jackthebuilder Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Apologies if not exactly the right forum, and a very broad question, but I need to start somewhere! I need to build, from scratch, a flight of treads that light up individually as the actors walk down. Any links or pointers for both the construction and best type of lights would be appreciated. Many thanks. Jack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lite_lad Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Theres a few different methods and depends on what fits the show best.... and your budget! cheapest is steps painted white with a linear lamp (halogen or the ones you put under kitchen counters, but not fluorescent!) hidden in a lip under the front of the step. Next one up is similar but behind perspex so you get a more even glow as the perspex diffuses it and if you have enough depth you can get away with using standard bulbs. and then you can go the LED route using either tape or something like versatubes (xl video have a great example of this in their offices!). obvious advantages of these are you dont need individual dimmers and can change colours as well... and theres no heat problem! also depends on whether you could hire the fixtures as to what will be cheaper for you... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kerry davies Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 About four years back we had to build a set as there wasn't one available to hire that fit the height of the stage and what lite_lad writes is good info. The diffusion is the hard part and manual switching turned out to be the only sensible way to control it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ramdram Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Manual switching by pressure pad/slightly recessed push to make switch, non latching? I had an idea of making a set for the stairs at home years ago, when these new fangled LEDs appeared, if raiding the fridge at night, say; you just got a tread on as you went up and down. But turned out too expensive, so I was informed at the time, to get past the resident auditor... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rossmck Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Manual switching by pressure pad/slightly recessed push to make switch, non latching? When I've done this it's been manual switching as in "someone pressing the "go" button on the desk" each time the actor takes a step ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barney Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 When I've done this it's been manual switching as in "someone pressing the "go" button on the desk" each time the actor takes a step ;) I'm doing Singing in the Rain next week, and we've got a couple of sets of treads, each with six steps. The 'pressing go' method seems to work fine for triggering each circuit as required. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kerry davies Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Ram, gerroffwivya, manual as in GO button, of course. Pressure pads on treads are a bl00dy trip hazard when the "turn" is wearing 4 inch heels. Did you know that 1,000 people a year in the UK die as a result of falling down the stairs at home? See! Ever the H&S pedant, me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 N92AP from MAplin may act as a switch and spring for a loose step tread to allow the weight of the actor to operate a robust switch, one per tread. FK79L also from maplin may be a pressure pad on each tread to operate a controller one channel per tread. The treads could be timber with sparkles (LED or fibre optic) or could have illuminators under the tread above How about polished polycarbonate treads with internal illumination. Make some GRP treads and build in to them a set of Christmas tree lights per tread. Are these lights to be "added sparkle" or lights to see by or to be seen by? Similar switches etc will be available from many vendors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ramdram Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Luddites the lorraya. The treads would be covered in inch deep Wilton or Axminster, shirley? Save an absolute mint in cables...and this programming stuff. If the turn can "walk" in 4" heels then a mere pressure pad would be nothing...I mean, well, I see wimmim walking, every day, in 4" heels...so, ahem, how difficult can it be? (I wear steelies almost every day and they're even biggerer...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Never let the turns work things - if they mistime the step, then it won't be them - the pad is too sensitive, or not sensitive enough. A finger on a GO button is much simpler, and much more reliable. It's a bit like having a lightswitch - you could wire that up so the turns can fire the cue themselves, but it's just another thing for them to mess up, or go wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pritch Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Being a great fan of overcomplicating things for no good reason, I've been thinking long and hard about trigger mechanisms (and ended up unable to choose between microswitches, load cells, or optical barriers), but then it struck me that there's one big advantage with the "just press go" option - if the talent has some sort of issue, stumbles slightly or whatever, you stand a good chance of ending up with a flashing step while they find their footing, making their issue even more obvious to the audience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ramdram Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 All good points but the only issue I have had with the remote trigger thing is when an actress got the sequence of turning bedside lamps on and off a "bit" out of sync with the script, (Bedroom Farce). Said lamps were in parallel with some Parcans which did the actual "lighting" thing. The timing was quite, er, critical and I had to simply do the best under the circumstances...looked like there was a poltergeist in the cast, ** laughs out loud **. The cues were only a few words apart so had to plough on so as to get the sequence right for the following cues. Curiously only me and the Director, aka sound, noticed. (Mind you, even if the actress had control of the lamp herself it would still have looked wrong.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbuckley Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Never let the turns work things - if they mistime the step, then it won't be them - the pad is too sensitive, or not sensitive enough.If you trust the actors to work the tech, they will do it with the same reliability as the get the lines right and the blocking, and accept the responsibility along with it. All good points but the only issue I have had with the remote trigger thing is when an actress got the sequence of turning bedside lamps on and off a "bit" out of sync with the script, (Bedroom Farce). Said lamps were in parallel with some Parcans which did the actual "lighting" thing. Actually allowing an actor to really control something is risky; those switches the actor operates are triggers to the control system, not actual switches. That way lies madness (who as I type this are on the roof of a disintegrating palace) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerry Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 If you trust the actors to work the tech, they will do it with the same reliability as the get the lines right and the blocking, and accept the responsibility along with it. And therein lies a huge problem. <_< CheersGerry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbuckley Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Indeed. But if the actors are not up to the job of acting then all is lost anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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