Tinkerbell

[Barreller]

The director wants a random white (maybe) spot of light flitting around the stage/auditorium in Peter Pan next spring. Any ideas?

[jmdh]

There are some pretty nice and cheap LED pinpots about, if you have a lighting gantry or somewhere else that an operator can be situated with one. Eg http://www.adj.com/pinspot-led-ii

[Barreller]

There are some pretty nice and cheap LED pinpots about, if you have a lighting gantry or somewhere else that an operator can be situated with one. Eg http://www.adj.com/pinspot-led-ii

Saw those but really need something remote and DMX controlled.

[Dave m]

Casual in the FoH grid with 5 lazer pointers taped together.Strap the DMX cable to his nuts ?

Could you use a few mirror fragments stuck to a mirror on a pan/tilt with a pin spot focused on it? Like the old mirror based disco lights

[Don Allen]

I had a similar problem with The Secret Garden, with the director wanting a red light jumping about, simulating the Robin.

 

The easiest choice is a scanner as the mirror movement is quieter than most moving heads and won't distract the audience. But the light will be shining onto the audience or walls, not moving through the air, which is what they can achieve in movies with CGI. If you use haze, then you get a beam and not a spot.

 

You may find it better to program the "random" movement so it stays in the desired viewable area.

 

Perhaps move the spot around the proscenium arch, auditorium walls and roof ?

[kgallen]

We did Peter Pan recently as an amateur production, in a relatively poorly equipped venue (i.e. the town hall) and I suggested to the Director that we use a young actor instead of some stupid light whizzing around the stage in some naff way.

 

She had bangles of small bells on her wrists so she could emulate Tink's speech. Sometimes the non-technical solutions are the ones to use if you have limited facilities.

 

Kevin

[ianknight]

There are some pretty nice and cheap LED pinpots about, if you have a lighting gantry or somewhere else that an operator can be situated with one. Eg http://www.adj.com/pinspot-led-ii

Saw those but really need something remote and DMX controlled.

 

It's always a nice idea to try and use something remote controlled but from experience - it consumes easily one third of your lighting plot time as the director can never settle on where the light should be. The easiest and less fraught way is a pinspot of some description - either LED or PAR 36 and someone controlling it by hand.

[Stuart91]

Some of our customers used a followspot irised right down, with the colour wheel whirring round at full speed. With the focus knocked off a little it looked quite effective.

 

The drawback is that it was a relatively large, cumbersome spot (Clay Paky Shadow) and needed to have someone on hand to move it around.

[ninjadingle]

Or if you have a wide and powerful enough projector just have a PPT of white dots projected across the set, auto advancing? No movement and easy enough to change size and position?

[Bryson]

Last time I did this the role of Tinkerbell was played by the famous actor "Goldenscan HPE". :)

 

Are there any full-featured scanners on the market any more? Or was that the reason the HPEs and Cyberlights all hung around for so long?

[paulears]

Trouble is, every venue is now so full of haze, as beams are more important than what it lands on nowadays, that tinkerbell's spot of twinkling light would now look very odd, giving the game away!

[Barreller]

Trouble is, every venue is now so full of haze, as beams are more important than what it lands on nowadays, that tinkerbell's spot of twinkling light would now look very odd, giving the game away!

Our little town hall isn't full of haze Paul!! I've never used a scanner, would a Mini Scan (Clay Paky) do it?

[paulears]

Actually, it might well do - all you would need is to order a custom gobo for it - essentially something that only has a small spot, or star, or cluster of holes in the centre, because the beam spreads quite wide. You'll lose a fair bit of the light of course, but they're quite bright - if you pick one the right size, and then fit it - which is a bit fiddly but doable - then with a bit of defocus, and maybe rotation, it may well do the trick. Mount it centre stage so most of the surfaces it lands on will be about the same distance - then the beam stays pretty much a constant size. With no haze in the air - the origin won't be noticeable, which is what haze of course wrecks! Most of the usual gobo suppliers you find on google will have loads to choose from and they're not that expensive.

[sleah]

Trouble is, every venue is now so full of haze.

 

I'd have thought it would be the other way - "Oh no you can't use smoke or haze in here!" with the combination of smoke detectors appearing in every corner and the paranoia that the world is on fire if there is the slightest wisp of smoke :(

[sandall]

If I know there's no detector over the stage I find the word "Mist" usually gets past the jobs-worths