Wizard of Oz cyclone how-to
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Topic: Wizard of Oz cyclone how-to
Posted By: peacock
Subject: Wizard of Oz cyclone how-to
Date Posted: 3/03/09 at 8:00am
| I am considering Wizard of Oz for our next production. Any low-tech ideas for the cyclone scene. Our theater has basic tech, but nothing fancy. I could use dancers, but what would be most effective? |
Replies:
Posted By: vickifrank
Date Posted: 3/03/09 at 8:26am
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An idea that I've always wanted to do was to combine a black and white rear projection of Kansas on a scrim with a shadow projection of a fan mounted silk scarf. As the twirling slik scarf is moved closer to the light source it grows as a tornado, as it moves further from the light source it shrinks. So the fan mounted silk scarf is handled as a 'puppet' off stage either using the rear projector as the light source, or using a second light source.
Of course you could also use a video rear projection of live action tornado scene. ------------- _____________ http://www.studio-productions-inc.com 1-800-359-2964 The theater scrim people |
Posted By: imamember
Date Posted: 3/03/09 at 9:27am
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HAHAHAHA, When I was in high school we used lights sort of fading in and out fairly fast, a tympani drum and Dorothy's house spun on it's axis. The house was built to be completely folded (have all four sides) and then unfold wen you wanted to see inside. Two crew members would fold it up, Dorothy would enter from it's door. From within we had handles on opposite sides that we pushed in a circle with the lights and drum sound. The lights then went completely out and we slid the witches feet outside of it from underneath and pulled em back in at the appropriate time. It was all really low tech, but I was proud as I came up with nearly all of our "special effects". |
Posted By: MartyW
Date Posted: 3/03/09 at 10:03am
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I have done it twice, the first time we just had our house (which was on a four by eight platform, and spun it around and around across the stage. While that was happening, we had flash strobes and our mirror ball going, as well as High volume storm noise... when the house settles in its new position the back side is showing which is a broken down version of the front side. On this version we had compartments in the house that stage crew were "in" so they turned it without being seen... This last time we uped the anti a little.. We did it on the High School stage, used all the same lighting and the spining house and noise.. The difference was we did the "bedroom" portion of the scene.. after the house crossed, a bedroom unit (4x8) with a bed and window crossed to center and stopped in front of a hole in the rear set wall where a high lume projector hooked up to a dvd player, played the "sequence" as it was in the movie... The kids went around town and filmed all the stuff, two guys in a boat, rocking chair lady, and the witch on a bike then broom... Our tech class did most of the work. as that played through a scrim window, dorothy watched and pitched.... then it went off and lights came up on munchkin land with the wrecked house... Sounds like a lot, but it really wasnt and looked real cool on our stage. ------------- Marty W "Till next we trod the boards.." |
Posted By: David McCall
Date Posted: 3/03/09 at 12:44pm
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Last summer we pretty much did the bl inky lights and loud noise thing.
The venue has a nice projector and motorized screen. I had suggested that we do the open and close of the show as a straight Black and White video production. It would give the kids some video experience along with theatre.
I thought it would be a shock for the audience to come in and see that it was just a movie, then open up to the brightly colored Oz set.
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Posted By: MartyW
Date Posted: 3/03/09 at 1:05pm
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Interesting David.. We "did" the opening in black and white all the way up to munchkin land, just like the move. Kansas was all painted in whites, blacks and grays, the costumes were the same, including Dorothy's checkered dress.. after the bedroom cross, she jumped off and quick changed into a blue check.. and walked out the back door of the house into all the color...
The only thing we couldnt do much about was hair color and skin tone, but the audince apreciated the nod to the movie..
------------- Marty W "Till next we trod the boards.." |
Posted By: MartyW
Date Posted: 3/03/09 at 1:07pm
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p.s. As I'm doing this show again this summer in a new venue, I hope this topic stays active awhile. I would love to hear how all the different angles/fx's have been accomplished in other productions. As I'm on a thrust this time with no fly and no wing, I'm looking for ideas!!! ------------- Marty W "Till next we trod the boards.." |
Posted By: David McCall
Date Posted: 3/03/09 at 1:24pm
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We did use video for Oz the great and mighty.
I used a black storage bin with a face sized hole for Oz to put his face up to. The bin was mounted at his head height then there was a camera on a tripod (I was using the projector that came with the venue and it was setup for a big screen. by careful framing I was able to get the face to land in m circular screen).
There is a link at the bottom of this page that has pictures from our production.
http://techshop.net/Theater/Venues/melrosetech/index.html - http://techshop.net/Theater/Venues/melrosetech/index.html
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Posted By: MartyW
Date Posted: 3/03/09 at 2:24pm
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Very nice David.. Great looking set
We did a projection for the face too, but ours was less realistic. We did a guy up in green with a green mask and makeup... he basically waved his arms and made faces, moved his mouth.. and we hoped for it to sinc with the lines.. As it had a fog machine feeding from below and had the projector pointing almost straight up from the base of the wagon it was mounted on, it gave a really cool, really distorted view.. our favorite projection was the crystal ball in the witches castle..
We used the projector again and one kids doing the aunt em and the other doing the witch, and the kids did a little morph magic in the computer lab to transistion.. Then we projected this out through a hole in the wall that had our library globe stand in front of it. instead of the globe it had a king size mostly clear ballon in it.. the combination was amazing even from the cheap seats.. I'm just disapointed I wont be able to use some of those tricks in the next show.. ------------- Marty W "Till next we trod the boards.." |
Posted By: David McCall
Date Posted: 3/03/09 at 2:47pm
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Thanks for the compliment.
I teched the show, but we rented the house, drop, trees and the wagon.
I personally did the witches castle, Oz gate, wizard, and lighting.
Actually, the biggest thing was the documentation of the venue :-)
They cut the 5 week rental in half in exchange.
David
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Posted By: Spectrum
Date Posted: 3/04/09 at 6:18pm
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I have never done it, but I have often thought it would be impressive to create a very LARGE image of the face of the actor playing the Wizard (in real time) via a video camera (hidden with the Wizard), hooked up to a projector, and projecting his face onto a column (or cloud) of fog on the stage. His voice could be amplified and maybe even altered, but it would sync perfectly with what the audience sees on stage. I would think it would mimic what they did in the movie pretty well. To maybe improve the look, the part of the Wizard (PRE live appearance on stage) could be recorded and projected onto the fog cloud, but the timing and reactions to dialogue from Dorothy and the other characters would not be live and may suffer a bit as a result.
Just a thought.  ------------- Growing old is mandatory. Growing up is optional. |
Posted By: mcplayers
Date Posted: 3/21/09 at 1:20pm
| New to the board but it is great to see ideas popping. Did the show two years ago and had 600 per night! Was Awesome. We spun the house wagon in strob lights. Elementrary but it worked...had kids in cow costumes etc running around and the witch came out. Wish I would have thought of the projection thing for the wizard! |