Tinker Bells lights

englanddg

One Little Spark...
It's there somewhere.... The follow spots are fair beasts several feet long. Not the sort of thing you can move about easily. I don't know the exact position.
Maybe here?

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englanddg

One Little Spark...
Yeah, I'll bet that's a lighting booth up there on the top of Cosmic Ray's (just where Marni said, of course)...this shows it even better. I wouldn't be surprised if there were some other show controls there as well.

Fantasyland_Full_17123.jpg


Anyhow, done with that digging...off to find Waldo now.
 

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
Cosmic Rays roof also has one of the projection banks on its roof. One might assume the follow spot there was incorporated into the addition, although the projectors are susceptible to vibration that could throw up issues with a combined Tink flight and projection.
 
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Tom

Beta Return
Cosmic Rays roof also has one of the projection banks on its roof. One might assume the follow spot there was incorporated into the addition, although the projectors are susceptible to vibration that could throw up issues with a combined Tink flight and projection.

That raises an interesting question. There are four projector banks for the castle projection show, right? Are they installed on any sort of isolation platform (something with springs or rubber buffers)? There's a lot of natural vibration on commercial building roofs, specifically from HVAC equipment, but also the many exhaust fans they likely have on all their roofs.
 

Tom

Beta Return
OK, I just watched several YouTube videos of Tink's flight. I don't think there are any spotlights on her at all. I think it's JUST her suit of lights, which she flips on herself once away from the castle a bit.

If she were hit by follow spots, it would light up her rigging and even a portion of the cable (no spot operator is THAT good, as to not graze the cable while following something going 5-10mph at an angle).
 

englanddg

One Little Spark...
OK, I just watched several YouTube videos of Tink's flight. I don't think there are any spotlights on her at all. I think it's JUST her suit of lights, which she flips on herself once away from the castle a bit.

If she were hit by follow spots, it would light up her rigging and even a portion of the cable (no spot operator is THAT good, as to not graze the cable while following something going 5-10mph at an angle).
That suit can't be more than 10 years old though...
 

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
OK, I just watched several YouTube videos of Tink's flight. I don't think there are any spotlights on her at all. I think it's JUST her suit of lights, which she flips on herself once away from the castle a bit.
.
Her suit is made of reflective material. It doesn't take a huge amount of light.

For example there's no lights on her head, arms or legs.
 

yensid67

Well-Known Member
They certainly spotlight at Disneyland...



At Disneyland, the rigging is totally different than what WDW has in place. DL has a flying wire type in which they can fly back and forth and up and down, WDW has a straight cable from the Spire to the rooftop above Cosmic Rays. Next time you see Tinks flight in person at WDW, just watch VERY CLOSLY! I have seen it numerous times and never noticed ANY spotlight BEAM from anywhere in the park. MAYBE there are miniature spotlights that are attached to the suit/cable some how that illuminates the parts of her body that aren't lit by lighting!? Dunno, just an idea!
 

Rob562

Well-Known Member
I've definitely seen a spotlight from the area of the Cosmic Ray's/Stitch roof.

I also seem to recall reading on here about a technician saying that the spotlight operators always have to keep the lights off the rigging above Tink.

-Rob
 
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yensid67

Well-Known Member
I've definitely seen a spotlight from the area of the Cosmic Ray's/Stitch roof.

I also seem to recall reading on here about a technician saying that the spotlight operators always have to keep the lights off the rigging above Tink.

-Rob

Just another mystery we will never know the answer! LOL
 

Rob562

Well-Known Member
Just another mystery we will never know the answer! LOL

Actually, the recent IPW convention helps us out with this. Not necessarily the exact locations, but confirming the existence of two followspots.



During the flight (at about 2:30) you can clearly see the beam coming from the roof of Cosmic Ray's in the general vicinity of the castle projectors. The cable above Tink is also clearly being lit up by a spotlight that's shakily following Tink from somewhere behind the camera.

One thing I found odd is that the Castle lights stayed on at the beginning of the flight, since it's usually in darkness to hide Tink's exit from the top. And the spotlights are supposed to be kept off of the cable to help hide the Tink rigging. I wonder if for some reason they decided to "ruin the magic" on purpose that night...

-Rob
 

Sage of Time

Well-Known Member
Actually, the recent IPW convention helps us out with this. Not necessarily the exact locations, but confirming the existence of two followspots.



During the flight (at about 2:30) you can clearly see the beam coming from the roof of Cosmic Ray's in the general vicinity of the castle projectors. The cable above Tink is also clearly being lit up by a spotlight that's shakily following Tink from somewhere behind the camera.

One thing I found odd is that the Castle lights stayed on at the beginning of the flight, since it's usually in darkness to hide Tink's exit from the top. And the spotlights are supposed to be kept off of the cable to help hide the Tink rigging. I wonder if for some reason they decided to "ruin the magic" on purpose that night...

-Rob

I think the exposure of the video is "ruining the magic" not the MK's actions.
 

Prog

Well-Known Member
I've dabbled in theatrical lighting and definitely saw followspots in March. They did a good job of not exposing the rigging but the spot seemed to shake a bit IIRC.
 

Magicart87

No Refunds!
Premium Member
I'm pretty sure the followspots on Tink and Dumbo (Disneyland) is done using UV blacklight spots. They Illuminate the fluorescent materials without casting light onto anything else.
 

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