Community Theater Green Room Discussion Board: Making Fireflies

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SavTD
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Topic: Making Fireflies
Posted: 9/05/07 at 12:07pm

Any suggestions for creating fireflies onstage? We're doing a production of Batboy, and would like some happy fireflies during the Pan scene...

Any insight would be much appreciated!

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Laff
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Posted: 9/05/07 at 9:56pm

I'm going to try and help, but it might not be of much help at all haha. If it's dark take long plastic sticks and paint them black and you almost need like a little light at the end so when they wave them around it makes the effect of a firefly. Sorry if that sounded stupid just trying to help.

break a leg!

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Gaafa
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Posted: 9/05/07 at 11:09pm

It's not stupid Laff, you might have something there?
It has possiblities, If a black scrim is used & the crew wave them about upstage , with only wash lighting on the front of the scrim - could work well.
I used something similar for Man of la mancha, during Quixotes 'knights Vigil' scene, before the song 'Knight of the woeful countenace'. I had night sky stars, which was a series of xmas bud lights, set in a constalation of the Northen sky. One of the stars was a maglight on a stick, with the top cap & lens removed. At the appropiate time as his vigil ends, the techie moved the stick light across the sky, as a shooting star - worked great!
Maybe the fireflies could be glow in the dark bubbles?

Joe
Western Gondawandaland
turn right @ Perth.
Hear the light & see the sound.
Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"}
May you always play
to a full house}

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Kathy S
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Posted: 9/06/07 at 12:35am

Or, to expand on Laff's theme, what would happen if you painted the tips of the sticks with a day-glo paint and combined it with a black light?

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SavTD
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Posted: 9/06/07 at 8:42am

Unfortunately, I'm not sure how well we would be able to get away with the sticks... We're working in a small black box theatre in almost a 3/4 thrust sort of situation. The distance from the front row to the back wall of the stage is 16 feet.

But you never know until you try, eh?

Glow in the dark bubbles? Do they make such a thing?

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Gaafa
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Posted: 9/06/07 at 11:18am

Originally posted by SavTD

Glow in the dark bubbles? Do they make such a thing?

Yes apparently for halloween parties!
I don't know much about it, because halloween is really a non event & an also ran, not that popular here.

Joe
Western Gondawandaland
turn right @ Perth.
Hear the light & see the sound.
Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"}
May you always play
to a full house}

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pdavis69
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Posted: 9/07/07 at 4:21pm

Just a quick suggestion, how about laser pointers?

Patrick L. Davis
Fort Findlay Playhouse

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Linda S
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Posted: 9/07/07 at 5:04pm

I like the idea of laser pointers. You would have much more control. The glo-bubbles seemed like they would be hard to control as far as size and numbers. I looked on one the websites for the bubbles and they are really interesting, but I couldn't see them as fireflies.

Linda

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Gaafa
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Posted: 9/07/07 at 9:20pm

Why not fibre optics?

Joe
Western Gondawandaland
turn right @ Perth.
Hear the light & see the sound.
Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"}
May you always play
to a full house}

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eveharrington
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Posted: 9/08/07 at 5:02am

maybe you could get twinkling christmas lights with a black cord and string it up puppet-style to make them "fly"

on the other hand, if they need to catch some of them, then you can get very small glowsticks made to go in tongue and navel jewelry at a body piercing or tattoo parlor and the actors can just discreetly snap them and pop them in the jar

"If nothing else, there's applause... like waves of love pouring over the footlights."

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Lights and Sound
Community Theater Green Room Discussion Board :Producing Theater :Lights and Sound

Topic: Making Fireflies( Topic Closed)
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