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Roland78 Special user Torino, Italy 567 Posts |
Hi,
I am creating some scene for a concert and I would like to simulate a low smoky fog for a cemetery scene with graves, zombies and all (like in Thriller video by Michael Jackson). The show will be performed live in an open space, not in a theatre, the next summer. Do you have any idea on how can I obtain a low smoke or fog, which does not go higher than dancer's legs and which does not go away too soon in the open air? Dave |
silverking Inner circle 4574 Posts |
Dave, the two methods for low fog are to use dry ice fog, which requires a dry ice machine (like the Le Maitre Pea Souper).
The other method is to use a regular Rosco type fogger, but to add on the chiller module on the front of the fogger. The chiller unit cools the fog which is what keeps it low to the stage. Overall, the dry ice fog is much thicker, but requires at least 10 pounds or so of dry ice per performance. The Rosco with chiller is a thinner fog, but easier to use. There are tank based solutions to this as well, but the cost of the raw materials and the scarcity of the actual equipment pretty much reserve this kind of stage fog for the mega musicals with unlimited budgets. |
TheAmbitiousCard Eternal Order Northern California 13425 Posts |
We got a cheap fogger machine from somewhere for halloween. you poured in some liquid and out came fog. I think my wife picked it up from the price club / costco
www.theambitiouscard.com Hand Crafted Magic
Trophy Husband, Father of the Year Candidate, Chippendale's Dancer applicant, Unofficial World Record Holder. |
muzicman Special user LaCenter, Wa 989 Posts |
Silverking has it right. The dry ice foggers are the best but also very expensive to operate as 10lbs of dry ice for every performance is pretty expensive. The only other method is to use your fogger but run it through a chiller. The low fog stays low because the air is colder. Something needs to chill the air, whether it be dry ice, regular ice, or refridgeration equipment.
I also have a desire for low fog and just picked up a F-1700 Chauvet Pro fogger (15,000 cubic ft per minute). I plan to pipe this into a modified ice box/cooler and just use regular ice. I am not sure how well it would work outside but inside I should get the desired effect on a stage. They make "low fog" juice, does anyone know if it works better than ordinary fog juice? |
Pizzazz Regular user North Carolina 108 Posts |
Hi all,
I was able to take a regular Styrofoam cooler and attach a hose (Plastic or rubber from a hardware store) to the front of my fogger duck tape it tight cut a hole in the cooler just big enough to insert the hose, near the bottom of the cooler. Cut another hole on the opposite side and insert a hose coming out, fill the cooler w/ regular bags of ice tape all of the openings tight and pipe your fog through. It’s very important to get tight seals on everything and to make sure that you have a pipe long enough to be able to sit your fogger up off the ground so if ice melts it wont run back up in your fogger. Hope this helps! Magically Yours, Danny
May all your days be "magic" days
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DavidCaserta New user 81 Posts |
You can rent a dry ice machine for the day. That would be your best bet since you won't be using it all the time. They are pretty costly for a good quality unit.
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hugmagic Inner circle 7655 Posts |
Guys, dry ice is the easiest and cheapest way to go. The fog will hang to floor.
I reworked a unit that the high school had on hand for my son's show choir for "Thriller"segment.. It worked great. Several factors are involved. The temperature of the water, the contact surface of the dry ice to the water and the blower to move the fog out. As for the temperature, just use the hottest water you can. You can also had a heating element. Use a large wire basket with nuggets of dry ice to get the maximum surface contact. A small squirrel cage blowers works great. The easiest way to do this is to use a wet dry vacuum cleaner and add the wire basket. As for expense, the dry ice will run about $8 for 10 pounds. I have worked with dry for many years and it is fasr cheaper than a traditional fogger with a chiller unit to keep the fog low. Richard
Richard E. Hughes, Hughes Magic Inc., 352 N. Prospect St., Ravenna, OH 44266 (330)296-4023
www.hughesmagic.com email-hugmagic@raex.com Write direct as I will be turning off my PM's. |
Roland78 Special user Torino, Italy 567 Posts |
Thanks to everyone, I will let you know what I have decided and how thw show has gone
Bye Roland |
DavidCaserta New user 81 Posts |
Good luck with it. Just remember to rehearse with the dry ice. It does matter how much dry ice you put in and the speed at which you drop them in.
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BondJames628 Regular user Alabama 110 Posts |
I believe this was mentioned in a previous post, building a fog chiller, here is a site that gives you easy instructions on how to build one:
http://www.gotfog.com/fog_machine_chiller.html I use one of these every year at Halloween and get great results! Good luck! |
Roland78 Special user Torino, Italy 567 Posts |
Wow this last link is super! I will try to build it this weekend! Thanks Bond ))
Dave |
NJJ Inner circle 6437 Posts |
I performed at a wedding where they wanted to create this effect for the bridal waltz.
Four waiter crouched on the edge of the dance floor with champagne buckets of dry ice which they waved bits of paper over to make the mist. It was pretty stupid to begin with but got BIZARRE when the buckets started to expand and creak and crack as they couple danced. |
BondJames628 Regular user Alabama 110 Posts |
Have you got it done yet Roland? And if so, how do you like it?
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Frank Simpson Special user SW Montana 883 Posts |
I think the crtical element that has not been discussed enough here is the fact that the gig is to be outdoors. There is no way to be assured the effect will work as desired. In an open-air environment even a slight breeze will cause the fog to behave erratically. It might blow upwards, or blow away entirely. Relative humidity in the air will also affect how well (or poorly) fog forms. Low-lying fog really likes still air.
In a theatre you can reasonably control the atmosphere to where your experiments can provide predictable results. Outdoors you do not have such a luxury. I would suggest that you might try to get some sort of fog effect, but I would not build a routine of any kind that relies upon it. It's just too unpredictable. |
ClintonMagus Inner circle Southwestern Southeast 3997 Posts |
For a church Christmas program I used a 5-gallon paint bucket with a dryer hose attached to a 4-inch hole in the lid. Fill the bucket with boiling water, add the dry ice, slap the lid on, and voila... Fog. You can also put the ice in a wire frying basket to raise and lower the ice to better control fog production.
One warning - it will condense on the stage, so the performers will need to be careful to keep from slipping on the condensation. Amos McCormick
Things are more like they are today than they've ever been before...
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Neil_Brown Regular user England 150 Posts |
Quote:
they teach you how to build great one that can fill a big warehouse with it in under 30 sec Unless the warehouse were cold, you'd do well to keep smoke "low" for long enough to fill a warehouse using just the one machine, I'd have thought, unless you were using a huge low smoke generator. My personal feeling is to avoid using dry ice as an effect, and only use it as a coolant- I feel that it is safer to do this, both from a set-up point of view (no lowering chunks of dry ice into boiling water) and also from the point of view of anyone on stage, especially if anyone has to fall over and lie on the ground for any period of time. Also, dry ice is unreliable - lowering chunks (or pellets if you need more smoke in a quick duration - greater surface area) into water is not really a predictable way of doing things, as opposed to a controlled smoke machine- and unreliability / unpredicatability rarely goes hand in hand with safety (although, of course, risks can be reduced if they are correctly managed). I'd opt for either a normal smoke machine and a dry ice cooler on the front, or else a dedicated low smoke generator (although Rosco's "LSG" product is a couple of thousand pounds, I believe, and is probably more suited to large stadia / touring theatre shows, rather than the "average" magic show. It's got to be "safety first", and I think that a CO2 cooler is safer than using C02 as the effect. |
Silver_Fang Loyal user San Antonio 282 Posts |
I have used low lying fog in my theatre tech class. In fact it was a recent project. If anyone is interested here Is a link to a site that teaches you how to make a cheap fog chiller.
http://www.geocities.com/liemavick/Fogchiller.html |
JAlenS Inner circle Utah 1526 Posts |
THere are now ground foggers available that use regular fog juice. They are more expensive than the old fog machines and you can see one at http://frightcatalog.resultspage.com/sea......w=fogger
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