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Godspell
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My group is doing Godspell in October. This time I decided to go out for the show and made the main cast, so as a person who normally does the lights, video work, special effects and helps develop sets, I'm trying to get alot of things done early since I will have songs and a script to learn. So with that I have a question that is a little more on the tech and special effects side of things.For the beginning of show I want to create what looks like something crashing into the back of the stage, we have a huge screen that comes down behind the stage. Well, at impact, not only do I want the video to have the effect of smoke, which is not an issue, but I want a good size puff of smoke to come off the back of the stage and maybe a few pieces of paper to look like it damaged something, just for effect. As a group we have 2 smoke machines, but they don't throw smoke fast enough to create this effect and make it look right. We don't have a whole lot of room to work with, the stage is only 16' by 16' and don't want to spend a fortune on something. We also couldn't really use pirotechnics, too close to the audience and during Halloween, while doing a Haunted theatre, in this theatre, our smoke machines set the fire alarm off. I am open to any ideas, whether it just be ideas that you thought of or already proven ideas that you may have done once before.Thanks for all the help.
3 Answers
I'm going to second the suggestion to use your smoke machine into some kind of container(s)--bags or large boxes that can be quickly collapsed. When our community theater did BRIGADOON, we ran the smoke machine onstage with the curtain closed before the second act--if we started too early, the smoke collected behind the curtain and a wall of fog collapsed toward the audience when the act curtain was opened.