Pantomime Giant Hire

[Lew91]

Hi, I've recently joined this group to try and source a pantomime Giant for Fraserburgh Junior Arts Society's Christmas Pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk. However, many companies that I have approached to have one hired, a majority of them have already been hired for the pantomime season.

It would be greatly appreciated if you can help an extremely stressed producer.

Thanks Lewis

[paulears]

Who have you tried, and what kind of budget do you have. We probably do have some suggestion but your answers will really help. Little point us pointing you to something huge heavy and people intensive. Have you considered making one?

[Lew91]

Thanks for your reply. I’ve contacted Imagine Theatre, Jonathan Saville, scenery - build, Glitter Pantomimes, Yvonne arnauld and Qdose entertainment.

[Jivemaster]

Try to decide how big a giant you want from a performance and a storage perspective. If it's not a pro society then look at security of the hired item. I see a lot of good points for a careful DIY job.

Good hire giants may well be part of a whole "panto package" hire that may be very inclusive and very expensive.

[Dave m]

Just use a normal character In a costume but say it's "far away"?

[paulears]

I don't know if they have one available - but Scenic Projects in Lowestoft near me are a good source for amateur productions - 01502 575000

[andrewg112]

Good Morning .... yes here at Scenic Projects we do have something, hes very big and very large. I do have a couple of suggestions though. Looking at your location, transport will be your biggest cost from most places. Drop me an email / PM ....

[Lew91]

Thanks for your comments, even though our society is amateur we are an extremely professional society who takes pride in our productions. Over the past 70 years we have became well known within the North East of Scotland. This is why we are looking to hire a Giant and making one isn’t an option.

 

[paulears]

As a new member you won't know yet that amateur and professional status here is rarely a question of 'quality', but usually it's a serious budget issue. Freight costs for big items nowadays can be many times the hire cost of the item, so location can be a killer.

 

How giant do you need to go?

[Lew91]

The tallest we could probably go is 10ft, our giant we had before was a bit smaller than that.

[kitlane]

Little Wolf Entertainment have got one. It's probably quite similar to the ones from Imagine. However, I suspect it will be in use for their production in Loughborough late November to early January so it depends on what you consider 'Pantomime Season' to be

[Lew91]

Hi,

 

Yeah, they are already using there’s. That was the first company that I went to. Our Pantomime starts on the 16th December - 21st December. Doing 2 shows per evening.

[cedd]

UK Productions have some too. Be warned though, we had their “Giant 1” and it was just too heavy for the guy inside of it to manage. It had an eyelet in the top of the head so in the end we had to attach a line up to a tab track just to allow him to bend his knees when he wanted to transfer some of the weight off of himself.

 

Biggest challenge with these things - they need rehearsing properly. Have the person wearing it in rehearsals early, and spend the extra to hire it for an extra week. If you can get the operator to the hire company beforehand to have a go then do. Then they can be in rehearsals with a reasonable idea what is and isn’t possible with it on.

 

Do you HAVE to see the giant? Scariest Panto Giant I can remember as a kid was the one that we never actually saw!

I’ve always wanted to do a giant with some video projection shot from the giant’s perspective. All with footsteps getting louder and louder - walking up to the theatre, up the stairs the audience used to come in, past a member of front of house team who asks for a ticket before getting “stepped on” and then the booming voice comes over the PA.

[kerry davies]

In my old town there was an incredibly strong group of non-professional actors and performers who were several light years from Am-dram. They were very successful fundraisers with their panto which was jam packed and got rave reviews over ten days. They did Jack and the Beanstalk twice to my knowledge. The one I got involved in had no physical giant which worked really well as Cedd writes. The suggestion of terror and suspension of disbelief is often more effective than all the gore in the world.

 

The one they did after I moved away they hired a holographic projection of a giant which worked really well, they tell me. Now that was a long time ago and technologies have since moved on in leaps and bounds so it might just be worth getting some quotes from some of the FX companies that hire live event laser holograms.