Magic Carpet
Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Producing Theater
Forum Name: Set Design and Construction
Forum Discription: Post your questions or suggestions about designing or building a set here.
URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1851
Printed Date: 11/23/24 at 6:06pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 8.05 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Magic Carpet
Posted By: bravokid
Subject: Magic Carpet
Date Posted: 5/15/06 at 12:16am
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hey everyone, question for you - I'm designing Disney's Aladdin Jr. sets and props ... how could I use an electric scooter to portray the "magic" carpet? does this seem feasible? ideas? thanks |
Replies:
Posted By: Gaafa
Date Posted: 5/15/06 at 1:57am
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A rather novel idea! Hope you have a heap of insurance coverage - if you can get it? Even with adults any motorised vehicle on stage is a major worry! Numbats joy riding won?t help either! I think I?d go for rear projection as a safer option!  ------------- 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} |
Posted By: Joan54
Date Posted: 5/15/06 at 7:55am
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What about faking a flying carpet like a hobby horse? Have you seen plays where someone is pretending to ride a horse and the horse's body is actually attached to the actor at the waist and the horse's legs are fake? Maybe you could make a stiff carpet....fake the crossed legs on top of it (stuffed pants sitting cross-legged) and the actor's legs in black below. Might be easier to work with. I can't imagine how to make a scooter look like a carpet and the stages we work on are always so small.....do you have enough room in the wings for this? We had a "flying machine" in a play once and built a big tube with very short wings....stuck the actors legs through the bottom of it...it was hilarious..particularly because the "flying machine" shook and rattled and threatened to fall apart in every performance and they had lines like" keep pedaling Pip!" Anyways....good luck with your carpet. ------------- "behind a thin wall of logic panic is waiting to stampede" |
Posted By: bravokid
Date Posted: 5/16/06 at 2:27am
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hummm thanks for the input... I guess I should have mentioned that I'm in a small theatre and that my cast will be elementry through highschool...Gaffa - what exactly do you mean by a back projection? I also though of just using a platform with wheels but using black light to add to the magic... that and maybe some low lying fog might dothe trick -
just ignore the electric scooter idea... just something that sounded better on paper I guess |
Posted By: Gaafa
Date Posted: 5/16/06 at 5:49am
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There is a number of ways you can do back projection & your school might even have a lot of the equipment on hand. Possibly the easiest way is by using a scrim & projecting a computer generated cloud images, via a mirror on to the up stage side of the scrim. The mirror will reflect & increase the image throw up to 5:1. This is especially good for reduced back stage space. It takes a bit of messing about to get find the optimum mirror position. There are projectors available that can be hired to achieve this easily these days. But it will work with just an old static slide projector or computer printed on a Milar transparency used with a ?Selecon Pacific? profile theatre lamp on a Turtle from the ?Z? lighting position. Because the scrim is back lit with the image, you can still use Black Light for the down stage carpet area. Also if you can?t get a cloud image effect gear, you could still pump smoke upstage of the scrim & side light it as the smoke rises - with Black Light downstage! ------------- 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} |
Posted By: Shatcher
Date Posted: 5/16/06 at 11:12am
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I like the low lying fog idea. If you made your platform and painted the legs ect black then paint the edge of the "carpet" with the black light paint, pump the fog out right under it it should look like it is floating on a cloud. the rest is up th the actors. good luck!!! |
Posted By: Topper
Date Posted: 5/16/06 at 12:43pm
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Perhaps you could build your magic carpet on a low platform that is outfitted with casters (properly lubricated to keep them silent). Add extra-long fringe to all the edges of the carpet to conceal the wheels. This apparatus could be pulled across the stage by cables. The fringe will flutter as the carpet moves. Adding a low fog of dry ice covering the stage would add to the illusion. If you're feeling really ambitious you could build the platform at a slight rake (one edge a couple inches higher than the other). This would tilt the platform towards the audience so they could see the pattern of the carpet. Also, when the carpet turns, the rake will give the illusion of the flying carpet "banking" into a wide turn, like an airplane. ------------- "None of us really grow up. All we ever do is learn how to behave in public." -- Keith Johnstone |
Posted By: Karin
Date Posted: 12/28/06 at 8:54am
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Our middle school performed Alladin last year. We cast an exceptional dancer as the magic carpet and had her do a breathtaking lyrical dance!
It was amazing!
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