# Raining on stage, without making much of a mess to the stage



## Jeremytoon

Ok, my school is doing the Musical "Singin' In The Rain." I want to help and find a way to make it rain on the stage without that much water ending up on stage, we have an orchestra pit and do not want water getting in it, since the orchestra will be playing in their of course. I really would like opinions and ideas on how to make this work. But, if their is no way to avoid it, I would like ideas on some good alternatives to rain, I heard rice, or glitter would do, but We are also talking about a hazing machine too. Any ideas would be great, thanks


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## chausman

*NO GLITTER!* 
 
Everyone who is ever in that theater ever again will hate you for it. You will be finding glitter in places you never even knew existed in that theater. Rice _sounds_ just as bad, personally.

Perhaps one of these threads will help.


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## MPowers

Look at this and then ask me questions.

Water on Stage


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## Les

Yeah, I agree. No glitter. It will get sucked in to the air returns, get between the gaps in your stage floor, and when it's all said and done, probably not look like rain at all. You'll keep finding it in drapes, seats... Everywhere. 

A haze machine probably wouldn't do what you want either, unless you change it to "Singing in The Fog". 

You should rent a few gobo rotators. When shuttered right and with the correct gobos, it can create the illusion of rain. If you can find one, a GAM Film/FX (or two) would do you one better.


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## zmb

I think Disney accomplishes the effect with some mylar ribbon, the silver stuff on the inside of chip bags, and tightly focused lighting. The mylar is strectched out vertically where you want rain and then the lighting goes on and off of it.


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## Les

zmb said:


> I think Disney accomplishes the effect with some mylar ribbon, the silver stuff on the inside of chip bags, and tightly focused lighting. The mylar is strectched out vertically where you want rain and then the lighting goes on and off of it.



I was thinking of a similar effect, but couldn't figure out how to describe it. A similar effect can be seen in the movie "Waiting For Guffman" during the song "Bulging River". 

Here's the YouTube link:

Waiting For Guffman - Deleted Scene (BULGING RIVER) - YouTube

Gotta love how the "lightning" bumps to the music. Hah!


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## derekleffew

zmb said:


> I think Disney accomplishes the effect with some mylar ribbon, the silver stuff on the inside of chip bags, and tightly focused lighting. The mylar is stretched out vertically where you want rain and then the lighting goes on and off of it.


Rosco Slit Drape, aka rain curtain.



Roscotex > Fabrics > Fabrics for Decoration > Slit Drape

Rent-able at, among others, Rain Curtain Drapery, Rain Curtains Rentals .


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## gafftaper

How about renting a powerful video projector and doing it with projection? 

Or rent a couple of devices specifically designed to do effects like this such as: a Gam Scene Machine, Gam Film FX, Rosco X-effects, Rosco Infinity,


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## zmb

gafftaper said:


> How about renting a powerful video projector and doing it with projection?


 
Wouldn't the projector need haze to shine through to have rain appear on more than the people or set?



Les said:


> I was thinking of a similar effect, but couldn't figure out how to describe it. A similar effect can be seen in the movie "Waiting For Guffman" during the song "Bulging River".
> 
> Here's the YouTube link:
> 
> Waiting For Guffman - Deleted Scene (BULGING RIVER) - YouTube
> 
> Gotta love how the "lightning" bumps to the music. Hah!


That's the effect I've seen on the Great Movie Ride. Lightning certainly adds a nice touch.


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## chausman

Yes, but it actually looks somewhat convincing on just the people/background etc. That's what they're doing on the Wicked tour. They project onto the backdrop and set. Looks Good. Haze would be cool if you could try to limit it to the stage. Maybe you could use a scrim DS of the action, project onto that, and the projection will shine through to the haze/whatever's US.


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## venuetech

*Do not use Rice* 

*Any food product will attract vermin*


that stuff gets into all the small cracks and out of way places and the BUGS and MICE will feed their familys for generations just from that one show. 

you will not be able to reason with a bug.


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## StewTech

When we did Singin' in the Rain, we used 5 gallons of water. 

It was small enough to haul up to the flyrail, where we had a PVC pipe dead hung. The pipe had several fire sprinklers on pointed up. The water then was pumped into the pipe, and it trickled out. We used very little water to avoid messes. The five gallons of mist lasted us the whole number.

To make it look like rain, we took three large theatrical fans and pointed them in opposite directions at various heights from the deck. They were turned on the lowest setting, and they swirled the water in lovely movements. Lit then with no color pink and light Italian blue the illusion was great. 

After the number, the curtain fell and we turned the fans on high and moped it up.


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