Stage Directions: Anyone familiar with the musical Crazy For You knows it contains a number of trick props. One particular tricky bit involves a cuckoo clock which “cuckoos” during a scene. A few moments later, a cowboy shoots it and it “explodes." The challenge is to come up with a way that it can not only cuckoo and explode on cue, but for it to be easily reset for the next performance.
3 comments:
It is so true when looking at props and projects in general when dealing with the through process and the actual making of the thing. It can almost always be true when saying that a project will have problems that you may not have considered in the build process even if you have it calculated on your paper. The idea of experimenting with similar concepts before assembling is a great way to go about figuring out your problem. When we do this it makes the process cheaper and gives us a few different ways to look and approach the project at hand while also saving time.
Articles like these are great! I saw a production of this show and it always puzzled me how they were able to do that effect! With such a specialized and 'bastardized' field that we work in, it is essential to share the tips and tricks that we find with everyone else in the community. Progress on!
My high school did this show when I was in eighth grade, and apparently, had a very interesting time creating that clock. In the end, ours fell apart with the pull of a string and I think we copped out and just used a sound effect... but there were many many prototypes. Unfortunately no one had thought to get an Erector Set. I'd love to see how this clock burst apart, the engineering of it sounds really smart.
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