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SFX: Size Doesn't Matter
From flying to fog, make special effects work
for you whatever your stage size
At the Public Theater in New York City, the LAByrinth Theater
Company is staging a production of “Unconditional,” an ensemble
play about racial issues. The play is performed in the round with a maximum
audience of 90. Onstage an angry man torments another by forcing the latter
to stand on a chair with a hangman’s noose around his neck. On the floor
nearby, a Confederate flag burns brightly in a small trash can.
This was no simulated effect: the fire was real—created by mounting a
custom-designed flame tray and a small fog machine inside the trash can. “The
actor and I worked together over the tech process to ensure his understanding
and control over how to safely light it and treat open flame on the stage,”
says Jeremy Chernick, design associate for J&M Special Effects in Brooklyn,
New York.
Whether it’s fire, fog, smoke, or water, crafting eye-popping special
effects is a challenge for any production, large or small. And fitting SFX
into tight or unconventional spaces takes an expert designer who knows where
and how to install tools like fans, strobe lights, and even snow machines.
Effects can be motorized, pneumatically-driven, and computer-controlled; but
in the end, safety and reliability must blend with effective SFX to ensure
that the audience believes in the illusion.
Burning a fire in a trash can wasn’t the only effect J&M created
for “Unconditional.” Chernick also had to simulate the hanging of
a man onstage. “We used a specially built stunt harness and a noose with
hidden support and safety cables hidden inside,” he explains. “A
special one-foot by ten-foot box truss was installed onto the grid, and we
had a highly experienced and trained rigger install all aspects of the effect.”
Clever lighting to redirect the audience’s eye completed the illusion.
Overcoming space limitations
According to SFX designers, careful planning from the outset is critical.
“Often,” says Chernick, “special effects are added into a show
after all other areas have been designed. This makes for a lot of complicated
and ingenious thinking as we often have to work around the set or lighting,
instead of the other way around.”
Sometimes the simple approach to SFX works best. In the spring of 2006, Peter
Wood, a special effects designer from Monrovia, Md., designed the environment
for the gothic puppet-driven drama “Victor Frankenstein,” performed
at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Effects included fire and
chilled fog that raced across the stage. In building the set and effects for
the show, Wood faced a daunting roadblock: the theatre ceiling was only 13
feet high and lacked a fly loft.
In certain scenes, curtains needed to appear in the background to suggest
a window. “Since the theatre wasn’t equipped with a loft, I suggested
we use a motorized system that would roll the curtain up on cue, like an electric
window shade,” recalls Wood. After researching different motors and control
units, “I joked that we should just hack apart one of our DeWalt cordless
drills and use its motor and switch.” This turned out to be the solution
to the problem, as it provided a reliable motor and a variable-speed switch
for controlling the curtain effect.
What if your actors need to float across the stage, as in productions of “Wicked”
and “Peter Pan”? Well-established companies like ZFX Flying Effects
in Louisville, Ky., and Flying By Foy in Las Vegas, Nev., can adapt their
equipment to indoor and outdoor venues and ceilings high or low. “As
long as there is a secure structure to which we can attach our systems,”
says Tracy Nunnally, president of Hall Associates in Dekalb, Ill., “you
can fly.”
In fact, special effects experts say they can make almost anything happen
despite the size or shape of the stage. “The size of the space should
not limit what can be done as long as everyone works together,” says
Chernick.
Finding an alternate solution
For small budgets in small theatres, workarounds are readily available. “There
are easy and cheaper alternatives to many large effects that smaller production
companies may not know about,” says Chernick. “This may mean a healthy
imagination, or a more theatrical choice as opposed to realism, but there
are a lots of possibilities—just ask a professional.”
Using water can be a challenging and sometimes messy endeavor. Doug Adams,
president of Pyrotek Special Effects, Inc., in Las Vegas, Nev., has created
effects for large shows like “Phantom of the Opera,” “Cats,”
and “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” Through another one of his
companies, Aqua Visual FX, Adams provides theatres of all sizes with liquid
effects via connectable modules that create various lengths of water screens.
A surface can be added to project laser graphics and 3-D multimedia images.
“It’s a stand-alone item—a water ‘billboard’ that
drops pixilated water downward as the system creates shapes, lettering and
logos on the water screen,” explains Adams. If a theatre wants to avoid
using real water in a production, Adams recommends using a black sharkstooth
scrim and projecting images on it. “We also create effects on drop curtains,”
he adds.
While small performance spaces require creativity and improvisation on the
part of the SFX designer, sometimes a stage can be too large. During a production
that featured Dr. Seuss musical numbers, “I decided that many scenes
would put a black art environment to good use,” says Wood, “but
our budget wasn’t big enough to bathe the entire stage in ultraviolet
light.” His solution was a black art “window,” approximately
eight feet square, which was cut into the set upstage center. Behind this
archway was a black curtain; the entire frame was lined with fluorescent ultraviolet
lights on the upstage side.
But even in this comparatively generous space, Wood was faced with space restrictions:
“When the script called for the Lorax to fly away, we built a large rolling
rig and covered it in black cloth, which was invisible to the audience. In
this case, the width of the stage was a limitation.”
Challenges, creativity, and improvisation
Programmed effects are even more important in performance spaces that are
small or oddly shaped. Linda Batwin, co-creative director for Batwin + Robin
Productions in New York, uses 3-D drawings of the theatre along with scenic
drawings to get a sense of how the special effects are seen by the audience.
By using these tools, “you also get a sense of scale of the screens and
the movement,” she explains. In addition, her team uses After Effects
animation software to view how the stage movement, set, props, and media work
together.
“Doing a mock-up, either full scale or partial scale, is always the way
to go,” says Batwin. “It really helps you know what will work and
what will not—and then you can go create it.” The production of
“Frank Sinatra: His Voice, His World, His Way” at Radio City Music
Hall included a live 40-piece orchestra, imagery, film footage, and an ensemble
of singers and performers. During the planning stages, Batwin used After Effects
to simulate what the show would look like. “It helps for the director,
scenic designer, and the media designers to be on the same page,” says
Batwin.
Fog machines, a part of the SFX toolbox for decades, can suddenly find themselves
less effective than usual when challenged by newer technology. “Many
newer buildings use a sophisticated smoke detection system that is particle-based,
where sensors in the ductwork detect if many large particles appear in the
air—presumably smoke,” says Wood. This improvement in safety can
wreak havoc on fog machines, especially in smaller venues where the SFX are
closer to the smoke detection system.
As a workaround, Wood uses low-lying and quick-dissipating fog. “Chilled
fog hugs the ground because it's cooler than the room temperature,” he
explains, “so by the time it’s warmed up and is rising near the
air intake, it has dissipated entirely.” Wood also makes sure to use
fog fluid that has been specially formulated to disperse quickly. “I
like these solutions because the fog effect appears just as I had envisioned
it,” says Wood, “but also caters to the limitations of the venue’s
safety systems.”
Safety issues in a small environmentTrained and licensed professionals in
special effects are essential in creating suitable and safe moments for any
sized venue, says Chernick. “Often the most spectacular moments occur
in the smallest of spaces.” Adams agrees: “You have to be aware
of the trim height of the truss or fly galley, for example when you’re
dropping in scenic pieces,” he cautions. “If you’re using pyrotechnics,
you have to make sure no sparks go past the dissipation point.”
Adams points to a special effect his company installed on the stage of the
Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles for the Academy Awards several years ago. With
singers and dancers performing onstage, Adams and his team had to create artificial
falling snow and trigger an automobile to explode during the performance.
The car was just 15 feet from the audience—barely a comfortable minimum,
says Adams. Moreover, lightning-fast scene changes increased the possibility
of an accident. “Any materials you use have to be very quick to dissipate,
with no fallout residue, and very easy to control,” he says.
After rigorous testing in his Las Vegas headquarters, Adams moved the equipment
to Los Angeles, where he reviewed it with the fire marshal. “We work
very closely with the fire marshal,” he says. “We go over everything
with the artist and everyone else onstage before we do it. There’s a
lot of testing and calculations.”
This attention to safety pays off in the long run. “Make sure you are
being safe, legal, and never risking danger,” says Chernick. “I
suggest at least working with a professional as a consultant. Never use flame
or pyrotechnics without a pyrotechnician or an explicit permit from your local
fire department.” In New York City, he says, open-flame permits are required
for lighters, matches and cigarettes.
Squeezing special effects into any size venue is an art as well as a science.
“Everything is possible,” says Chernick, “but time and careful
planning are important.”
To keep the conversation about special
effects going, visit the DramaBiz Magazine forums at www.dramabiz.com/forum.
