# Beauty and the Beast- Enchanted Rose



## gremlin1287

We are going to be doing beauty and the beast for our next musical.
I've been trying to come up with a cheap, effective way that we can make the petals fall off of the rose. Any suggestions?


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## jwl868

I've never seen the stage show, but if the falling of the petals doesn't have to be seen, you could consider swapping out the rose for the petal-less rose during scene changes or blackouts.


Joe


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## vguard420

we jsut did the beast for our musical and we used a little electromagnet rig to make the petals fall... it was jsut a small electric magnet running off 12 volts on the rose and i stip of metal on the petal... our rose flew in so we jsut ran some wire to it and covered it with fake vines and floral tape... when the cue came for the petals to drop a guy on the fly rail killed the power to it and it would fall... to make it look even cooler we loaded the petal with gliter so it would really catch your eye when it fell


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## dvsDave

to possibly elaborate on the electro-magnet idea, perhaps you can hook the power up to a a fader of some sort and slowly decrease power. You also would vary the amount of metal on each petal. The petal with the least metal would fall first while the petal with the most metal falls last. 

also like the glitter idea... I would rim each petal with a dull glitter, just enough to stand out without reflecting so much light that it's obvious that glitter was used. Just an idea, you will definitely have to experiment to get the result you are looking for...

Another idea that just occured to me is, depending on the distance the audience is from the rose, you may want to make the rose a bit larger-than-life. And if you are creating one from scratch, frequently look at it under the stage lighting to make sure that it looks the right shade of red or pink or whatever color you choose.


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## vguard420

i like the fader i idea alot
as for the glitter we really dident have a artform to we jsut used about a half bottle of glitter a show... after it fell there would still be glitter falling making the rose jsut look that much more enchanted...it was so pointlessly awsome

also we did use a rose that was huge ... between taht and the glitter it read really well... even frow way far back in the booth


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## jonhirsh

or you could just use more then one magnet one for every pettle you want to fall. 


just a thought


ps when i did the show we used a projection for the flower just another creative idea


JH


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## c22yossarian

When we did the show we used a clear plastic rod to suspend the rose from below and then we would spin petals off (with the glitter) on other clear plastic rods. You couldn't see any of the rods and it worked really well.


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## gremlin1287

thanx for the enthusiastic response.
vguard420, i was thinking some way to use magnets or electricity. I really like your idea with dvsdave's fader concept.

as for using projection, i thought about it at first, but it would be very costly and still don't think it would look all that real...but feel free to prove me wrong, i welcome any constructive criticism...

again thanx for all the swift replies!!


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## SketchyCroftPpl

Just wonder, all of these making it sound like this thing is huge I mean if your having all this stuff running to it and everything. I've never seen this show, how big is it actually?

~Nick


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## TheatreTechie

Where is a good source for electrical magnets. Im working on a production soon and kinda like the idea for a magnet for each petal.


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## vguard420

well if u have one try your schools electronics lab, science surplus stores are good to. there are probily a crapload of places to get them


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## LDSFX

A good friend of mine was the pyrotechnician for the tour when it was at the Shubert Theater in LA. When this effect came up in conversation, he told me that the unit was actually a small mechanical effect. So, every petal had its own little robotic travel control that would let the petal fall and float on its way to the bottom of the glass. The rose was also filled with fiber optics so that it twinkled. I realize this is way too complicated for your production, but I just thought Id let you know how the pros did it.


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## avkid

the fiber optic part isn't that bad, with a cannalibalized light from your local discounter, a gobo rotator and small par can you can rig some fiber optics for the rose


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## rapscaLLion

The size of the rose in the stage show was about normal size from what I recall, which means it was probably slightly larger to account for the distance the audience sees it from.


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## MHSTech

We did this for our spring musical. 

We had an alcove in the front of a platform that had a door in the back of it. And on the base of this alcove was a test tube to hold the rose. So during blackouts a stagehand just went behind the platform, opened the door and swapped the rose. 

Another option is that you could use magnets to attach the petals and pull them off with fishing line.


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## egorleski

We did this show last year. What we did was bought a few small mechanical claws. we then hid these in the different rose states. the rose hovered above a small table and so we ran the cord for the claw through the stem and into the table. Something that we did to add some flare was that in the table we cut out a circle of the top. We then added some wood under the hole so that there was a little pocket by the rose. (here you must take into accout the proximity of the rose and where the petal will fall) We then made esentialy very small flash pots by placing flash paper and powder in a blood capsul. We drilled a small hole in one end of the capsul to get the nicrome wire into the capsul. The petal fell and hit the table and then seemingly burst into flames. Needless to say it got some "ohhhh's"


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## kingfisher1

Wow! thats really cool!. i'd ooooh that.


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## danl

we lucked out and were able to find these huge roses at this novelty store where we live... we bought four of them so that we could make a series of "dying" roses... the petals and stems were all painted with UV paint, the case was lit with black light... fishing twine and velcro... a little tug... each rose was rigged to lose one petal... they were switched out during scene changes...
http://www.revolutionfreedom.com/design/images/theater_beauty_rose.jpg


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## silvrwolf

What we did in my theater was we used a fake rose (liuke the ones made with wire in them and silk leafs) we then soldered two strips of 120v white leds and taped them along the stem of the rose. We secured the leds with green electrical tape up that blended in with the stem color. Although we didint attempt the pedals falling, we did have the flower under a glass cover which was sitting on a pedastil. The rose was dimmed through a standard wall dimmer.I suppose you could use 12volt leds with some type of rehostat or somthing. 

good luck


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## bboru

Im a stage hand looking for some help in the beauty and the beast play, We are having some time with the rose. 

Any help would be wonderful


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## cdub260

*Re: Brian Boru*

If you could post specific questions about the issues you're having, it would help us to help you. Also, try out the search function, as someone else may already have asked your question.

One final note: Welcome to Controlbooth! Try not to have too much fun in the forums.


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## Ekirkpatrick11

*Re: Brian Boru*

If you are running the rose from Below the stand itself you have a few options, you can you a solenoid type system where u push the rosh petal out a cylinder, this is especially handy id you need more than one petal to fall. You can also use an electromagnet but realize that if your rose is part of a moving platform you have the possibility of the rose petals falling off in set manipulation. If you are running it remotely you can use a remote controlled clamp that simply releases the rose petal when you want it to.. if you need more ideas just let me know ... hope this helped


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## DaveySimps

You can also rent the unit. That is what we ended up doing. It even has some lighting (I think MR16) built into it. It was a nice effect. If you are interested, feel free to PM me, and I will dig up the contact info from where we got it from.

~Dave


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## Brandofhawk

Along the same lines, my high school is doing Beauty, we have the rose suspended in the plasitc tube (rather then glass.. although the plastic was 2 times as much!). The petals are connected with velcro, and have a fishing line attached so that when the time comes the petal is just pulled off by a tech. 
Our director worked in a broadway production of Beauty and said thats how it was done (i think there might have been more to it...) 

I would like a way to control it from the sidelines, any ideas/sugestions of how to? (sometimes you just dont have enough techs)


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## 2mojo2

We just wrapped up Beauty and the Beast at Poolesville High School (Maryland).
One of the many production challenges this show offers is The Rose. I have seen a rental unit a couple of times, but I did not think it all that impressive in view of the cost.
Here is how we built the Rose for about fifty dollars:
Materials
>3/8" soft copper tubing, four feet
>green florist's tape
>fine steel wire, 24 gauge
>large silk roses, one per performance
>large glass flower vase
>single 120volt halogen "puck light"
> table/pedestal/column

-The pedestal was placed on a high fixed section of the set, six feet above stage surface. Our pedestal was on hand, made of PVC plumbing pipe and toilet flanges screwed to plywood rounds. 
-A 2-1/2" inch hole was bored in the top and bottom of the pedestal and the stage platform below.
-A plywood round to match the pedestal top was prepared:
The center was drilled to accept the 3/8" tubing.
A hole was bored next to the center to accept the puck light.
A groove was routed to accept the rim of the glass vase.
A line was scribed between the groove and the hole for the puck light.
The disc was cut along this line with a jig-saw.
The result was a center disc four or five inches in diameter and a donut-shaped ring with groove.
-After painting the visible surfaces, the vase was seated in the groove in plumber's RTV silicone sealant.
-The tubing and the puck light wire were passed through the holes in pedestal and stage platform and the center disc secured with screws.
-The visible copper tubing, about 12", was bent into a naturalistic curve and wrapped in florist tape, incorporating a leaf or two from a silk rose.
-petals were 'sewn' each with a steel wire and arranged in bundles with wire length corresponding to petal location.
The script was marked up for petal drops and a student placed under the stage platform to operate light and rose. As each wire was pulled, a petal fell.

Many thanks to my wonderful graduating Props mistress for her cooperation in building and operating this effect. Go get 'em, Tessa.

Mr. J


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## Grommet

Worked with a high school production for the same show and the rose was just a projection on the side walls.


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## firewater88

We did this show a few years back. The rose was on a pedestal under a glass dome. The trick was using long bicycle brake lines (or similar), one per pedal that you want to fall off. Attach the inner line to a rose petal and somewhere off stage, pull that line and the petal falls off. The bunch of lines going to the rose was wrapped in floral tape (green) and became the stem. It worked very well and the audience loved it.


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## Jescalese

My theater did beauty a few years back, and we rented the set from zfx. they had a cool set where the west wing was a octagon shaped platform that was 6 feet high, and stairs goin up to the table where the rose was under glass. under the platform was a little work room where a stage had was under, to drop the rose and spin the west wing... it spun around 360 dagrees. the table that the rose was on has clear plastic rods that went from the petals that fell, down to the stage hand under it. the stage hand would have the drop the rose, and the butt end of the rod had 2 shelves that it would rest, one that kept the rose up by the bud, and one where it rested after it fell... it looked great, we also had a wireless camera hidden behind a column so stage hand could see how the rose was falling to make it look real


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## JohnHartman

Not to Necropost... however I just want to Thank everyone for the ideas here and in the other "Rose" posts.... 

I was able to pull this together today and felt like sharing..






Don't know if I am keeping the LED uplights and embedding them or losing them all together.

Thanks for the great ideas.


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## 2mojo2

I did something very similar with a single halogen puck light.
The problem I ran into was that the cheaper "silk" roses on the market are actually synthetic fabric.
Under heat, they get sticky and the petals can get welded together.
Real silk won't do this.


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## gafftaper

FYI Hall Associates has a rose that you can rent out.


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## Ankithal

2mojo2 said:


> I did something very similar with a single halogen puck light.
> The problem I ran into was that the cheaper "silk" roses on the market are actually synthetic fabric.
> Under heat, they get sticky and the petals can get welded together.
> Real silk won't do this.


 
What you can do is Buy a Feather Rose so that way you don't have to worry about anything Melting together


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## ResilientRosie

This looks amazing! Thank you for your post. Would you mind clarifying how the petals fall for me though? Is the wire run up the copper tube to the head of the rose? If so, how did the petals fall to the pedestal when the wire was pulled? I'm sorry, I'm a little confused. We're mounting this production soon and I'm trying to figure this effect out. Any further help you can give would be very much appreciated!


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## Plmediatech

Does anyone have a detailed hookup of this or a diagram that I could use to make the rose.


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## chausman

Plmediatech said:


> Does anyone have a detailed hookup of this or a diagram that I could use to make the rose.


 
For which idea? We've mentioned several in this thread. 

Welcome to CB! Also, why don't you take a second and post an introduction over in the New Members Forum!


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## Plmediatech

I was looking for a detailed diagram for the eltromagnetic one. I appreciated it.


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## CulinaryDropout

We just did this show in the spring; this is what we did.

We took a large fake rose and broke it up into petals and weaved florist wire in the middle of the petal. (Make sure you have lots of wire)

Leaving the middle head of the rose (the middle ball of petals) together. Take the woven petals and the rose head and put in a copper tubing wrapped in florist tape. 

The copper tubing is connected to the base. At the bottom of the base we had a red light.

Then to make a petal fall, just pull the wire and a petal will fall.

I drew a quick picture if my explaining is confusing, it is in attachments.

I also added my only photo of our rose, it is pretty cool

we added a few times when a rose petal fell, like when Belle sees it for the 1st time and the end of act one

I hope this helps


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## Teber

We kept it simple. We put it upstage about 8ft high on the 2nd level of the castle. it was always in light and always seen (unless in the village.) We put a glass case around it and lightly hot glued the petals on. We had fishing line run from the base of the petal to underneath the platforms. A crew member just pulled a string when it was to fall and it worked perfectly... simple and cheap


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## gafftaper

Well it's my turn to do B&B at my kids' school. Check out this video of a very clever, cheap, and easy solution to the rose I found.


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## 2mojo2

gremlin1287 said:


> We are going to be doing beauty and the beast for our next musical.
> I've been trying to come up with a cheap, effective way that we can make the petals fall off of the rose. Any suggestions?


Gremlin1287, I wrote some detailed instructions for one inexpensive way to do the enchanted rose a few years ago.
I hope this may help you.
http://www.controlbooth.com/threads/enchanted-rose.12846/


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## gafftaper

I just finished building my rose and I'm so happy with how it turned out. I started out with a base someone else built for another production of Beast. The base is hollow and has a piece of Coroplast on top to allow you to put a light fixture inside and shine it up into the flower. I couldn't find a decent sized "bell jar" to cover the Rose with so I went with a decorative candle/lantern thing. Cost me $30 at Pier 1 Imports. I had to cut the bottom out of it with cutoff wheels on my Dremel, so that light would shine up through it. 



I used the same basic design as "Yourbeekeeper" did in the Youtube video above. I tried to do the multiple layers of caps with the stop in the middle like he did in the video so that the wires don't pull through when you pull them. But he never really showed what he did and I didn't really have the tools or time to figure it out. I tried putting solder on my wire to act as stops but when I attached the outer cap the solder melted off and plugged the whole thing up. I took it back apart and simplified to just the 3/8" OD soft copper tubing shaft with a 1/4" ID cap. Drilled holes in the cap and didn't permanently attach it. Just shoved on for a nice snug fit (the fact that it had been soldered on and then removed probably helps make that fit really nice and tight. It'll take a little longer to reset between shows but not a big deal. I ran 20 gauge wire up the tube. This is what the top looks like with my design. 



I tore apart a $3 silk rose. Wrapped the tubing and cap in floral tape, used the floral tape to attach the branches and leaves from the silk rose, then used the same red 12 gauge solid strand coper wire trick "YourBeeKeeper" used in the youtube video as the stem. Did you know there's a little foam "bud" at the center of a silk rose? I decided to leave it intact so my last "leaf" to fall will be the core bud of the flower. It really makes the rest of the petals form into a beautiful flower. Here's the reconstructed flower close up. I had a really hard time getting all the chinese hot glue off of the petals as I was taking it apart. It shows close up, but not at a distance and the first row will be about 30' from my rose, so I'm not worried. 



Finally here it all is in the stand. When I get the paint touched up and get it in the theater with the light on I'll shoot a video of how it looks when it's working.


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## patrickh

This is a great solution! Can't wait to see the video!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## gafftaper

It worked flawlessly all but one performance. It's critical that you know exactly which wire is which and that you assemble the rose so that the outer petals fall off before the inner ones. In one performance either someone messed with the rose after I set it or I didn't do it right. Not sure what happened. My guy pulled the wire and an inner petal was released but did nothing because it was held in place by an outer petal. I had to make an unscheduled closing of the grand at intermission to reset for act 2. Got it working great the rest of the show. The way the guy built his rose on Youtube would be superior in that you wouldn't have to keep resetting the wires each show and changing the order. Unfortunately, he didn't show how he made the wires stop and I ran out of time trying to figure out how to make a stop that would fit into that tiny rose shaft.

Here's the video of my rose in Action. I put an old 500 watt Altman box zoom inside the base of the pedestal so every time a petal fell the rose lit from inside. Unfortunately it was a little too much for my phone to handle in this close up video. If you live in the Seattle area I'll be happy to sell it to you along with a crazy wood chopping machine.


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## mikewarner

How could we go about building something like this?: http://www.disneyfoodblog.com/wp-co...d-rose-at-Be-Our-Guest-Restaurant-600x450.jpg

It's most likely Pepper's Ghost, but would the glass be concealed within the bell jar?


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## gafftaper

It's a bit of a hijack, but I figure if you are interested in the rose you are probably also interested in Maurice's Wood Chopping Machine Invention. So here's a video of the one my buddy built for our production.


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## Tom Driver

Beauty and the Beast Costumes Just did this show and we used this.


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## Timothy A. Samuelson

gafftaper said:


> Well it's my turn to do B&B at my kids' school. Check out this video of a very clever, cheap, and easy solution to the rose I found.



I did B&B a few months ago. Most technical show I had done yet. (It was a very old theatre that didn't lend to a lot of effects. Plus the board would never approve of some of the effects I wanted to do. It took an act of God for them to let me use a fog machine.) This is the exact video I used to do our rose. I also ran a flood light from inside the pedestal with a red gel that slowly dimmed throughout the show. For the final effect in that little tiny piece, I ran an output from one of my fog machines inside the glass dome and small strobe also in the pedestal that both went on when the rose died. Lots of wires and pipes running into that one piece, but in the end, it was totally worth it!


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## jonliles

Does any one have a lead on either glass or plexi / acrylic bell jars? I need one for the Enchanted Rose I am building for my wife's school. Show goes into tech last week of Feb, so I have a little bit of time.

Happy New Year.


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## microstar

I got a glass one years ago at Hobby Lobby. About 12" tall but big enough for the effect to work fine.


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## jonliles

Went there last night. Our stage is layout makes the smaller domes a little difficult to see. I just ordered a 16" - we'll see how it turns out.


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## dmx

I got this one at Hobby Lobby. Spray painted the base and then added a battery operated led string.


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## KStC

Hello ControlBooth,

Anyone have any idea where I can rent or buy a mechanical rose that is used in beauty and the beast plays?

I have come across a couple site but they either don't have them anymore or they are unresponsive. 

Thanks in advance


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## ruinexplorer

I believe that most of our members have made the prop (there are a couple of threads on the topic). That being said, they may be willing to part with/rent theirs.


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## Chris Stolz

I've done this show so many times that I created an ebook years ago with all of the effects. http://stolzproductions.com/product/the-effects-of-beauty-the-beast/


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## underlingsmprop

Here's what I did: 

We used a show baby attached to some LED tape for each 'petal'. As the show progressed, one 'petal' would stop lighting up in cues. Pretty effective.


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## VOSTech

We decided to do it with a projection:


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