test tube FXs

[malx]

Hi everyone,

 

I'm SM on a production of Jekyll & Hyde, has anybody had any experience of creating colour changing liquids or creating smoke in test tubes and jars? I need to create some simple effects on stage by the actor playing Jekyll with a minimal budget so any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

 

 

 

 

Thanks

 

 

 

[MatthewTosh]

I usually use warm water, food colouring and a dry ice pellet. Don't use home-made dry ice in an effort to save money, as it isn't dense enough and just floats.

You'll get a very thick white vapour, which will look like a smoking test tube. The hotter the water, the more vigourous the boiling effect, so it is best to experiment with different water temperatures to see how much bubbling you want.

[Shez]

Clear liquid lit with RGB LEDs from below?

 

I'm sure a smoke machine could be stowed inside whatever furniture the jars etc are sat on that could be ducted out to them. Or see Cedd's recent topic about fitting a miniature smoke machine inside a prop.

[sunray]

For halloween we had racks of TT's filled with water and the felt ink block from highlighter pens and a black UV light. Nearby were a series of flasks and threaded in battery powered outdoor LED lights (cheap set from a pound shop of about 12 LED's) filled with water and just enough milk to take away the clear look then set each set to a different sequence and lots of bubbles using washing up liquid, clear plastic tube and a tiny compressor. Effect completed with puffs of smoke and a bass bin running heartbeat and red sound to light, bright enough to defeat the glassware lighting.

 

This was for a group of 20 audience to walk through the scene and in touching distance of props with no other lighting. Our monster was talking/moaning on a table, He was actually laying face down with a jacket back to front and a mask on the back of his head, the Doctor hit the head with something, stopped heartbeat for a moment with a footswitch and when the heartbeat returned the head went rolling across the floor and down some steps into darkness. The monster timed it well to remove the mask and drop his head into a void then wriggled a lot. Audience were then ushered through before they could see too much. Sorry too much waffle.

[cedd]

I've built a Jekyll & Hyde lab desk before (it rose out of the stage on a scissor lift with smoke and bubbling test tubes - got a round of applause every night!) and also have a 2ft square compact lab setup that I built for Addams Family. It might be a bit too shabby for your needs though as it was built to be cobweb covered and has copious weathering - I have a feeling Jekyll is a bit tidier than Grandma Addams!

 

It's possible to get hold of plastic test tubes and conical flasks - they're your first step. Much safer and also easy to drill. I believe mine came from China via Aliexpress.

 

A few things I did;

A wooden test tube stand with 6 or 8 tubes in it. In the base of each slot was a single WS2811 LED doing RGB colour changes or fixed colours depending on what I wanted. Would actually be easier to buy a cheap DMX-WS2811 converter and have them driven off of your desk rather than the Arduino I used and programmed. I then drilled the tubes and passed tiny copper pipes in to them which were all soldered to a manifold which had a small air pump attached. A drop of washing up liquid in the water in the tubes delivered some great overflowing froth from them.

I also built a bunsen burner tripod with a conical flask on it. One of the legs was actually a tube carrying air up in to the flask so it bubbled.

Take a look at my vape based smoke machine topic in The Workshop for an easy method of delivering smoke or do what I did (this was before my vape project) and buy a smoke machine designed for model ships.

Keep in mind if you want to use air that most fish tank pumps are low voltage, but are AC not DC. Again lots of DC pumps available from China.

 

There are of course a number of actual chemical reactions you can do including the Iodine Clock, but you'll have to take great care in risk assessing them, especially as Jekyll drinks one of the potions at the end of This Is The Moment. My preference would always be to stick to controllable LED or air driven effects over real chemicals.

 

It's also possible to get hold of very concentrated food colourings. These might be a good way of delivering the effect. A small drop placed in the bottom of a flask would hardly be noticeable but when water was added it'd instantly turn that colour - might look quite effective. We used it in Barnum for Colours Of My Life and it worked a treat.

[Jivemaster]

any clues from

 

ebay.co.uk/itm/pH-Test-Kit-for-Hydroponics-pH-4-11-Universal-Indicator-Fluid-Liquid-15ml/153131085163

 

Not for human consumption!

[empyfree]

A fizzy vitamin tablet could be a good move for the drinkable potion! Is there such a thing as a benefit assessment rather than a risk assessment?

[cedd]

Found a little video I made of the lab for Addams Family showing the illuminated and bubbling test tubes;

[ojc123]

Found a little video I made of the lab for Addams Family showing the illuminated and bubbling test tubes;

I can confirm that from the punter's viewpoint Grandma Addams 'Laboratory' was quite impressive. Also, I'm in agreement with Cedd and I'd recommend all the physical devices above rather than any of the usual chemical changes. I've used Iodine Clock and thiocyanate with Iron III on stage before but only with a lot of training and absolutely no risk of anyone drinking it. In Jekyll and Hyde there is a risk of the talent drinking it by mistake so I wouldn't entertain it.

[sunray]

Found a little video I made of the lab for Addams Family showing the illuminated and bubbling test tubes

Brilliant job nicely done.

For Jeckle and Hyde the air pipes don't need to be hidden, its supposed to be a lab not a magic machine. In a lab there would be piping, possibly lots of it and curly or throbbing (suspended on string and a motorised crank possibly) always seems to be the fashion.