WiLL]

All of that aside, unless you can insist that all of your audience wear eye protection, you cannot rule out an accident on stage which would result in a shot going out into the auditorium. All in all I would look at the squib route. Or increasing your public liability insurance up to about 250 million and practice showering with lots of men, negligence can bring hefty criminal sentences.

But seriously, as already expressed by many people already. Don't do it.

[Chelle]

Thanks for this everyone.

We've decided to find another soluation, it was pretty clear we were going to have to but I wanted to cover all options.

Cheers