# Atomic Bomb



## thelightingmancan (Dec 10, 2007)

Our school is producing a play called Chinese Wall, and we need to create an atomic bomb explosion simulation. My director wants the auditorium to shake and possibly flashes of light. We have a high powered strobe light that will light the entire house, and we would love wind and heat, but those are extras. Any suggestions on fairly inexpensive meathods of doing this.


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## Footer (Dec 10, 2007)

Go rent waiting for Gufman, and don't do that for starters. 

Got any subs, whats your soundsystem light? As far as heat goes, that could be a hard one to do safely.


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## Grog12 (Dec 10, 2007)

Footer4321 said:


> Go rent waiting for Gufman, and don't do that for starters.
> Got any subs, whats your soundsystem light? As far as heat goes, that could be a hard one to do safely.



Yeah we just did Cherry Orchard that ended in an "Atomic Bomb" (no seriously...) and the sound system shook the room pretty **** well...that with a few high powered strobes should do the trick.


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## Van (Dec 10, 2007)

I was out playing "aggressor" witht the National Guard once when a Tactical Nuclear Simulator, was exploded, about half a mile away. You can't do that onstage.
Crank the subs and flash the strobes, sounds good to me. Maybe a bank of "Audience blinders", ACL's and the like hidden around the set would help too.


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## avkid (Dec 10, 2007)

Hire in a dual 18 sub or two and crank it to eleven, should do the trick.


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## cvanp (Dec 10, 2007)

Footer4321 said:


> Go rent waiting for Gufman, and don't do that for starters.



"This whole idea of 'in your face theatre' really affected them. The conceptualization, the whole abstraction, the obtuseness, of this production to me was what was interesting. I wanted the audience to feel... the heat, from the fire, the fear, because people don't like fire 'poked, poked' in their noses. You know, when you get a cinder from barbecue right on the edge of your nose and you kind of make that little face; that's not a good thing. I wanted to have the sense memory of that.

So during the show, I had someone burn newspapers and send it through the vents in the theatre. Well, they freaked out. Course the fire marshal came over, and they shut us down for a couple of days."

Sorry. I love Guffman, and when you mentioned that, I had to post.


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## thelightingmancan (Dec 10, 2007)

We have strobe stuff, and we need some subwoofers to add, which we might put inside the front of our stage. We build a ten foot addition onto the front of the stage, and it is hollow, with 1/4 inch plywood on the front, so that might really get the room shaking, since it would spread along the wood. As far as heat, we were thinking adding heat lamps facing the audience, which would give off some infrared heat, giving a light sensation. He still wants wind though, so we are thinking an air cannon or something along those lines.


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## avkid (Dec 10, 2007)

thelightingmancan said:


> As far as heat, we were thinking adding heat lamps facing the audience, which would give off some infrared heat, giving a light sensation.


Do you have any idea how big those things would have to be?
I would go with portable industrial heaters and a very large fan.


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## soundlight (Dec 10, 2007)

Yeah, you want a couple very high power strobes, and some big subs. Rent a show-sized ButtKicker and a high-power power amp if you have the budget to. That'll do the trick. And you want to go with the portable industrial heaters as mentioned if you even do heat. I wouldn't reccomend it, but if the director really wants it, make **** sure that those things are safe. And for wind, get the 48" blade construction fans that are used for worksites to provide airflow in large indoor workspaces. Your local construction products rental company might have some.


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## avkid (Dec 10, 2007)

soundlight said:


> Rent a show-sizedButtKicker and a high-power power amp if you have the budget to.


Umm..what?
Those things are for one person.

As for the subs, I can find out what's in your area if you send me a message.


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## soundlight (Dec 10, 2007)

I've seen the ButtKicker LFE used to induce shaking in the floor when full powered. But you'd need a few of them. You might also look in to down-firing subs, we use a single 18" powered down-firing subwoofer to great effect.


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## thelightingmancan (Dec 10, 2007)

it needs to be a jet of air, and a blast of heat, not constant. That is why I was thinking infrared, you just feel a warm sensation for a second or two


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## Footer (Dec 10, 2007)

thelightingmancan said:


> it needs to be a jet of air, and a blast of heat, not constant. That is why I was thinking infrared, you just feel a warm sensation for a second or two



Just don't go getting the kerosene heaters for construction sites, those things are really just a jet engine without the fans.


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## thelightingmancan (Dec 10, 2007)

no burning, we have tight pyro regulations, and one of our teachers is the president of the fire and rescue squad, so we would be in double trouble. I have untill the beginning of February to figure this out, so I thankfully have time to think it through.


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## bobgaggle (Dec 10, 2007)

considering the fact that an atomic explosion is one giant fire ball, why would you have strobes going? That would remind me of lightning more than an explosion. I would go with Van with the audience blinders...flood the whole space with as much light as possible as fast as your dimmers allow, then fade out at the mushroom cloud rises. Maybe a quick blackout right before the explosion...to get an idea of what I'm talking about, go watch The Fountain.

And what about confetti cannons without the confetti? I know there's a lot of air moving through those things, and since you're rocking the house with some massive subs, the noise might go unnoticed. I don't know about the heat though.

I'm coming to see this show... are you guys in Cappies?


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## thelightingmancan (Dec 11, 2007)

No, we are not with Cappies, but I might start now, thanks for mentioning it to me. When is your show, I want to see it.


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## icewolf08 (Dec 12, 2007)

If you are really creative you can find the resonance frequency of the auditorium, reproduce that with your sound system, and the whole place will shake! Just don't shake down the building.

Atmospheric effects like heat and wind won't really be effective unless you can get the effect through the entire house, which you probably don't have the budget for. That and the fact that if you blast the audience with air, they won't be too happy. Audience blinders and sound will probably do really well.


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## Logos (Dec 12, 2007)

In the seventies a film called "Earthquake" I think toured the world. In selected venues it had "sensurround sound" they used subs and tuned them to the space. It was a factor of very loud sound and subsonic harmonics but it scared the hell out of me.


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## icewolf08 (Dec 12, 2007)

Well actually....

Never used it in a show, but I did a of of sound work in school, my focus was lighting AND sound. A couple of my friends and I were testing some of the old equipment we had unearthed, and in sweeping some frequencies we did hit some that made parts of the theatre resonate in a perceptible fashion. It borders on the realm of psycho-acoustics.


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## wolf825 (Dec 12, 2007)

if you want to shake the foundation..Servo-drive subs can't be beat...


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## gafftaper (Dec 12, 2007)

Logos said:


> In the seventies a film called "Earthquake" I think toured the world. In selected venues it had "sensurround sound" they used subs and tuned them to the space. It was a factor of very loud sound and subsonic harmonics but it scared the hell out of me.



When I was about 7 the original Star Wars opened in this big down town theater with a monster screen the largest overall area in town (three times the size of the mall screens today), 70mm projection, the theater had a dome ceiling and Dad and I sat right in the center so all sound reflections were collected and focused on us and the place had been upgraded for the sensurround Earthquake. I'm telling you when those star destroyers flew overhead at the start of the film you thought the whole theater was going to shake apart. I've seen the movie 50 times since then, but nothing compares to that old theater.


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## Van (Dec 12, 2007)

Look at this link;

http://www.mcrel.org/whelmers/whelm01.asp

This is a design for an "Air Cannon" they have been used to do lots of interesting things. If you could scale this design up and incorporate a few into your set you might get an interesting result. The nice thing about them is, the way they are engineered, they don't move the air fast, they simply "shape" it into a donut which rolls out the front of the cannon through the air. Firing something like a compressed air cannon, or confetti cannon, directly at an audience is strictly verboten, too many chances of sending projectiles along which the air. Air cannons, however work on the HVLP principle, they move a large mass of air and low velocity. Much safe and possibly more effective in the long run. 

They're also simple to build and fun to play with.


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## propmonkey (Dec 12, 2007)

i remember seeing a large garabage can with the bottom cut out and a rubber top that you would pull back and would "shoot" air at a wall of cards. i also know there are handheld versions of the same thing. ive seen around at various stores.

i would think having a dozen pars from an electric or some other locations pointed evenly at the house would cause a little heat and provide the blinding light.

make sure you give fair warning of all the effects you will use as to not startle young children and ederly.


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## avkid (Dec 12, 2007)

propmonkey said:


> i remember seeing a large garabage can with the bottom cut out and a rubber top that you would pull back and would "shoot" air at a wall of cards. i also know there are handheld versions of the same thing. ive seen around at various stores.


http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/warfare/60b6/


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## thelightingmancan (Dec 12, 2007)

We tried the resonant frequency thing, and we couldn't quite get it, and our building engineer walked in and told us to stop because our building is 50 years old.


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## thelightingmancan (Dec 12, 2007)

We post plenty of warnings about effects, almost excessively


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## Hughesie (Dec 13, 2007)

simple some subs and a freq sweep audio file you made in the shade

just starting it right at the bottem it will scare the devil out of your audience


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## RedmonwantsEOS (Dec 14, 2007)

David, whenever you and I figure this out, its gonna be amazing. BTW, the play isn't until March.


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## thelightingmancan (Dec 15, 2007)

We should be prepared early so we can fix any problems


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## Van (Dec 15, 2007)

thelightingmancan said:


> We should be prepared early so we can fix any problems


Better words were never spoken!!!!!!
I've finally, after 4 years of begging, gotten our directors to start talking with designers way in advance of show. Proper prep time is ESSENTIAL especially in show dealing with a lot of effects. Constructing scale replicas and testing of effects in advance is crucial to a smooth production. Good on ya.


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