reaperman_01 Posted December 21, 2004 Share Posted December 21, 2004 Hey guyz, Just wundering if you could help me out. I have to run a show in January where a key part of the show is a Victorian house is to be "set alight", the problem is that the house is the stage itself!! I have considered using Colour gobos with flame cutouts but these look to cheesy for the piece the group are doing. I have 2 MAC 250+ and a MAC 600 Fresnel in a triangular layout- the 250s on the FOH bar and the 600 roughly halfway down the stage, other than that its all PAR 64 and old skool fresnels/ profiles. Any suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gareth Posted December 21, 2004 Share Posted December 21, 2004 Why are you considering using your moving lights over and above your generic stock to achieve this effect? People seem to be thinking of moving lights as some sort of 'miracle cure' these days, with which they can achieve anything. Wrong, wrong, wrong. The first option you should look at is a couple (or more, if you have enough to spare) of your "old skool" profiles. Drop a flame gobo into each one, and an animation disc (running fairly fast) into the colour runners, get out the Stanley knife and scroller tape and make yourself a couple of nice composite colours with reds and ambers, experiment a bit with the focus, and I guarantee you'll produce a better effect than your Mac250s could ever achieve. A bit of smoke or haze from a strategically-placed machine, a bit of fill light and a touch of flickering in the right colours to heighten the effect, and some suspension of the audience's disbelief, and you've won. If you have a bit of hire budget available, as an alternative you could consider some Source4 profiles with Gam Film effects. If you have even more budget for hire, then look at an effects projector of some sort, with a flame disk - but bear in mind that these always look much better in multiples than they do singly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themadhippy Posted December 21, 2004 Share Posted December 21, 2004 if you cant affor to hire one of those new fangled Cadenza's with a suiable discs then a method thats worked pretty well for me is a couple of profiles with flame gobos,muli coulored gel,(red.yellow,amber,little bit of blue and green). infront of the lantern hang a few strips of diffusion gel (tissue paper worked fine but fire officers tend to get upset these days) and aim a fan at them.the faster the fan the faster the strips move,the faster the flames flicker.Also works well with break up gobos for that "wind through the trees" look Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonfire Posted December 21, 2004 Share Posted December 21, 2004 hi,we had to simulate a fire on a set once.. so what we did was use the old fluorescent starter trick and hide loads of red/orange/yellow light bulbs all over the set.. when you fired it up with a bit of smoke looked very realistic... also if you split them up into different circuits you can get control of where the fire starts or spreads to and how fierce it is.. this method does assume you are competant at wiring.. rgdschris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted December 21, 2004 Share Posted December 21, 2004 Gobo projectors and flickering light (from birdies up to p64s) all with flame colours then smoke and silk flames. The fluorescent starter trick can create too much interference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellis Posted December 23, 2004 Share Posted December 23, 2004 You could just use a few of your par cans or generics with a mixture of gels in reds, oranges and yellows. Some lx desks have a flicker effect, others can be programmed with a chase (select a random mix of the colours for each step). Slowly fading the effect in gives a good effect of 'flames off' I have even managed a convincing effect with a single lantern. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul J Need Posted December 23, 2004 Share Posted December 23, 2004 Agree with Gareth ........ Put the movers away for a well earned rest and go grab a KK wheel, a flame gobo and cut up some filters iin half and see how effective this is ?? :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted December 23, 2004 Share Posted December 23, 2004 Look for the opportunity to add some dynamics to the set, like Phantom's chandelier. Light a real fire in a safe location and LOOK see how the colours happen, and where the light comes from and how the burning materiels move. then try to recreate some of this on set at 25degrees C. Your audience should be prepared to suspend disbelief but not fear the reality Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lightnix Posted December 23, 2004 Share Posted December 23, 2004 Hello reaperman_01, welcome to the Blue Room :) All of the above will work with varying degrees of effectiveness. My own personal combo would start off with the florrie ballast flickers, maybe followed by a few rising silk flames and some smoke behind bits of set, then a build on a couple (or more) of flame wheels. Above all and once again, it's the Suspension Of Disbelief that's important here. You only have to creatre a convincing impression of a fire, not a realistic recreation of one ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reaperman_01 Posted December 27, 2004 Author Share Posted December 27, 2004 Hey guyz, Cheerz for your replies- we are experimenting at the mo!!! Hoping to use a variety of methods in an attempt to get this working- if the acting students can actually get the piece running!!! :) cheerz again for that Alex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lightnix Posted December 28, 2004 Share Posted December 28, 2004 Click here for a recent thread about live fire on stage, which threw up some interesting discussion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinny baby Posted December 28, 2004 Share Posted December 28, 2004 why not just was the stage with a red light and use sound effects, after all you want to give the impression of fire not a fire. or why not use some multimedia projection and wash the stage with it? I have used this method and it works satifactory I also did a performance once using fans and strips of tissue paper along with a smoke effects this worked well. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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