TheProff Posted April 23, 2019 Share Posted April 23, 2019 Hi everyone, Ironic that there is a blinder post a couple before this one! I haven't used blinders before, and I would like some guidance on how best to use them. I am designing the lighting for The Barnbow Canaries, and I want them for the munitions factory explosion. The hall is 8.3m wide by 9.8m long and seats about 100. The stage is 800mm up from the hall floor, with a prosc 5.3m wide by 3.7m high and an apron that extends 1m beyond the prosc. Where should I mount the blinders, and how many would I need? I am thinking of hiring LED blinders, because of their faster response to full brightness. Saying that, could I achieve the same effect with just some standard LEDs mounted as blinders? I could then do something with the colours as they fade. Control is standard DMX driven off a laptop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsabre Posted April 23, 2019 Share Posted April 23, 2019 What are you trying to achieve - a realistic explosion look, or something a bit more stylistic to surprise the audience?The nice thing about real blinders is you actually feel heat from them, which you wouldn't get from LEDs. On the other hand they use loads of power which you may not have available. The danger of this is it might look a bit naff if you don't have enough oomph. I am not familiar with the show and how the scene is staged but less might be more, e.g. can you have the "explosion" offstage and shine the blinders across the stage to represent the flash of the explosion. Or maybe do it all in blackout with sound. I have seen a good explosion sequence where they modified the sound after the explosion as if your ears had been damaged - all the HF disappeared and there was a very high pitched tone like ears ringing. It was quite disturbing actually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrV Posted April 23, 2019 Share Posted April 23, 2019 I have seen a good explosion sequence where they modified the sound after the explosion as if your ears had been damaged - all the HF disappeared and there was a very high pitched tone like ears ringing. It was quite disturbing actually. What a brilliant idea! One to pop away in the archives for future reference... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheProff Posted April 28, 2019 Author Share Posted April 28, 2019 What are you trying to achieve - a realistic explosion look, or something a bit more stylistic to surprise the audience?The nice thing about real blinders is you actually feel heat from them, which you wouldn't get from LEDs. On the other hand they use loads of power which you may not have available. The danger of this is it might look a bit naff if you don't have enough oomph. I am not familiar with the show and how the scene is staged but less might be more, e.g. can you have the "explosion" offstage and shine the blinders across the stage to represent the flash of the explosion. Or maybe do it all in blackout with sound. I have seen a good explosion sequence where they modified the sound after the explosion as if your ears had been damaged - all the HF disappeared and there was a very high pitched tone like ears ringing. It was quite disturbing actually. The aim is a classic blinder effect - literally blind the audience for a few seconds, partly to cover the crew setting the explosion aftermath. I am not looking for a lighting effect of an explosion. I like the idea of feeling the heat, though I suspect I haven't got the power available for that! Very good idea about the sound effect, I'll have a go at it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsabre Posted April 28, 2019 Share Posted April 28, 2019 You might be better with a blackout and sound effects as Cedd suggested in your other thread on this. You can't run blinders more than a couple of seconds, the audience will find it very uncomfortable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheProff Posted May 5, 2019 Author Share Posted May 5, 2019 You might be better with a blackout and sound effects as Cedd suggested in your other thread on this. You can't run blinders more than a couple of seconds, the audience will find it very uncomfortable. As I am sure you know, the cue for a blinder is a quick flash, much like the pre-flash of a camera, to make the pupils contract. I was referring to the time it takes for the pupil to dilate again, not the duration of the blinder cue! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheProff Posted May 24, 2019 Author Share Posted May 24, 2019 An update now the blinders are set up. Again, due to budget constraints, I used a couple of LEDj 7Q5's mounted on the front edge of the stage. They seem to be doing the job OK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.