Leota back to the Table and Ballroom Question

[JustInTime]

Love the idea of the whole table floating. I'm also okay with the head floating.

 

[marni1971]

That sounds cool. You say originally--did they change that?

Sorry, no. It's been like that since 1992.

 

[Magicart87]

Not to mention that when it was designed, the entire scene was staged around the fact that the ball is on the table. When you enter, the chair is turned away from you and you hear a voice and can see that there's a crystal ball on the table. You assume that the voice is coming from a fortune teller sitting in the chair. You're not meant to realize that the voice is coming from inside the ball until you make your way around the table and see her from the front. By making her fly, you instantly see her the moment you enter the room and all of the brilliant WED-era staging is wasted.

Yep. The entire gag is ruined when guests see Leota right at the start of entering the room. It's supposed to be a slow burn reveal allowing guests to take in the scene, hear Leota, wonders where the voice is coming from and then finally see her in the ball as she begins conjuring spirits that materialize nearing your exit from the Seance room. The reveal and show-pacing was lost with the floating ball upgrade.

I do like the idea of grounding Leota on the table and instead have the entire table sway, wobble and hover in-place. Now that would be a more impressive and accurate floating effect. Not to mention it's a well known effect employed by Spiritualist charlatans of that era so it has precedences comparable to the floating instruments gag. Yep. I'd be OK with a floating table so long as the staging and story plays out as originally intended.

 

[Jones14]

I'm definitely a fan of floating Leota vs. tabled Leota. I understand the initial thinking behind its staging, but it's one of those changes that I think the original designers would've implemented had the technology existed to make it work effectively back then.

 

[Magicart87]

I'm definitely a fan of floating Leota vs. tabled Leota. I understand the initial thinking behind its staging, but it's one of those changes that I think the original designers would've implemented had the technology existed to make it work effectively back then.

Well it appears Marc wanted everything to float. lol And Imagineers at the time, some of whom being stagehands and magicians probably had the desire or knowledge to make the ball levitate. It's highly probable although I can't find reference to it. Even "back then" it could have been accomplished using "black art", wires or other suspensions from behind or below. One could argue that the designers realized the staging was more important or they wanted to add it but were pressed for time or many number of infinite factors. Personally, I question the effect we now have and wonder if it would be more accurate to what Marc illustrated were we gifted with a floating table instead... or a floating cat!

 

[Jones14]

Well it appears Marc wanted everything to float. lol And Imagineers at the time, some of whom stagehands and magicians probably had the desire or knowledge to make the ball levitate. It's probable although I can't find reference to it. Even "back then" it could have been accomplished using "black art", wires or suspensions from behind or below. Though one could argue that the designers realized the staging was more important, they were pressed for time, they didn't want to add it or many number of infinite factors. I do however question the effect we now have and wonder if it would be more accurate to what Marc illustrated had we instead got a floating table, or better yet a floating cat!

I know the main issue with Leota was getting the projection to work properly in the first place, and I don't think they even attempted to make her float during the initial design/build phase. Like you said, there's probably an infinite number of factors that led to her ending up on the table, but for me it's definitely a scene that's more interesting with her in the air.