johnathanriddle Posted March 24, 2011 Posted March 24, 2011 Here is my Phantom of the Opera Halloween setup, consisting of 2 ctb16pc controllers, a rising chandelier, 125 electric candles, four fog machines, 2000 feet of wire, and lots of other goodies.Here is the first video, Sorry about parts of the recording, I lost my good one Here is the behind the scenes/making of it.
Ron Amedee Posted March 24, 2011 Posted March 24, 2011 I love the behind the scene's footage !!! Everyone always wants to know how we do what we do !!! You answered most everyones questions with the video. Thanks for posting NICE JOB JOHNATHAN !!
johnathanriddle Posted March 24, 2011 Author Posted March 24, 2011 Thanks! I use to have more videos into the exact construction of every piece of it, but like I said, I lost the files. I Started working on the concepts and props back in August, simply because I built like 90% of it by hand because I'm a poor college student. lol.
khawes Posted March 24, 2011 Posted March 24, 2011 very impressive, I've had "overture" on my list for Halloween this year for a while now, still haven't started. work on it.
johnathanriddle Posted March 24, 2011 Author Posted March 24, 2011 Lol, nice! I really wish I would have had more time to finish it up, I was planning on adding an organ and putting lights on it to make it look like it was playing, but I ran out of time and money. lol.
Guest guest Posted March 25, 2011 Posted March 25, 2011 Pretty cool there Jonathan! Great work with a small amount of channels! Looks like a lot more than 32 channels, very impressive use of channels, the candles, candalabras and chandelier!Both videoes were great. Enjoyed your Behind the Mask video as well that explained everything too. That should even help out some of the newbies here to LOR to understand what's possible to do with it.BTW: Where did you get your manican from? And just how difficult was it to rewire the chandelier?I have one I use, usually just with flicker bulbs, but really love the idea you had of the rewire to use it with LOR! And may want to tackle that as a future project for my Halloween displays as well.
johnathanriddle Posted March 25, 2011 Author Posted March 25, 2011 Thanks! I acquired the mannequin from my uncle so ya... Actually it was headless and I just bought a Styrofoam head, painted it, add some hair and a hat and there you go.As for the chandelier, it wasn't that hard, It was just a matter of disassembling it and drilling a few new holes for more wire. It consisted of 6 channels, the key is you can't use to much wire, simply because you are limited on space. I made it look like more channels because one light on every tier of the chandelier was on one of the channels. Most people would think 6 channels would mean 12 wires going into it (6 positive, 6 negative). However if you look at your LOR Board the only wire that is actually switched is the black wire (negative), the white (positive) is is a constant. So what I did was run seven wires down the middle of it, 6 for the black wires, and 1 for the white. Then I only had one extension cord coming out the the LOR unit that had both the positive and negative wires. The other five were all just negative wires.Does that make sense? If not I might be able to draw a schematic or something.
Guest guest Posted March 25, 2011 Posted March 25, 2011 Yes, it makes perfect sense to me. But then I grew up in a family of electronic engineers nd technicians, locomotive engineers and certified licensed electricians. So I understand exactly what you did. I thought that may have been what you had done, but wanted to check, as you may have a newer way to accomplish that. And we're always looking for easier ways, but still safe, to do things like that. Wish I still had that old dress-maker dummy my mother made me toss out in the trash when I was still a young whipper-snapper (around the age of 16), I used to dress it up as a dfferent monster or some such every Halloween. Sure could use it now. Ah well, what can ya do? LOLI'll be on the lookout for some manicans for incorporation into my show. I'd buy one or more new, but geez, those things are EXPEN$IVE! Keep hoping I could find one or more for sale at a garage sale or thrift store (if they're willing to sell it/them, that is!)
johnathanriddle Posted March 25, 2011 Author Posted March 25, 2011 Yes they are! I have to order them all the time with one of my jobs and some can run up to a grand. You might consider stopping by some Department stores and see if they have any old ones they are wanting to get rid of for either free or for cheap. I know sometimes we will donate them to schools or get rid of some broken/old ones if the person gives say like $50 to a charity, but that's just my store, and were nice. lol. Also, they make vacuum form ones as well, you can hang them from a post or something, then stuff the arms and legs, its a cheap alternative.
Guest guest Posted March 25, 2011 Posted March 25, 2011 I figure if I'm going to spend a grand on a NON-ANIMATED dummy, I may as well bump it up and go for one of those setups that have several audio-animatronic ones that could be programmed and used with a LOR Controller.I actually have 2, 5' animatronic skeletons I bought at different times from Wal-Mart, sing and dance, ones has been gutted of it's circuit board because it started becoming very erratic and non-functional. So I may see what I can do with that one.Still has the motors to open/close the mouth and light the LED eyes up, so maybe I can do modify him for a new project. I didn't even think about these guys until I went to storage and seen them sitting stacked on top of each other in their boxes in a corner. Another DUH-UH moment I guess. ROFLGot so much stuff, sometimes I just forget what I do have. Got it all listed somewhere on one of these computers, but recalling what I called or where I put the file, now that's another matter. Hoo Boy! LOL
johnathanriddle Posted March 25, 2011 Author Posted March 25, 2011 Lol, I know how that goes! I collect random stuff throughout the year but when I need it God knows where it is.Anamatronics would be sweet. I haven't done used any before but I'm thinking about using some for Christmas this year. I want to make a band (guitars drums, singer, and keyboard) and have anematrinics act like they are playing along with lights and stuff as the notes are hit. In addition the lights around the yard and house would be changing too. Sort of like they are controlling it. Its just a thought, but as with most of mine they turn out much more elaborate than I first intended. My phantom of the opera was just intended to be a rising chandelier and a few candles, well, we all see how that turned out. lol.
dkoehler42 Posted June 11, 2011 Posted June 11, 2011 That was absolutely wicked! I liked the chandelier rising!
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