Snow White Mountain Scene

[gngibson]

Hi there. Our Pantomime in January is Snow White and I wonder if anyone could help me with ideas / solutions for a scene we want to include. Basically it's the scene when Snow White is waiting for the dwarfs to return from the mine - you know the hi ho bit. Anyway 20 years ago we made a mountain set piece from plywood and attached a cable car type device with little torch lamps lit to simulate the dwarfs coming down the mountain to their cottage. It was a neat idea but in practice was very difficult to execute.

 

Looking for ideas to do this. It's a pretty short effect but if it works it enhances the entrance of the dwarfs.

 

Options We have come up with so far are -

 

1. Construct mountain in plywood and fly. Lights could be led and physically moved down mountain on a zip line. Or we cold use multiple LEDs and light seven in sequence to give the effect of "moving" down the mountain. Not sure what kit we would need to work the sequencing if we went to this option.

 

2. Use a mountain back cloth and project lights onto it which could move down the mountain. I thought of laser but not sure if this would be effective. Any ideas of what products we could look at sourcing to try this?

 

Any other thoughts we have not come up with?

 

Appreciate any ideas.

 

Thanks, Glenn.

[timsabre]

Nice idea, I'd keep it simple, torch bulbs or "grain of wheat" bulbs on a string or a stick moving across a cut-out mountain sounds best. Sequencing LEDs will look steppy even if crossfaded, unless you're going for the techno dwarf look. Lasers likewise. Cheesy effects work well in panto.

 

I did a village production of Snow White a few years ago and someone had the bright idea of having a real waterfall at the back of the set to "enhance" the forest scene. It was a complete PITA in a tiny venue with no wing or fly space and turned out to be hardly visible from the audience despite lighting from all angles. Brought home to me the old advice about keeping it simple.