Fun
FAQs & Helpful Hints
Doin'
It Automagically
I've
noticed something over the past few years about people who do annual
Halloween displays. It's this whatever they do this year, they'll
feel compelled to go "one better" the next. Maybe you
know somebody like this, maybe you are somebody like this. If so,
I have one word for you for this year's display automation.
Automation adds a "professional" look to any display.
For Halloween displays in particular, automation can mean the difference
between terrifying and merely spooky. An example seems to be called
for here:
Imagine yourself as a trick-o-treater out on Halloween. As you approach
the next house, you hear some spooky music and see a glowing skull
next to the walk, a creepy witch standing near the porch, some fake
tombstones and a strobe light flashing away near the door. Creepy,
yeah, but then you notice that the skull is really a plastic trick-o-treat
pail with a blacklight bulb inside of it. The "witch"
is really just a coat rack with a hat and cloak, and those tombstones
are the same ones you saw a few houses down. You might have fun
playing in the strobe light while you grab a few handfuls of candy,
but it's really not such a scary place.
Now, imagine the exact same display with one addition, the Automator.
As you come up the walk you hear the creepy music, but it's almost
pitch black. Suddenly there's a flash of light to your left! Is
that a...human skull?! Before you can fully register what it was,
the light is gone and now there's someone standing next to the porch.
She's pointing at something, and as you get closer to her she vanishes
and you see that she was pointing at some tombstones. You cautiously
make your way onto the porch when all the lights go out again! In
the slow motion of a strobe light you see the door to the house
opening. You grab what candy you can and run for your life! When
you get to the sidewalk and look back, the house is completely dark
again, waiting for its next victim.
What's the difference? By showing only one part of the display at
a time, and displaying them for only a few seconds (or less) each,
the display becomes considerably more frightening. The reasoning
behind this goes back to a lesson learned by the directors of "creature
features" in the 1950's. When you're working on a budget, and
your monster has a few visible seams and zippers, it's better to
give the audience a quick glimpse and let their imaginations do
some of the work for you. That glowing skull is frightening when
you have just enough time to realize that it's a skull, it's considerably
less frightening when you have enough time to also determine that
it's a trick-o-treat pail.
The beauty of the Automator, as opposed to a simple timer set-up,
is that it can be set to either "repeat" or "remote
go" modes. In repeat mode, the unit starts at channel one and
moves in sequence through to channel four and then goes back to
channel one. This continues until you stop the sequence by pressing
the "stop" button. Repeat mode would be good for displays
where the order in which the items are seen or activated doesn't
really matter. For example, consider a yard display in which a light
illuminated some tombstones, then a blacklit glowing ghost appeared
under a tree, and then a strobe light lit the whole scene. For such
a display, the order in which the items appear is not essential;
passersby would simply watch until the sequence began to repeat
and then continue on their way.
The real magic starts in remote go mode. With this option, you can
wire a remote switch to the Automator, allowing you to control when
the effects begin. The switch could be something as simple as a
pushbutton operated by a person watching the sidewalk for the next
"victim" or a pressure mat or "electric eye"
that starts the show whenever somebody passes by a certain spot.
In this mode, the repeat function is usually left off. That way,
once all the effects have completed, the unit resets and waits for
the next "go" signal. Controlling the action in this way
makes the display more effective, because the show doesn't start
until the audience is in the right spot.
Will an automated display make you the George Romero or Wes Craven
of your neighborhood? Maybe, maybe not. The real frights begin when
you use your imagination with the props, costumes and tools at hand.
The Automator is simply that, a tool that can help you create a
show that's definitely "one better" than last year.
*********************************************
Theatre Effects Customer Service Department
service@theatrefx.com
www.theatrefx.com
Theatre Effects, 642 Frederick St., Hagerstown, MD 21740
Phone: 1-800-791-7646 or 301-791-7646 Fax: 301-791-7719 *********************************************
Copyright Notice - no portion of this article may
be reproduced without written permission. You may place a link to
this page on your website provided you do not hide it within a frame
or window.
|
