Your "How do they do that?!" moments- Page 3

[ILoveMyDictionary]

Posted: 8/14/06 at 2:44pm

The Beauty and The Beast transformation, hurt my eyes. Those lights are crazy man.

[Hanna from Hamburg]

Posted: 8/14/06 at 2:46pm

I always was blown away by all the B&W/Color effects in "City of Angels," but particularly the change in the middle of "You Can Always Count On Me." The lights flash off for 2 seconds and when they come back on the entire set has gone from color to B&W, including the actresses costume. AMAZING!

[circusliz]

Posted: 8/14/06 at 2:57pm

The Harry Houdini trick in Ragtime. I saw it a long time ago, but the gist of the trick is that "Houdini" (Jim Corti) was handcuffed/chained/bound and locked in a box which was hauled up in the air over the stage. The box exploded into many pieces. And not a second later "Houdini" appeared in one of the box seats to finish his song. It was amazing. And I still can't quite figure out how they did it. I'm sure there was a trap door under the box through which Jim slipped out, and then I guess he bolted for the box seat? He must have set a land speed record every time.

[maybethistime]

Posted: 8/14/06 at 3:11pm

Didn't see RAGTIME, but I'm betting that somewhere in there, Corti switched with a double who got in the box, fell through the trap door while he went up the box for his entrance. I know I double's used in the witches transformation in INTO THE WOODS, too.

[GoodbyeMyLover]

Posted: 8/14/06 at 3:16pm

Mine was when I saw Beauty and the Beast, and Chip came out on the cart! I was in ah and so was my mom!

[lifeisacabaret]

Posted: 8/14/06 at 3:20pm

Wasnt there some sort of announcement of Lord of the Rings closing early? I could swear there was.

Edit: oops my mistake. It is closing early, but not as early as I had thought. Ok.

Posted: 8/14/06 at 3:22pm

[Dancinqueen123]

Posted: 8/14/06 at 3:27pm

Chip on the cart in BATB is just a slanted mirror. The actor is lying down on the mirror and and only his head is visible. The mirror reflects off the bottom of the cart so it looks like the cart is empty.

[professor]

Posted: 8/14/06 at 3:29pm

Here's an interesting note: 3 different effects that have been mentioned in this thread are the work of one individual.

Jim Steinmeyer was the designer of the beheading effect in The Scarlett Pimpernell, the transformation in BATB, and the witch's transformation in the 2002 Into the Woods.

Jim became well known as Doug Henning's illusion designer back in the 70s/early 80s.

According to his website (see link below), he also worked on Mary Poppins in London.

He's also the author of some fabulous books on magic history, and pretty much a legend in the world of stage magic and illusion.

www.jimsteinmeyer.com

Updated On: 8/14/06 at 03:29 PM

[circusliz]

Posted: 8/14/06 at 3:32pm

maybethistime---

But then where did the double go when the box exploded? All of the box pieces were just dangling from their chains.

[RuprechtJr.]

Posted: 8/14/06 at 4:45pm

I don't know how they did it in Ragtime, but the way it is done by every other magician is like this:
He is put in the box. His assistants are wearing something Unisex. The assistants divert the audience's eyes from the back of the box where the magician escapes wearing a uniform and wig just like an assistant. The assistants run off-stage or away, and the box rises with the dynamite attached to it. When the assistants and the disguised magician go off-stage, the magician runs up to the balcony and takes off the uniform and wig and is in his normal clothing.

Hope I answered your questions. It might have been altered for the production of "Ragtime", since, like I said, I didn't get to see it.

[Days of Inspiration]

Posted: 8/15/06 at 3:37pm

The Car in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Sigh.

[BDrischBDemented]

Posted: 8/15/06 at 3:51pm

So, um, who wants to explain to me how the Phantom disappears from his chair and leaves the cloth outline...I'm sure I will smack myself once I hear how it's done.

[Days of Inspiration]

Posted: 8/15/06 at 3:57pm

^Through the back of the chair. edit: The Chair is supposed to turn around under the sheet.

What's great is when the chair doesn't work.
Updated On: 8/15/06 at 03:57 PM

[BDrischBDemented]

Posted: 8/15/06 at 4:05pm

Okay, I guess my question is how does the cloth keep the outline then? Unless like he somehow leaves in the split second when Meg pulls up the cape?

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 8/15/06 at 4:12pm

It's a wire.

http://www.phantomoftheopera.com/modules/icontent/index.php?page=2

[latheatrelover]

Posted: 8/15/06 at 4:13pm

It's actually an old magic trick. You can see a number of magicians will use it on TV specials. It is a special chair, but I really am not allowed to tell you how it works or how the effect of the outline is there because I have been an amateur magician. (Actually it upsets me a bit to see people explaining it here.) When I went backstage at Phantom one time, the chair was covered and a warning sign on it not to touch.

[latheatrelover]

Posted: 8/15/06 at 4:15pm

The most recent "How does she do that?!" moment for me was Megan Sikora's dance in the Kansasland number of "Curtains". It's got to be strain on the neck!

[americanboy99]

Posted: 8/15/06 at 4:46pm

The witch's broom when it levitates during "Defying Gravity" baffles me. I read an explanation, but it didn't make sense to me.

[Mythus]

Posted: 8/15/06 at 4:55pm

Americanboy, it's on a wire. They dangle it around a bit and then whoever's playing Elphaba detaches it.

[thejcm]

Posted: 8/15/06 at 4:59pm

Mythus: I believe that's only for the touring/Chicago productions. I think on Broadway, someone in the pit has it attached to some sort of rod and makes it rise from the pit.

[dramaparoxysm23]

Posted: 8/15/06 at 5:02pm

"chopping off the body parts in spamalot" - singingshowgirl

[I could be wrong, but this is what I gather from watching it.]
For the Black Knight's arms, the first one is already a false arm which is most likely held on from the inside and then dropped when the sword hits it. During the fight, the second arm is quickly tucked inside the costume and again, the false one is chopped off. The legs are simply put through holes at the knee and fake legs are "cut" off.
Bors's head is just a helmet on top of the actor's real head.

Sorry if that didn't make much sense - I'm trying to explain it the best I can.

Updated On: 8/15/06 at 05:02 PM

[Mythus]

Posted: 8/16/06 at 1:43am

Also re: the chopping of limbs...the arms are essentially fake. Whoever is playing Galahad/the Black Knight/et cetera has his arms inside the hollow, "fake" arms so he can swordfight with Arthur. Seconds before the first arm is chopped off, Arthur and the Black Knight come to a sort of standstill, where they both seem to be struggling to overpower the other. This allows the actor to remove his arm from inside the fake arm and for Arthur to lop it off. The same for the other arm, except the Black Knight "loses" his sword before Arthur chops his other arm off - because if he still had it when he pulled his arm out of the fake arm, the grip on the sword (I assume there are gloves attached to the ends of the fake arms) would be nonexistant and it would inexplicably fall from the Black Knight's hand. Hence the loss of the sword. And all it takes from Arthur is a tap on the fake arm to have it disengage.

For the legs, Arthur backs the Black Knight up against the wooden sort-of barn doors in the back of the set. It also helps that this area is easily obscured by shadow due to the surrounded forest set. As the Black Knight is forced at swordpoint against the wall, there's a sudden, brief interruption (I don't want to ruin the joke for anyone, but it disposes of the leftover arms, if you were wondering about those). This allows for the actor playing the Black Knight to remove his legs from the fake legs/casings. The lower half of his body actually goes back through the wall, hidden by what I'd assume is a door of sorts. If you actually watch that part - not the convenient distraction, but the actors in the background, you can see that the actor playing the Black Knight is sort of pulled back against the wall. There might be someone helping him into place, but at the very least that's him preparing to step out of the costume and half-behind the fake door.

Arthur swipes the sword across the Black Knight's legs. The Black Knight taunts that Arthur missed him...and then his legs fall off. If you watch very closely, it appears as though someone is pushing them (and I imagine someone would have to be, seeing as how they can't quite fall on their own). And then the wall and the actor playing the Black Knight are shrouded in darkness and (I'm guessing) pulled back and offstage.

When I saw the tour, Bradley Dean's (he was the Black Knight, et cetera) left leg casing actually fell off before his arms were even chopped off. I was very, very worried as to how they would handle that, and they pretty much just pretended it never happened (and the leg was disposed of along with the arms during the distraction). When the focus shifted back to the Black Knight against the wall after the distraction, he just had one leg instead of two. It was a bit disconcerting, though, because there was just a leg-shaped thing lying onstage for quite a bit.

And that's what I've gathered from watching it, haha.

Updated On: 8/16/06 at 01:43 AM

[Radioactiveduck]

Posted: 8/16/06 at 2:15am

The craziest thing I ever saw was during Dracula. When he first bites Jonathan, and then BAM, he's got a different wig on, and his old age makeup seems to be just melting away. It was absolutely baffling.

The "Defying Gravity brooms work 2 different ways. The tour uses a wire. On Broadway though, the handle of the broomstick istself has a hollow section at the bottom. Then it's inserted onto a pole, which you dont see, cuz the bristles of the broom cover it up. When its needed, they just raise the pole, and turn on the smoke machine.

[gumbo2]

Posted: 8/16/06 at 3:01am

I just saw Mary Poppins in London and some of those effects were incredible. Like her pulling things out of her bag, I mean I'm sure its just like a trap door, but they pull stuff out of it when it's on the floor and then move it to a table and pull stuff out of it from there, too. But the craziest one was Mary Poppins takes out a sheet and shakes it out and puts it down and BAM there is a bed underneath it. It's hard to describe...does anyone know what I'm talking about or how that works?