2012- Day 38- Pepper's ghost test

Moving peppers ghost test showing actor on the cart being pushed from behind

Finally we finished the lighting and lightproofing and did a rudimentary test. I have a diagram of the set-up below. When people come out of the elevator they will see the amber lit vacuform panel backdrop at which point a spooky blue light turns on to reveal the 'ghost'. This actor will stand on a cart that is pushed by someone behind it. This will create the moving ghost effect. I first tested it with a prop fixed to the top of the cart to see if the projection is right.I then tested it with the help of my 2 sons. Unfortunately they are too tall for the job! However I did see enough to determine that the effect does work. The lighting is appropriate and the view from the elevator will be the correct vantage point. There are the other logistical challenges which include the moving panel that goes right into the ghost chamber. This is intended to be used to change the set when people go into and then come out of the elevator. It will take much practice to get it to work smoothly!

Diagram of the peppers ghost moving set-up

Static peppers ghost illusion showing the amber lit vacuform panel and superimposed on that is the image of the ghoul head prop created by the illusion as illustrated above

2012-Day 46

About 6 1/2 weeks to go. Time is flying! But again, thankfully we have most of the build done from last year. Today we worked on lightproofing the pepper's ghost area. Remember to use FLAT black sheeting, not the shiny stuff! As you may recall we are going to attempt a moving pepper's ghost illusion. We have the cart already built. It has about I would say 6 feet of travel. We have a small area behind the cart for someone to push it forward. See this post for a review. I think the most time consuming part of this was building a track for the cart. You can't just have it slide on concrete between 2 barriers. You actually have to build tracks for the wheels. Once we did that it rolled totally smoothly. You can use regular caster wheels that swivel. This is probably better than fixed wheels because they can still work well if the track is slightly misaligned. The next challenge of course is both timing and lighting. We also need to install sound. I hope to have some images next week of the finished product!

2012- Day 60

School's back in session. Halloween decorations are already out. It's beginning to look a lot like our favorite season again Ghouls! Lots to do this month. We will start on the chandelier this weekend. Pepper's ghost effect will be finally tested, sound installed and the front entrance hall will be renovated. Probably we'll get the web gun out, re-install the air cannon and set up the work zone for the ghouls who will be behind the scenes as it were. What I am hoping is by October, the only things left will be the vortex, exit hall and entrance door. This will give us plenty of time for testing which this set really will need. There are just too many things happening to have it run smoothly without many run throughs!