The Conveyor Belt in Into The Woods
The Conveyor Belt in Into The Woods
#1The Conveyor Belt in Into The Woods
Posted: 4/11/09 at 6:12pm
I was just watching the original production of Into the Woods, and I was reminded of how cool the conveyor belt was. I was wondering, what other shows have used this effect?
I know the original production of Annie did. Any others?
PiraguaGuy2
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/10/08
#2re: The Conveyor Belt in Into The Woods
Posted: 4/11/09 at 6:13pm
Like, the conveyer belt in the stage? Shrek uses something like this. It's sort of a bunch of moving cocentric circles that recreate it.
Formerly SirNotAppearing - Joined 3/08
Updated On: 4/11/09 at 06:13 PM
husk_charmer
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/19/06
#2re: The Conveyor Belt in Into The Woods
Posted: 4/11/09 at 6:16pmIt's technically called a treadmill.
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SDav 10495
Broadway Star Joined: 7/21/06
#3re: The Conveyor Belt in Into The Woods
Posted: 4/11/09 at 8:05pmI remember a similar treadmill being used in the "Music Man" revival.
"If there is going to be a restoration fee, there should also be a Renaissance fee, a Middle Ages fee and a Dark Ages fee. Someone must have men in the back room making up names, euphemisms for profit."
(Emanuel Azenberg)
#4re: The Conveyor Belt in Into The Woods
Posted: 4/11/09 at 8:27pmWhy in the world did they need one for Annie?
#5re: The Conveyor Belt in Into The Woods
Posted: 4/11/09 at 8:29pmI believe the one in Annie was used in the NYC sequence, in order to create the feel of a bustling city.
I am a firm believer in serendipity- all the random pieces coming together in one wonderful moment, when suddenly you see what their purpose was all along.
husk_charmer
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/19/06
#6re: The Conveyor Belt in Into The Woods
Posted: 4/11/09 at 8:32pm
Cats-
that was one of the BIG things about the original. It used it's treadmills to create sweeping, cinematic scene changes and effects. It made the ensemble seem like something out of an old MGM musical.
It was pretty impressive, from what I've seen.
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Jon
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/20/04
#7re: The Conveyor Belt in Into The Woods
Posted: 4/11/09 at 8:37pmThe treadmill is a really OLD stagecraft device. They were common a hudred years ago. Many old opera houses had them permanently built into the stage floor.
#8re: The Conveyor Belt in Into The Woods
Posted: 4/11/09 at 8:39pmI think they have one of some sort in Lion King, given the way the setpieces moved. I really liked the effect.
In my pants, she has burst like the music of angels, the light of the sun! --Marius Pantsmercy
#9re: The Conveyor Belt in Into The Woods
Posted: 4/11/09 at 8:41pmthe revival of SITPWG used it to great effect as well
"Picture "The View," with the wisecracking, sympathetic sweethearts of that ABC television show replaced by a panel of embittered, suffering or enraged Arab women" -the Times review of Black Eyed
dg22894
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/22/08
#11re: The Conveyor Belt in Into The Woods
Posted: 4/11/09 at 8:48pmWicked doesn't have one.
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morosco
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/10/04
#12re: The Conveyor Belt in Into The Woods
Posted: 4/11/09 at 8:50pm
that was one of the BIG things about the original [Annie]. It used it's treadmills to create sweeping, cinematic scene changes and effects.
Agreed. It was one of the coolest sets I've seen on Broadway. Tons of things all moving at the same time in every direction. And what makes it even more interesting is that Annie was before computers automated everything. This was all accomplished by hard working stagehands.
morosco
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/10/04
#13re: The Conveyor Belt in Into The Woods
Posted: 4/11/09 at 11:43pmAspects of Love incorporated treadmills in the set design. Coincidentally both Ann Crumb (Aspects) and Dorothy Loudon (Annie) were seriously injured by the treadmills.
Tag
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/19/05
#14re: The Conveyor Belt in Into The Woods
Posted: 4/12/09 at 2:34amThe Really Useful revival of The Sound of Music (which closed recently in the West End and is playing in Toronto) uses a "conveyor belt". They call it a travelator.
SDav 10495
Broadway Star Joined: 7/21/06
#15re: The Conveyor Belt in Into The Woods
Posted: 4/12/09 at 3:33am
The Really Useful revival of The Sound of Music (which closed recently in the West End and is playing in Toronto) uses a "conveyor belt". They call it a travelator.
Aren't travelators different devices? I know the ramps in "Phantom" that rise and fall at constantly changing angles (to create the effect of descending into the lair) are called travelators.
"If there is going to be a restoration fee, there should also be a Renaissance fee, a Middle Ages fee and a Dark Ages fee. Someone must have men in the back room making up names, euphemisms for profit."
(Emanuel Azenberg)
totheatreguy
Chorus Member Joined: 2/2/09
#16re: The Conveyor Belt in Into The Woods
Posted: 4/12/09 at 3:54am
No, the somewhat ambiguous name "travelator" is generally applied to moving walkways. The Phantom ramp was sometimes referred to as a travelator, but it's a bit of a misnomer since it wasn't actually a conveying mechanism but rather a very cool and dynamic ramp/bridge.
I seem to recall some incarnations of Joseph using one or more travelators/conveyor belts.
Shrek simply uses a triple concentric revolve, which at one point is used in a humorous and "conveyor" like way, but again is not a conveyor belt at all.
LadyDramaturg2
Featured Actor Joined: 8/21/08
#17re: The Conveyor Belt in Into The Woods
Posted: 4/12/09 at 4:22am
It's like a turntable, right?
And Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire (well, Stanley Donen, anyway) liked to use those concentric turntables in some of their grander films -- oooh, I almost said, "movies."
I'm sure no one else is awake.
#18re: The Conveyor Belt in Into The Woods
Posted: 4/12/09 at 7:54pm
I love the use of conveyor belts in Singing in the Rain (the movie). They are used in the Broadway melody part where he goes to New York and a bunch of people glide past on conveyor belts.
I don't think I'm explaining this correctly... Does anyone know what I'm talking about?
#20re: The Conveyor Belt in Into The Woods
Posted: 4/12/09 at 8:20pmActually, Grey Gardens didn't use a conveyor belt. It was more of an empty space that was exposed when the house moved backwards, and when exposed, it slid on set pieces on like, little squares of stage. It acted like a conveyor belt, but I don't think it technically was.
"Sing the words, Patti!!!!" Stephen Sondheim to Patti LuPone.
#21re: The Conveyor Belt in Into The Woods
Posted: 4/12/09 at 9:27pm^you're totally right. I remember now:)
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