Quick, Low Budget effects

isnet396

New Member
Original Poster
If any of you have ever seen "You Can't Take it With You", the play, not the movie...there's a big fireworks scene towards the end when almost every cast member is on stage, and frantaclly running around. My school needs to reproduce this effect. However, our budget isn't that huge...So far we have "poof", which is smoke in a can...its pretty cool, but not enough. We also have these confetti flicker things, which are cardboard tubes with confetti placed inside and when you flick it with your wrist, it all flies out. ...any suggestions? We also need to reproduce "red fire"...which is basically a red flame instead of a yellowish one.

Please email me at isnet396@optonline.net or just post here if you have any comments....the play is May 10th, and we need it soon!

Ian
 

NowInc

Well-Known Member
Easy and cheap way:::

You will need::

A room fan

Some orange red and yellow fabric..they should be semi-translucent

A light



Cut the fabric into "triangle" shapes..make them about 9-12 inche slong...

Tie or glue them to the fan "cover"...this way..when u turn the fan on, it will make the fabric wave like flames...

place the light under the fire...turn it on..vuala..instant fire...
 

isnet396

New Member
Original Poster
The fire actually has to be set on a table or held by one of the actors...i'm not sure if any of these will work.


Ian
 

DCA Fan

New Member
Pyros will work if the stage has a proper cover (i.e. heat resist plastic). If the fire is handheld, they do have these little "pots" of fire. They basically use the stuff that NowInc explained, just made it smaller. Check local novelty shopsor I think I found it while looking under "theater lighting". Hope this helps.
 

isnet396

New Member
Original Poster
the table isn't too huge...4.5 feet max......the wood floor is laminated, but our scenery is nothing more than canvas over these custom made wood scaffold thingys...

Ian
 

TiggersPooh

Active Member
Oh my GOD our school just did that play!!!! But our school does not give any money to the Drama club so for the red glowing flame we just took a coffee can and put a tap light in it and covered it in red paper!! It looked bad but oh well and this week we are going to perform Romeo and Juliet!!! But it sounds like your props are a hell of a lot better then ours!!!!:cry:
 

NowInc

Well-Known Member
Back in my old high school days (pre 1997)..i was on stage crew (or Stage Kru as we re-deemed it) and we did::

Little shop or horrors
West Side Story
Damn Yankees
10 Little indians
Rocky horror Show (great for high school...oy)

All on a shoestring budget..so if you need annnny advice..just ask...I miss doing that kinda stuff...
 

isnet396

New Member
Original Poster
Originally posted by TiggersPooh
Oh my GOD our school just did that play!!!! But our school does not give any money to the Drama club so for the red glowing flame we just took a coffee can and put a tap light in it and covered it in red paper!! It looked bad but oh well and this week we are going to perform Romeo and Juliet!!! But it sounds like your props are a hell of a lot better then ours!!!!:cry:

Trust me...our school has an extreme low budget...like...negative.

I'm playing Ed...they xylophone-playing-candy-deliveryman....go figure...i was going to get grandpa, but no one could run backstage at the same time... interesting idea....

I managed to write a prog in flash to run all of our sounds from my laptop too....

Ian
 

TiggersPooh

Active Member
yeah we just had one of the "bandos" do the part of Ed ours was so bad!!! But it was a fun play though!! But tomorrow we open Romeo and Juliet and I just got home from like a 13 and a half practice it was soooo bad!!!!!
 

isnet396

New Member
Original Poster
It is...in fact they use it in every POTC...and SE in the burning rome scene..

In DLP, the fire dept. could not tell the difference and actually thought it was a real fire when they were testing it!

Ian
 

isnet396

New Member
Original Poster
Oh, i forgot to mention....the play went off fine...we used a coffee can and put some red flame-like celophane and taped some red flashing light thingy and a fan underneath it....we also had red stagelights to make it look better....


thanks for all your help, guys!


Ian
 

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