# How do I make a ghost appear?



## Erwin (Aug 31, 2009)

I too am working on a production of Christmas Carol (tis the season) and we are looking for cool/creepy ways for the ghosts to appear onstage. There is already a thread talking about these ghosts 
http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/special-f-x/14916-ghost-effect.html

But what I am looking for are 3-4 different ways for these ghosts to "appear." 

If anyone has any suggestions on how to make a ghost come through a wall, appear from no-where, rise through the ground etc. I am open to all suggestions. 

The set is not yet designed, so if the effect is cool enough, we can work around it. 

Best Regards;


----------



## philhaney (Aug 31, 2009)

Erwin said:


> ... 3-4 different ways for these ghosts to "appear."
> 
> If anyone has any suggestions on how to make a ghost come through a wall, appear from no-where, rise through the ground etc. I am open to all suggestions.
> 
> ...



Well, rise through the ground - the actor comes up through a hole in the deck (this is a platform incorporated into the set) on a lift, or just climbs a ladder. Put stuff around/in front of the hole so the audience can't see it (tombstone or brush, a piece of furniture, a pile of clothes, etc.) You could also do the Austin Powers "I think I'll take the elevator" bit (an actor stands up from behind a sofa making it look like they're coming up in an elevator).

Come through a wall - design a set with a wall like the one in the picture below. You can have the panels in the green outline swing out, or have a panel (that goes almost to the floor) like the one the red arrow is pointing to that swings in (just have the panel overlap the moulding by 1" and put hinges on the back.

Dimly light that section of the set. Have an actor or actors do something on stage to pull focus away from that area. The Stage Crew opens the panel, the ghost steps through, the Stage Crew closes the panel behind the ghost.

There must be no light behind the panel and everything back there must be painted flat black...




Does this help?


----------



## Erwin (Aug 31, 2009)

all suggestions are welcome, but we are looking for something a little creepier. The perfect effect will be one that we watch, not one that we hide. Our director wants to see the ghost enter, so more of an illusion than diversion. 

We will be using a trap door, but our theatre has a balcony, so we need to get creative to hide it or incorporate the door. We are thinking of having the trap door cut in such a way that when we open it, it looks like the floor boards are lifting/breaking upward.


----------



## philhaney (Aug 31, 2009)

Oh, OK. I was going for more of a "how the heck did that ghost get there" they just appeared out of nowhere kind of a thing.

I'll think about it some more and see what I can come up with. Do your ghosts just need to be seen (meaning can they stay in one spot so you can use a Pepper's Ghost effect) or do they enter, move about the set and exit (is there blocking involved)?


----------



## philhaney (Aug 31, 2009)

There's always the "project the ghost appearing on the falling curtain of mist and then the actor steps through" routine.


----------



## shiben (Aug 31, 2009)

A lot of fog or mist might help out a bit... and cover the places where they might show up from...


----------



## mstutzman (Aug 31, 2009)

Even easier than a Peppers Ghost is to project onto glass, window film or a wall of atmosphere (i.e Co2 or Fogger). I believe Le Maitre makes a unit to create a flat atmosperic surface. 

Might be more costly though.


----------



## Van (Aug 31, 2009)

_"As Scrooge touches the Ghost robe the scene dissolves into an Edwardian London Street with people passing by, snow falling....."_

The Above is an actual quote from the stage directions in a script I was once given to design a set for. I looked at the Director and said , " Wow, I think my dissolve machine is broken, could you settle for a fade?"
Some thing are not meant for the stage. We can be real good at illusions, misdirections, and tricks but actually walking through walls is still a bit beyond my capabilities, sorry to disappoint. That being said, I can tell you a few ways we've done some fun stuff with _*Carol *_in the past. I once did a version where the walls were made of Lycra. < this was before my Tricot fascination days> Several flats had Lycra covering and the ghost was able to press up against the wal and stretch the cover which showed really cool contours etc. This same effect was used in the TV version of Carol that had Kelsey Grammer < SP?> Jason Whatshisname from Seinfeld, Jesse Martin, in the Marley scene. Did a fun one once where scroges bed moved to the center of the room and a special focused straight down grew brighter and brighter, Scrooge opened the D.S. curtain to look around and suddenly the Upstage bed curtains flew open and there was Christmas PAst. She had been hiding under the bed, rolled out U.S. as was masked by the curtains, good trick, if I do say so myself.


----------



## Erwin (Aug 31, 2009)

Van said:


> _"As Scrooge touches the Ghost robe the scene dissolves into an Edwardian London Street with people passing by, snow falling....."_
> 
> The Above is an actual quote from the stage directions in a script I was once given to design a set for. I looked at the Director and said , " Wow, I think my dissolve machine is broken, could you settle for a fade?"
> Some thing are not meant for the stage. We can be real good at illusions, misdirections, and tricks but actually walking through walls is still a bit beyond my capabilities, sorry to disappoint. That being said, I can tell you a few ways we've done some fun stuff with _*Carol *_in the past. I once did a version where the walls were made of Lycra. < this was before my Tricot fascination days> Several flats had Lycra covering and the ghost was able to press up against the wal and stretch the cover which showed really cool contours etc. This same effect was used in the TV version of Carol that had Kelsey Grammer < SP?> Jason Whatshisname from Seinfeld, Jesse Martin, in the Marley scene. Did a fun one once where scroges bed moved to the center of the room and a special focused straight down grew brighter and brighter, Scrooge opened the D.S. curtain to look around and suddenly the Upstage bed curtains flew open and there was Christmas PAst. She had been hiding under the bed, rolled out U.S. as was masked by the curtains, good trick, if I do say so myself.



Jason Alexander  We will be using a variation on the lycra thing. Marley's face will appear in the door knocker that way. I can't wait to see that. That will be cool! We are also going to have Marley appear in the bedroom from the bed. We will make the mattress as a box and when scrooge gets out of bed to lock the door, Marley will rise from below the sheets. 

Still need another spooky effect or two though. I know we can't do what Hollywood does, but there are some bright and creative people around here, so I figured I'd ask. 

No room for peppers ghost, but maybe some projection could be in order.


----------



## kiwitechgirl (Aug 31, 2009)

If you get clever with gauzes you can do some trickery - gauzes with a split in them so the "ghost" can appear behind it and then walk through it, which I've seen done to great effect. If you have the budget, a fog curtain could work well - there are commercial units available or get creative with a heavy fogger on the flyfloor and piping - I've done it this way as well! Also, think about diverting the audience's attention - it can be surprisingly easy to make the audience look one way and then when they look back to the other side of the stage, someone has appeared - this can be as simple as flashing blinders so the audience is momentarily unsighted and get the ghost on stage in that moment.


----------



## TimmyP1955 (Sep 7, 2009)

philhaney said:


> Well, rise through the ground - the actor comes up through a hole in the deck (this is a platform incorporated into the set) on a lift, or just climbs a ladder. Put stuff around/in front of the hole so the audience can't see it (tombstone or brush, a piece of furniture, a pile of clothes, etc.) You could also do the Austin Powers "I think I'll take the elevator" bit (an actor stands up from behind a sofa making it look like they're coming up in an elevator).
> 
> Come through a wall - design a set with a wall like the one in the picture below. You can have the panels in the green outline swing out, or have a panel (that goes almost to the floor) like the one the red arrow is pointing to that swings in (just have the panel overlap the moulding by 1" and put hinges on the back.
> 
> ...



Add a fog curtain to this and I think you have it. Better yet if the moving panel is comprised of hollow doors, perforated and cloth covered, with fog injected, so the wall "smokes" before the ghost appears from it.


----------



## rochem (Sep 7, 2009)

A carefully-lit scrim reveal could work here. Maybe build a certain section of the set out of black scrim, and paint it to match the rest of the set. Then when it's time for the ghost to appear, suddenly bump up a toplight on the ghost and it'll look like it's coming from nowhere. If you put your Scrooge right next to where the ghost will appear, this would help draw focus to the area and would look pretty good, since the ghost is appearing inches from Scrooge's face right in front of the audience's eyes. 

Alternatively, a more expensive but more dramatic effect might be achieved using a two-way mirror. I think they do something like this in Wicked, but its been a while since I've seen the show. Have a large armoire or something up against a wall with mirrors on the front and a false back. Before the effect, have the ghost climb into the armoire from the back. Then for the reveal, just bump a few lights within the armoire to full and the ghost's face will suddenly appear where there was previously just a mirror. I've never actually used a two-way mirror in a set, but it might work really well for your situation.


----------



## jrgunn (Sep 7, 2009)

It's been a while since I designed this show, and my solution was low tech, (but hey, low tech is dependable)...I designed Scrooge's fireplace in such a way that, behind the ever-dependable curtain of fog coming down out of the flue and spilling over the grate and hearth, the back opened and Marley walked up steps out of of the grate to stand on the hearth, towering over a grovelling Scrooge. The audience loved it, which is the point of the exercise, of course. 
(The fireplace opening was 5' high at its peak, and the steps up to it allowed the actor to remain completely upright through the transition. Very intimidating).


----------



## theatrepalooza (Apr 3, 2012)

Van said:


> _"As Scrooge touches the Ghost robe the scene dissolves into an Edwardian London Street with people passing by, snow falling....."_
> 
> The Above is an actual quote from the stage directions in a script I was once given to design a set for. I looked at the Director and said , " Wow, I think my dissolve machine is broken, could you settle for a fade?"
> Some thing are not meant for the stage. We can be real good at illusions, misdirections, and tricks but actually walking through walls is still a bit beyond my capabilities, sorry to disappoint. That being said, I can tell you a few ways we've done some fun stuff with _*Carol *_in the past. I once did a version where the walls were made of Lycra. < this was before my Tricot fascination days> Several flats had Lycra covering and the ghost was able to press up against the wal and stretch the cover which showed really cool contours etc. This same effect was used in the TV version of Carol that had Kelsey Grammer < SP?> Jason Whatshisname from Seinfeld, Jesse Martin, in the Marley scene. Did a fun one once where scroges bed moved to the center of the room and a special focused straight down grew brighter and brighter, Scrooge opened the D.S. curtain to look around and suddenly the Upstage bed curtains flew open and there was Christmas PAst. She had been hiding under the bed, rolled out U.S. as was masked by the curtains, good trick, if I do say so myself.



We did the bed trick, too.In the scene change when Scrooge's bed is rolled out to center stage, we had Marley sneak in behind it...easy because we used a fourposter with fanccy damask curtains on all four sides, so the curtains stayed closed in the back. We led into Marley's appearance with eerie green lighting and his voice echoing from the beyond. Scrooge, terrified, jumped into bed, closed the front curtain and waited.....a strong green light from above shot staright down into the bed appeared to the audience to be coming from inside the curtained bed area. While Scrooge was inside with the front curtain closed, Marley climbed through the back and got into position on the bed right next to Scrooge. Then the lights and eerie Marley voice faded into quiet. Scrooge slowly openend the curtain and the reveal of Marley in bed next to him got a vocal gasp from the audience every time...


----------



## will24951 (May 28, 2012)

hi,
I was in the touring production of Scrooge with Tommy Steele, If you have watched the show then you will know about the magical effects but if you haven't i can help you understand.

The first ghost appeared by a special armchair, where the back you lean on, could fold upwards to leave a small gap, the ghost of Christmas past, hides in the compartment all through the scene in scrooges bedroom, one of scrooges possessions flies off his bedside table to land in front of the armchair which is facing towards the audience scrooge gets up and knocks the armchair so that it's solid back is facing the audience, the actress very quickly gets out of the armchair and sits down making sure her head is not seen, once she is ready she presses a button which causes the armchair to spin back around and for a puff of smoke and some sparks to come out by the chair this creates the effect that she has appeared out of thin air.

She disappears by fading through a mirror, the mirror is made of see through glass which is coated with a mirror type metal foil, the ghost turns backwards into the mirror, the glass of the mirror is pulled and the metal foil is removed the ghost walks back through a small gap which is caused when the glass shifts to the one side, as soon as she is out of the way the glass is closed very quickly and the ghost fades away, to conceal the moving glass a curtain partly hides both sides of the mirror but shows enough for you to tell its a mirror.

The second ghost arrival is a lot more simple. make sure that you set for the ghost of Christmas present with the food and wine and holy on is the same size as the left side of your bed, make sure that the right side is orthographically facing the audience and that the left curtain of the four poster bed is closed, but make sure some light can pass through the curtain, when needed make a yellow glow come from the 2nd ghost set piece and get scrooge to open the curtain so that you can see the set.

For the ghost of Christmas presents entrance make sure the bed is orthographically placed so that the front of the bed is at the front of the stage, make sure that you costume is very long and that the arms can spread out,


as shown in the diagram, the whole ghost should really be a puppet with a metal framework for the head and the arms controlled by puppeteer, very near the end scene where scrooge is begging the spirit to stop him from dyeing, he should get no reply, make sure the host doesn't move at all during the next bit. make sure there's a lot of smoke on stage and that it very dark near the back of stage, get the puppeteer to slowly creep back from the ghost and quickly get off stage, make sure the ghosts hands are by it's side to so that no machinery or solid objects are there, make sure its just the hood framework and the grey cloth, when ready get scrooge to grab the ghosts cloak and pull it simultaneously lift the hood framework upwards do it cannot bee seen, this will give the effect that the ghost is made out of nothing but thin air and its really creepy,
hope this helps 
if you want a more thorough explanation and diagrams I can make them for you, if not good luck with the show, or break a leg hehe.


----------



## StewTech (Jun 24, 2012)

Erwin said:


> Jason Alexander  We will be using a variation on the lycra thing. Marley's face will appear in the door knocker that way. I can't wait to see that. That will be cool! We are also going to have Marley appear in the bedroom from the bed. We will make the mattress as a box and when scrooge gets out of bed to lock the door, Marley will rise from below the sheets.
> 
> Still need another spooky effect or two though. I know we can't do what Hollywood does, but there are some bright and creative people around here, so I figured I'd ask.
> 
> No room for peppers ghost, but maybe some projection could be in order.



Depending on the budget, check these out:

Actor In The Box (Props & Decor)
I've seen this used in combo with a trap in the deck to make a ghost magically rise from the ground. 


If you can, I think it would be neat to put Scrooge on this thing:
Exorcist Bed Levitator (Props & Decor)
Not sure how safe it is, but seems like it would be a neat effect.

The version that I was around for made the Ghost of the Present had a wire mesh costume that he wore, similar to the metal framing that ladies used to wear under gowns. I've seen magician use it, and I think it is called an Ozra? All the actor had to do was walk across the stage, and into an open trap door, where he would simply walk down the staircase, and the costume's framing held the costume in place, so that it remained on stage for Scrooge's temper fit thing, and when scrooge went to rip it off, he simply pulled the fabric off the mesh, which was nearly invisible. And as the scene changed, it was simply struck with the current set. Very clever, and very effective.


----------

