“Inside the Box”

Team 7 Report

“Super Friends”

Written by Adam Segaller

Engineered by David Ogburn Directed by Lacey Kohlmoos Remington Below Minsoo Park Stage Managed by Laurie Geigel Patrick Lee Rogers Whittle

ENGR-162, Section 16

Professor Marshall

December 13, 2004

ENGR-162: Special Effect Project

Team 7 Report

Table of Contents Outline…………………………………………………………………………………………… 2 Project Overview………………………………………………………………………………… 4 Project Requirements…………………………………………………………………………….. 5 Play Summary……………………………………………………………………………………. 7 Balloon Effect……………………………………………………………………………………. 8 Headlight Effect………………………………………………………………………………… 12 Thunder Effect………………………………………………………………………………….. 18 Flag Effect………………………………………………………………………………………. 22 Hubcap Effect…………………………………………………………………………………... 27 Control Panel…………………………………………………………………………………… 33 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………… 34 Appendix A: Form R…………………………………………………………………………... 36 Appendix B: Procedure for Setting up…………………………………………………………..37 Appendix C: Total Inventory and Price List…………………………………………………… 38 Appendix D: Schematics……………………………………………………………………...... 39

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Outline

A. Project Overview B. Project Requirements C. Play Summary D. Balloon Effect

a) Purpose b) Specifications c) Initial Design Concepts d) Final Design Concepts e) Procedures f) Safety g) Pictures h) Drawing i) Specific Parts Inventory

E. Headlight Effect a) Purpose b) Specifications c) Initial Design Concepts d) Final Design Concepts e) Procedures f) Safety g) Pictures h) Drawing i) Specific Parts Inventory

F. Thunder Effect a) Purpose b) Initial Design Concepts c) Final Design Concepts d) Procedures e) Safety f) Pictures g) Drawing h) Specific Parts Inventory

G. Flag Effect a) Purpose b) Specifications c) Initial Design Concepts d) Final Design Concepts e) Procedures f) Safety g) Pictures h) Drawing i) Specific Parts Inventory

H. Hubcap Effect a) Purpose

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b) Specifications c) Initial Design Concepts d) Final Design Concepts e) Procedures f) Safety g) Pictures h) Drawing i) Specific Parts Inventory

I. Control Panel J. Conclusion K. Form R L. Set up/Take Down Procedures M. Total Inventory and Price List N. Schematics

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Project Overview The ENGR-162- Special Effect Project is a cooperative learning experience between the University of Virginia Drama Department and the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. In the cooperative project, drama students enrolled in DRAM 372 will compose a scene or short play that is no longer than ten minutes. This play will then be overseen by one director and one stage manager. Both will be students and enrolled in DRAM 351. The plays will incorporate two to four student actors. The Engineering School connection to the plays is the special effects. The student in ENGR-162 section will be divided into groups of four to five that will create five special effects for the play that adhere to specific guidelines. The required special effects are a balloon popping, an object falling, a light moving across an actor’s face, a flying effect, and a weather effect. Three of these effects will be written into the original script written by the playwright. The remaining two effects will be put in the play by the director. It is the job of the ENGR-162 student to communicate with their drama counterparts in order to effectively understand the ideas and ways in which the drama students desire to incorporate the effects into the play. It is the job of drama student to effectively communicate with the engineers to understand the technical and material limitations that the ENGR-162 students face. With hard work and excellent communication, the engineering students and the drams students will perform the plays on December 9th and 10th at the Helms Theatre. On the engineering side, this cooperative learning experience is a semester-long design projects that will enrich the student with hands-on knowledge of what a real engineering project is like. Students will learn effective methods of communication with clients and the utmost importance of this communication. The students will create design concept reports, client’s needs reports, progress reports, and present prototype special effects to the class. After communicating, designing, and prototyping the ENGR-162 students will build their final special effects.

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Project Requirements These final special effects must meet certain performance requirements set by the excellent ENGR-162 professor and TA. The special effects must be controlled from over twenty feet away from the acting space. They can be controlled using electricity or human power. Power receptacles for both standard 12VDC and 120VAC are available to the students. To meet the requirement of being twenty feet away, students can run wire from the effects or us a pull-string or other human powered contraption to control the special effect. The power will be supplied through the grid system. The grid is used to facilitate the development of the special effects and to provide a base-line infrastructure. The grid consists of a ten foot by ten foot by ten foot cube made from EMT conduit. The four vertical conduits are supported by speaker stands. The electrical power receptacles are mounted to the grid structure. The ENGR-162 groups will also have to adhere to financial and safety regulations. The groups will not be able to spend more than one-hundred fifty dollars on the effects. One hundred dollars of this money is provided by the Engineering School. After this one-hundred dollars allotment is gone, the groups are allowed to spend fifty dollars out of their own pockets. Additionally, the special effects must be approved for safety by the TA and the professor. Each effect must be safe and not endanger the livelihood of the actors, crew members, and the audience. The Grid (in theory)

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(in real life)

Electrical Receptacle Mounted to Grid

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Play Summary “Super Friends” begins with a tire popping and sounds effects of screeching tires. The lights come up and we see Commission Rodnick walking onto the stage. He calls AAA to get roadside assistance but does not get anywhere with them because his membership has expired. While pacing and thinking a light from a passing car flashes across his face. He then dials his Super Friends to see if they can give him a ride to his anniversary party, which he is very late for.

After the light pass across his face, the Commissioner pulls a bright green cell phone from his coat pocket. He dials his superhero friend, the Emerald Gecko. After a frustrating dialogue with the Emerald Gecko, the Commissioner hangs up. To make things worse, it begins to thunderstorm.

The Commissioner produces a bright yellow phone with black stripes. He dials and gets the answering machine for the Honey Bee. After leaving a message, the Commissioner hangs up and pulls out a gold phone. He dials and begins speaking to GoldNerd. The conversation sounds promising as GoldNerd finds the Commissioner’s position and agrees to give him a ride. Before GoldNerd leaves to pick up the Commissioner, he must solve a riddle. Commissioner Rodnick cannot solve the riddle and therefore, does not get a ride.

Once he hangs up, the Commissioner begins to hear a French voice in his head. It is the voice of Psychic Frenchman who predicted the future and knew the Rodnick would ask for help. The conversation does not help Rodnick so he turns to his final option. He pulls an old-fashioned red phone receiver out of his coat pocket and calls the President. The President over-reacts and threatens to declare war. The Commissioner talks him out of this, but the President sends the superhero Federal Bureaucrat to the aid of Rodnick. The presence of Federal Bureaucrat is announced by American Flags falling from the sky, right before walks onto stage with his parachute in his hand. Federal Bureaucrat is dressed in a red skintight spandex suite. He and the Rodnick talk about his car breaking down, and Federal Bureaucrat jumps to the conclusion that terrorists sabotaged the car. He proceeds to run off stage and hurl the car into the atmosphere. The audience hears the sounds of crunching metal and then sees a hubcap roll across the stage. The Commissioner picks the hubcap up and walks to his anniversary party.

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Balloon Effect Purpose

The play, Super Friends, has a gloomy mood, focused on the protagonist’s misery, throughout the entire play. At the beginning of the play, the Commissioner’s misery starts with having a car accident that would bring continuous bad luck. And, the balloon popping would foreshadow the sound of having a flat tire to depict a car accident. Since it was not possible or efficient to produce a physical car accident in front of audience, the sound effect was a very good way of conveying the playwright’s meaning efficiently. As one of the assigned five special effects, the balloon popping was perfectly suited for the play. By resembling the sound of a car accident, the special effect gave the motive to start the play.

As soon as the players settle down on the stage, the balloon popping effect alarmed audience

the start of play. As always the start is important, the success of this effect would be responsible for the success of play itself.

Specifications

• The effect should be safe. • The effect should have simplicity and accuracy. • The effect should have a way of containing the remains of popped balloons. • The effect should have enough volume to alarm the audience. • The effect should resemble the tire popping sound. • The effect should be hidden or camouflaged from the audience.

Initial Concept Designs

For the balloon popping effect, our initial concept design was almost as same as our final one. As expecting other effects more complex and time-consuming, we thought that simplicity is one of our priory concerns for the effect; as everybody tends to think a way of popping a balloon, we first thought about the balloon popping that if something sharp gets in touch with a balloon with a little force, it pops. Also, learning the basic knowledge of a solenoid by using electricity in ENGR-162 workshop class, we decided that the movement of solenoid by electricity should be the force that pushes or carries needles or pins to pop a balloon on right timing. As long as we need sharp things to pop a balloon, we figured that having a container would be good for fixation of a balloon and a solenoid to keep certain distance before activating the solenoid. Still, making a simple and accurate hardware is not easy. We took time to deliberate and experiment what kind of container we should use and what kind of solenoid we should pick. Final Concept Designs

Our final decision was primarily based on the initial one. As the dead line comes, we just got more specific about the materials that we were going to use in play. The final decision was that we should use a milk crate as container and a door-lock solenoid as pushing-needles mechanism. After assembling it, we found out that the milk crate was not too big to fix the position of a balloon to keep the certain distance in the range of the solenoid connected with

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needles. Consequently, we use cardboard to perfectly fit in the milk crate in order to reduce the space within the container. Also, to fix a balloon easily without any tape that might pop balloon or make it pop artificially hard, we use a piece of wood to place between the solenoid and a balloon. The piece wood has a hole that the needles attached on the tip of the solenoid can go through the hole to penetrate a thin layer of latex.

Also, a way to implement the effect on the grid was the most conflicting issue of all.

Because the milk crate is massive, it was hard to be fixed on the grid without consumption of a long time and much work. Also, if this massive effect with needles fell on the actors, it might cause a serious injury. Consequently, as we rehearsed the play, we finally decided that to camouflage it with black wooden box at the backstage is a far better idea than to risk our actors.

Procedure

1. Gather the materials. 2. Place the effect at the backstage inside the black table to hide from the audience. 3. Wire it to the control box. 4. Connect the control box to the 12VDC main power system. 5. As soon as someone turns on the switch on the control box, it prompts electricity to flow

from 12 VDC power source through more than 20 foot long wire to provide energy. 6. The solenoid fueled by electricity sticks out and pops the balloon.

Safety

Yes! The safety of us, actors, and audience is our priority beyond any other things. However, there was no serious safety concern for this effect. Because despite the use of dangerous needles and massive weight of the entire hardware, it was going to be placed on the backstage where no actor comes nearby and also it was protected from the wooden piece and container, the risk that needles would harm anyone was close to zero percent. Also, the usage of 12 V was more manageable than the one of 120 V.

Also, this is not really a safety issue, but having a container and positioning at the

backstage prevent the popped balloon from falling or getting on the stage.

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Pictures

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Drawing

Total Cost for Effect

1 DLA-1 Door lock motor $ 5.50 1 Pack of balloons $ 1.50 1 Needles $ 0.99 Total for Effect $ 7.99

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Headlight Effect Purpose The purpose of this effect is to have a light sweep across the stage and across the Commissioner’s face. The light has to resemble the headlights of a car passing by the Commish.

In the original script, the light effect occurred at the very beginning of the play, just after

the Commissioner got out of his broken down car and before he calls AAA. The effect was used to open the play and simulate the roadside scene at which the scene takes place. Along with the sound effects that went along, it was needed to make sure the audience understood the setting.

In the actual play, the light effect occurs right after the Commish calls AAA, and before

he calls his superhero friend, the Emerald Gecko. The final effect doesn’t so much set the scene as adds to the hopelessness of the Commish’s situation. The final effect occurs immediately after he calls AAA. When he calls, they don’t help him out at all. After the headlights sweep by, he waves his arms and tries to flag the car down, but to no avail. The light effect enhances the effect to which the Commish is screwed over (he can’t even flag down a car), and also adds humor to the situation (he looks quite ridiculous when he tries to flag the car down.) Specifications

• The effect must be safe • The effect must have both vertical and horizontal restraints. • The effect cannot be aimed directly at the eyes of the audience or actor for extended

periods of time. • The effect must sweep across the actors face, not just his body. • The effect must be noticeable as car headlights, not some other light source. • The movement of the light must be predominantly horizontal. • The light must travel a noticeable portion of the stage. • The light must move quickly, as car headlights do.

Initial Concept Designs The initial concepts for this effect were not far off from the final product. Some of the original design concepts included mounting the light on a pole that stuck out in front of the grid. This idea was shot down because of the sheer difficulty of attaching a pole that stuck out a significant distance from the grid with so much weight on the end. The pole would have acted as a torque on the grid, and may well have toppled it. We did not use this idea because of safety issues.

Another idea was that the light could be supported on a stand, and not attached to the grid

at all. The light would have been attached to a pole sticking up from a board that would lay on the ground. We did not use this design, because the pole would have needed to be quite high in order to sweep the light across the actors face, and therefore would have been very difficult to balance on the board on the ground.

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Other early concepts designs differed from the final design by the casing of the light itself. One early concept had the light bulb housed in a metal pail. The pail was a paint pail bought from Lowe’s. The light bulb socket was mounted in the bottom of the pail. This design was not used for a number of reasons. First off, the beam of the light coming from the paint pail was much too wide and not nearly strong enough in the center to be noticeable as a pair of car headlights. Secondly, the paint pail was much wider, deeper, and bulkier than a coffee can, and proved difficult. Thirdly, the thick metal sides of the paint pail were much more difficult to put nails and screws through, and even to drill through, than the coffee can. Finally, the paint pail was much heavier than the coffee can, and thus was more of a safety concern being mounted on the grid. Final Special Effect Concept Design The final design was the effect of a light sweeping across and actor’s face. A cleated socket lamp holder (part number 71110, model S752WSP from Lowe’s) was placed inside an empty coffee can and bolted in. A 150 Watt floodlight was used for illumination.

A hole was drilled in the back of the coffee can, and a grommet was placed in the hole. Electrical wires were run through the hole and wired to the socket, and hence the lamp. The other ends of these wires were run to the circuit board.

The coffee can had two small L-brackets attached to the back. The L-bolts were facing either side of the can, and were bent so that one side of each was perpendicular with one side of the other. In between these L-brackets was a section of 1 inch PVC piping. The piece was only about a foot long.

At the end of this piece of piping, the pipe was attached to a rotating ball bearing caster. This castor had one end that had a large circle with a collar on it that was about the same circumference of the pipe, around which the pipe was fitted. Bolts were then used to secure the pipe and the caster. The other end of the caster had a hole in each corner of a metal plate. That end was held up to the grid and U-bolts were used to secure that end to the grid.

A custom hood was used to narrow the beam even more. The hood consisted of a piece of cardboard that was about twice as long as the coffee can. The cardboard was rolled into a cylinder, and half of the inside of the cylinder was covered with aluminum foil. The cylinder was placed in the can, with the foil side inside the can, and the un-foiled side sticking out of the can. The hood was secured to the can using duct tape, running from the mouth of the hood down to the bottom of the coffee can.

Fishing line was tied around the back of the coffee can, and trailed off to the side of the stage, allowing someone to rotate the can on the ball bearings from 20 feet off-stage. To address the safety issue of sharp screws sticking out of the can, the bottom of the can was covered with cardboard, taped on, so that the ends of any screws sticking out went into that instead of someone’s hand.

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Procedure

1. Gather materials. 2. Place socket on the bottom of the coffee can on the outside, and mark with a pencil the

two places where the screws go in to the can, as well as the outline of the socket. 3. Remove the socket, and, using a metal drill bit slightly smaller than the stripped screw to

be used, drill out the two places marked on the bottom of the can. 4. Using a fine metal file, smooth out drill holes. 5. Using a drill bit just a little bit larger than the grommet to be used, drill another hole

outside of the area of the outline of the socket. 6. Smooth hole with file. 7. Place grommet in new hole, and pass electrical wires through grommet. 8. Wire the ends of the electrical wires to the terminals on the socket. (It is important to do

this before the socket is secured in the can, as it saves much aggravation). 9. Insert socket into can, secure, and screw in screws that came with the socket. 10. Disassemble caster into part needed. 11. Saw off about a foot of the 1 inch PVC pipe. 12. Insert one end of the pipe into the collar on the caster, and secure with bolts. 13. Line up L-brackets at desired angle to the coffee can, and mark with a pencil. 14. Using a drill bit slightly smaller than the screw to be used, pre-drill the marked holes. 15. Smooth holes with file. 16. Place L-brackets on holes and secure with screws. 17. Carefully bend the remaining side of each L-bracket until the two sides are parallel to one

another and perpendicular to the coffee can. 18. Place PVC pipe inside L-brackets. 19. Bend L-brackets tight against the sides of the pipe. 20. Secure the pipe and can, pre drill if necessary, and screw L-brackets into PVC pipe. 21. Cut a 3 foot by 2 foot sheet of cardboard. 22. Lay out cardboard horizontally on a firm, secure work surface. 23. Using an exacto-knife, score the cardboard vertically every inch. 24. Flip cardboard. 25. Lay out a long, continuous piece of aluminum foil on the bottom half of the cardboard. 26. Using a needle and fishing line, sew the foil onto the cardboard

a. First, punch holes two holes through the cardboard every inch at the top and bottom edges of the foil-covered section.

b. Go through and weave over and under through the holes with a needle and thread.

c. Work on one horizontal line at once. First go down the bottom row one way. When needles comes up/goes down through the last row, immediately jump up to the next row and continue the pattern all the way back down.

d. Once the bottom two rows are taken care of, cut the excess fishing line and tie knots in both ends of the line.

e. Repeats steps 26. d. and 26. e. for the top two rows. 27. Roll the cardboard into a cylinder, and place inside the coffee can, with the foil on the

inside and near the light bulb.

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28. Remove the cylinder from the can, but make sure to keep it exactly the same size it was when it was in the can.

29. Staple the two sides of the cardboard together, so to make a permanent cylinder. 30. Place cylinder in coffee can. 31. Place duct tape from the mouth of the cylinder, down the sides, to the bottom of the can

on at least 4 places on the can. 32. Screw floodlight into coffee can. 33. Wrap a piece of fishing line around the back of the can, and allow it to trail off. 34. For setting up the effects before the show:

a. Detach the U-bolts. Place the metal sheet end of the caster against the underside of the grid’s top bar. Line up U bolt holes, so that they occur on either side of the grid-pipe.

b. Adjust to appropriate height according to the director. The light should be adjusted horizontally such that the light naturally “wants” to swing one way and rest in a position where the light doesn’t point at the front of the grid

c. Insert U-bolts and tighten. d. Grab the fishing line. e. Plug in wires.

35. During the play, simply allow power to run to the lamp, and pull the string. The light should swing around, appearing to be a car.

Safety Safety was a concern for this effect. The two main safety issues were falling and blinding people.

The first concern was that the light would fall off of the grid. This was the reason that the group used uber-secure U-bolts that would grip the grid and make it physically impossible for the light to fall off, as opposed to trying to balance the light on the grid.

The second concern was for people’s eyes. One of the specifications that the director made clear to the engineers was that the light was to endanger neither the eyes of the actor, nor the eyes of the audience members. Because the light was attached to the side of the grid, and had to swing in the direction of the audience members, the group made absolutely sure that the light was low enough that it would shine on the actors face, but not up onto the faces of the audience members. Also, the group practiced swinging the light quickly, so that the light wasn’t focused on the actors face for more than a moment.

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Pictures

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Drawing

Total Cost for Effect

1 49221 Flood light bulb $ 2.98 1 146886 Swivel caster $ 3.23 1 196067 L-Brackets 1.5" $ 1.87 2 196574 U-bolts 2.5" $ 1.54 Total for Effect $ 4.52

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Thunder Effect Purpose

The use of thunder in the play is to develop the desperateness of the Commissioner throughout the play. The Commissioner’s car broke down and is trying (failing as well) to get somebody to come out and help him. The thunder is suppose to simulate the feeling that storm has started while the Commissioner is trying to procure work, thus making his mission that much more miserable. The thunder foreshadows an impeding event that is detrimental to the plight of the Commissioner.

Thunder was selected as the weather effect because of the ease of clean-up (ie no rain to pick up at the end of the play) and the multitude of ways that the thunder could be produced in the play. Initial Concept Designs

The thunder effect went through several designs before we settled on the one it used in the play. The effect was originally going to be made be getting sheets of metal and shaking them. This was the most common way to produce thunder in the research we performed. But after consulting with the Director and Stage Manger, who found this particular thunder not to standards they expected, we had to change their design for the effect. It was also found that to produce the thunder on the grid would be an insurmountable task that might put the team over-budget. So with budgetary concerns and client concerns, the group decided to scarp the metal. The next few prototypes consisted of a tube being shook, but again like the metal, the prototypes did not meet the client’s needs. They were all too quiet and it would have cost too much to build the necessary tubes that would have produced the sound that the director wanted. Design of Actual Effect

The design that was selected to be thunder in the play was rather easy to build. The materials used to build the effect were a cardboard box, a balloon, and BB’s. During research for this effect, one of the team members found that the sound of thunder could be simulated by inserting BB’s in a blown up balloon, and shaking the balloon. When demonstrating this particular prototype to the director, she found it to her liking and demanded it be used in the play. To fit this particular effect to the specifications of the grid and such took some thinking. One of the main problems with this effect is that the BB”s would often weigh the balloon down and cause the balloon to burst and spread the BB’s everywhere. Another problem was the fact that the balloon by itself could not be hanged from the grid without bursting. To correct both these problems, the team decided that the balloon should be fitted inside a cardboard box connected to the grid. Although, later on the cardboard box had to become an open box because a closed one muffled the sound of the thunder too much. An open box presented a new problem, keeping the balloon inside the box. This problem was solved the easiest and perhaps the most effective way and that was duct taping the balloon to the box.

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These were just the problems involved in making the thunder effect. The problem of actually making the thunder effect during the play was the biggest problem. Electronically controlling the thunder effect was not considered feasible because the box needed to be shook up and down and building a machine to do this would not have been the best approach because the box weighed too much mainly. It was decided that the box had to be hand-powered throughout the play. To do this a spring and hook was attached to the box. The allowed the box to be connected to the grid and the spring would give the box an extra bounce when the string that would be attached to the box was pulled. To get the 20ft from the grid rule fulfilled, a string would be attached to the box and pulled by a team member twenty feet away. A problem was found with this approach was that the string continued to break when like this and the solution to the 20ft from the grid was lost. To solve this problem, a pulley was purchased and the string would be strung through there first and then to the person. This would place less weight on the string and allow for a less powerful tug from the team member. All these things would contribute to less pressure being applied to the string and decrease the likelihood of the string breaking. Procedure for Building Effect

1. Place box horizontally on a table. 2. Drill two holes 1 inch apart on the front and back side of the box 3. Place the string through each of these holes 4. Drill a hole on top of the box 5. Connected spring to the box through the hole 6. Insert BB’s inside deflated balloon 7. Blow up balloon to a 9inch diameter. 8. Place Balloon snuggly inside cardboard box. 9. Apply duct tape around the box, so as to make sure the balloon cannot fall out

Safety

There were several areas of concern for safety for this particular effect. The first and biggest concern for this effect was if the balloon popped on stage and the BBs were to fly everywhere. To solve this problem, the first thing that was done was that the thunder effect was placed in the very back of the grid. So if the balloon were to burst, it would be the furthest possible distance from the audience and actors. The next safety precaution was to place the balloon in the cardboard box. The box would prevent the BB’s from going all over the place by blocking their trajectories if the balloon did burst. The box also gave the balloon the support it needed to do the effect well. Another safety precaution undertaken was that no actor was allowed to be under the box itself. The thunder effect is relatively light, but if it were to hit somebody on the head, it could hurt the person. So every precaution was made to ensure that the actors were never under the box.

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Pictures

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Drawing

Total Cost for Effect

1 60954 Spring $ 4.97 2 Packs of bbs $ 0.99 1 Twine $ 2.59 Total for Effect $ 8.55

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Falling Flags Effect Purpose “A miniature American flag (removed from its stick) flutters to the ground next to HIM (The Comish). HE notices it. It is followed by another one, then three at once, then a sizable bunch all at once. He looks up.” This direct quote from Adam Segaller’s play Super Friends outlines the requirements for the falling effect. The American flags falling to the ground symbolize and announce the immanent approach of the final Super Friend, Federal Bureaucrat. Federal Bureaucrats outlandish costume, including a spandex American flag singlet, is complimented by his pre-arrival signal, the American flags. Besides the obvious foreshadowing effect of the flags falling, there is also an underlying comedic and satirical purpose as well. The falling flags mock American pride and the ease at which we are willing to help other nations even when it might not be the help they need at the time. Specifications

• The flags must fall in the order: 1 flag, then 1 more flag, then 3 flags, then a sizeable amount of flags.

• The flags must fall at or at least very near the Commissioner’s feet so he can bend down and pick the first one up.

• The flags can not fall quickly; they must fall slowly and dramatically. • The drops of the flags must be separated both in a physical sense and also in a temporal

sense there has to be a dramatic amount of time between the first three drops. • The first flag must be able to be picked up by the Commissioner. • The audience must recognize that it is an American Flag that is falling.

Initial Design Concepts

The staggered dropping of the flags proved to have many limitations to how the dropping could best be accomplished. Early design ideas included four separate drop chambers with solenoid operated trap doors each attached to the grid separately. We went as far as to design one of the champers and test it in our in-class demonstration of the falling effect. The design was fairly simple, consisting of a cardboard box reinforced with duct tape and a hinged door at the bottom. We attached a wooden arm to the bottom of the box to act as a counterweight and also a means of holding the door shut till we were ready to release it. The early concept worked reasonably well however it was often inconsistent and it required a lot of work to drop just one flag. The early concept is shown at the top of the next page:

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Final Design Concept From the initial concept we were able to decide that we were not on the right track to drop the flags in the most effective manner. Borrowing and then expanding on another team’s idea to pull there effects off of a mounted board, we decided to connect all four drop chambers together and then slide them over a drop hole in a board. We expanded this basic idea to suit our needs.

A four foot long by ten inch wide track was built out of quarter inch plywood. This track had two guides on either side to keep the “vehicle” for carrying the flags in the right place. At either end the track had a stop so the vehicle could not roll off the front or back. Because the track was four feet long we reinforced the bottom of the track with dowels to keep it from bending in the middle. A stable and sturdy track was essential for this to be a successful effect. A six inch hole was cut into the middle of the track to serve as the drop hole. The hole was placed so that it was under the last chamber when it reached the end of the track. The vehicle was constructed of thin light quarter inch plywood; it was two feet long and six inches high and wide. The rectangular box that served as the shell for the vehicle was held together by L-brackets placed in the corners of the box. Inside the box ever six inches a divider was slid inside the box as well to separate the one large chamber into four smaller chambers. These dividers also were held in place by L-brackets inside the chambers. On the four corners of the drop chambers small closet door wheels were screwed into provide a smooth means of moving the chamber along the track. Controlling the entire effect remotely required a DC powered motor that wound fishing line attached to the vehicle towards the motor mounted at the far end of the track. The motor spins very quickly so you either have to gear it down or simply wrap duct tape around the shaft to expand it so it didn’t wind as quickly. We were able to find large flags attached to dowel poles and separate them to load the chambers to achieve the desired effect. The flags fell better when they were weighted down a little bit with left over BBs from the thunder effect.

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Procedure

1. Gather together the materials necessary (see parts list on following pages) 2. Cut the quarter inch plywood into a four foot by ten inch strip; try to use the

remaining wood to cut two, two foot by six inch panels as well. You will also need five six by six inch dividers. Try to use the left over wood to build the stops for either end of the track as well.

3. Assemble the track by mounting the end brackets using large L-brackets. The track which can be made using scrap quarter round molding or any other small base molding should be screwed into the track from the bottom 1.75 inches in from the edges.

4. Assemble the drop chambers by constructing the larger rectangle out of the two foot by six inch panels and the six inch dividers. Attach the wheels to the four corners of the drop chambers. It was also helpful to add “mud flaps” pieces of duct tape to the bottoms of the drop chambers to hold the flags in their correct positions.

5. Wire the motor and solder the wires onto it making sure they are secure. If gears are accessible you will want to gear down the motor using a gear box and try to reduce the speed of the winding. However, if this is not available a dowel with the right size hole in it epoxied to the motor spindle with about a half inch of duct tape around it works well also.

6. Attach the wire to either a rocker switch or a push button switch mounted to the control panel that can be controlled easily.

7. Attach the fishing wire to your spindle with just enough that it is taunt when you stretch the car back to the beginning position.

8. Once the entire structure is resting on top of the grid fill the cars with the respective number of flags.

9. Practice switching the effect on and off until you are able to control the speed and the timing of the dropping of each effect.

Safety Whenever anything is mounted above an actors head safety is a precaution that must be taken. Make sure that there is enough over hang on your track that it rests on the tracks and the movement of the car will not knock it off the track. During rehearsals we decided that we did not need to include U-bolts to secure it completely even though we did have them just incase. We made sure the wires going to the motor are taped down so none of the actors tripped on them during the play. A final note, this is a falling effect and it was best that the actors were not directly under the effect when it went into motion because the flags were weighted slightly.

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Pictures

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Drawing

Total Cost for Effect

1 DCM-215 Motor $ 3.00 2 7701 Plywood $ 6.92 1 2967 Wood Screws $ 2.57 4 196038 L-Brackets 1" $ 7.12 2 58536 Door Wheels $ 5.36 Total for Effect $ 24.97

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Rolling Hubcap Effect Purpose

The purpose of this effect is to control the release of an automobile’s hubcap, so that it will roll on stage in the direction of the Commissioner. As it is rolling towards his feet, the Commissioner picks the effect up and holds it is his arms. He holds the hubcap for his final lines and then exits the stage. The rolling hubcap effect brings closure to the play. This effect fits into the play right after Federal Bureaucrat ventures offstage to destroy the Commissioner’s car. Along with the sound effects of produced by the Drama department, the hubcap signifies the destruction of the automobile. This effect reiterates the theme of the play by adding to the desperate plight of the Commissioner. He just wanted a ride to his anniversary party, and now all he has left of his automobile is one measly hubcap. This effect also shows the audience the superhuman powers of Federal Bureaucrat. He is capable of destroying a car with this bare hands and then hurling the automobile into the atmosphere. The rolling hubcap effect adds a humorous aspect to the awful luck of the commissioner. Form-R

The ENGR 162 Special Effect Project requirements state: “An object must fly through all or part of the acting space. Movement must be predominantly horizontal, in contrast to effect number 2, which predominantly vertical. Flying objects are subject to approval for safety purposes.” We filed a Form-R to change the effect’s requirements so that we could roll an object across the acting space. The playwright originally requested that we roll the hubcap across the stage because he wanted the Commissioner to be able to pick the wobbling hubcap up and walk offstage with it. If the effect flew across the stage, we would not have been able to control the placement of the hubcap accurately enough for the Commissioner to pick the hubcap up after it landed. The rolling hubcap effect fit much better into the context of our play. Safety was another issue with the flying effect. A hubcap is too large and heavy to have it flying through the acting space. It could seriously injure an actor, crew member, or audience member if they were struck by the hubcap. The rolling hubcap effect is much safer. (See Appendix for the submitted Form-R) Specifications

• The special effect must be safe. • The rolling of the hubcap onstage can endanger any of the actors, crew members, or

audience members. • The movement of the object must be predominantly horizontal. • The release of the hubcap must be timed perfectly so that it rolls onto the stage directly

after Federal Bureaucrat destroys the automobile. • The hubcap must accurately travel to within a few feet of the commissioner’s position. • The audience must know that a hubcap rolled onto the stage and not some other object. • The hubcap must roll through all or part of the acting space.

Initial Concept Designs

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Our concept designs for the rolling hubcap effect changed drastically throughout the semester. This is due in part to the fact that we originally planned to make the hubcap fly through the air. After talking to the director, stage manager, and playwright we concluded that it would be best to have the hubcap roll across the stage instead of having it fly through the air. In the ENGR 162 Special Effect Project requirements, it is stated that an object must fly across the acting space during the play. We filled out a Form-R and received approval on our rolling effect concept designs. Our first design concept was a catapult that would launch the hubcap across the stage. The hubcap would be placed on the launching arm that would be hinged to another board. These two boards would be connected by a spring. The launching arm would be pulled back and the spring would be compressed. When the spring is compressed to its maxed, the board would be tied together to keep them in place. To launch the hubcap, a motor with a spinning blade would be used to cut the string the send the hubcap flying across the stage. We did not use this design because our design requirements changed to allow us to roll the hubcap across the stage. Another design concept used guide wires to control the trajectory of the hubcap as it was released from the top of the grid. The hubcap is placed on the top of the grid. It is connected to the other sides of the grid by guide wires which were to me made of fishing line. A solenoid controlled the release of the hubcap. Once released the hubcap would fall down to the ground in parabolic fashion. We did not use this design because our design requirements changed to allow us to roll the hubcap across the stage. We had several design concepts for the releasing mechanism of our final design concept. Instead of a solenoid releasing a swinging gate, we planned to use an electric motor that had a razor blade soldered to it. This would cut a piece of fishing line that was keeping the hubcap in place. We did not use this design concept because of safety issues. It was dangerous to have a razor blade spinning at a high RPM, especially when the razor blade was just soldered to the driveshaft of the electric motor. Another design concept for the releasing mechanism was very similar to our final design. The initial concept used a solenoid that connected directly to the hubcap. We stuck the plunger of the solenoid in one of the holes in the hubcap to keep it in place. This design was very unreliable because the solenoid’s plunger was too small to hold the heavy hubcap in place. The hubcap slipped off of the solenoid frequently, causing a premature release of the hubcap. We did not use this design because of its unreliability. Final Special Effect Concept Design Our final special effect concept design was a rolling effect. The effect consisted of wood board that stands upright at a right angle to the floor. This wood board has supports nailed to it to keep it upright. This upright wood board served to prop the ramp portion of the special effect up. The ramp consisted of one long, slender wood board that had walls nailed to either side. The hubcap rolled down the long wood board and then onto the ground. The walls that were attached to the ramp kept the hubcap on the ramp and going in the right direction.

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The hubcap releasing mechanism was attached to the walls at the top of the ramp. The releasing mechanism consisted of a swinging gate and a 24VCD Pull-Type Solenoid. The solenoid was mounted to the wall directly across from the swinging gate which was mounted on the opposite wall. The swinging gate extended across the width of the ramp. When extended, the solenoid held the swinging out over the ramp. When electricity was applied to the solenoid, is pulled the solenoid in and released the swinging gate. The hubcap was place behind the swinging gate before the play. When it was time for the hubcap to roll across the stage, electricity was applied to the solenoid and the swinging gate was released. This, in turn, allowed the hubcap to roll down the ramp and onto the stage. We modified the solenoid by bending the extended frame back under the solenoid and removing the spring from the plunger. We bent the frame so that we could mount the solenoid earlier. The extended frame also impeded the swinging gate and the path of the rolling hubcap. We removed the spring from the plunger so that the plunger would stay inside the solenoid. The spring caused the plunger to be ejected from the solenoid because of the coiling action of the spring. This would have caused noise and disrupted the play. The hubcap needed to be modified for the rolling effect. When we first rolled the hubcap down the ramp, it did not roll in a straight line. Once it traveled down the ramp and began to roll on the floor, it curved severely to the right and fell over. This is because the majority of the weight of the hubcap is on the outside. This caused the hubcap to be very unbalanced. To correct this, we attached counterweights to the inside the rim of the hubcap. We duct taped eight batteries evenly spaced around the inside rim of the hubcap. These batteries balanced the weight distribution of the hubcap and allowed it to roll straight. Procedure

1. Gather materials. 2. Cut one piece of thick wood that is 1.5 ft. high by 2 ft. long. 3. Nail a 6 in. square piece of 2 x 4 lumber to the bottom middle of the board. This piece

will upright the piece that the ramp rests on. 4. Cut one piece of plywood that is 3.5 ft. long and 8 in. wide. This piece of wood will be

the ramp. 5. Use a metal L-bracket to mount a 6 in. piece of 2 x 4 wood to the end of the ramp. This

end of the ramp will rest on the upright wood board. The piece of 2 x 4 will keep the ramp from sliding off of the upright board.

6. Cut two pieces of plywood that is 3.5 ft. long and 1 ft. high. These two piece of wood will be the walls of the ramp. The releasing mechanism will be mounted to the walls.

7. Nail the two wall pieces of wood to the flat ramp so that the walls are perpendicular to the ramp.

8. Nail one 3 in. piece of 2 x 4 wood to the right (if you are behind the effect) wall. 9. Nail one 6 in. piece of 2 x 4 wood to the 3 in. piece of 2 x 4 wood. The solenoid will be

mounted to this piece of wood. 10. Bend the extended frame of the solenoid that is under the plunger. Bend the frame

basically in half so that the frame is under the solenoid.

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11. Remove the spring from the solenoid plunger. 12. Screw the frame of the solenoid to 6 in. piece of 2 x 4 wood. Make sure that the plunger

extends to the point where it is directly above the ramp wall. 13. Nail a 6 in. piece of 2 x 4 wood to the left wall of the ramp. This is what the swinging

gate will be mounted too. 14. Cut one piece of plywood that is 6 in. long and 3 in. tall. This piece will be the gate that

extends over the ramp. 15. Screw a two hinges into the side of the 6 in. piece of 2 x 4 that it located on the left wall.

Position one hinge 2.5 in. above the other hinge. 16. Screw the other side of the hinge into the swinging gate. This allows the gate to pivot

freely. 17. Extend the solenoid so that it inhibits the pivoting of the gate. This locks the game in

place. 18. Place the hubcap behind the gate so it is resting on the gate. 19. Solder speaker wire to the positive and negative terminals of the solenoid. 20. Run the wire to the control board.

Safety

Safety was a major concern for this effect. The hubcap is a large, heavy object, so we took precautions to ensure the safety of the actors, crew members, and the audience. The main precaution that we took was practice. By practicing the release of the hubcap and monitoring where it rolled once it reached the ground, we were able to know exactly where the hubcap would travel every time. With this knowledge, were able to show the director, stage manager, and the actors where the hubcap would travel during tech rehearsal. We made sure the no one would be standing in the path of the hubcap except for the Commissioner who has to pick the hubcap up. In addition to this, we adjusted the height of the ramp to control rate at which the hubcap traveled. We lowered the height to make the hubcap travel slower so that it was easier and safer for the Commissioner to pick it up.

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Pictures

31

Drawing

Total Cost for Effect

1 SOL-58 Spring Solenoids $ 1.50 1 69122 Nails $ 1.81 Total for Effect $ 3.31

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Control Panel The control panel is probably the most important component of our entire special effects project. The control panel is where the effects succeed or fail. Our control panel was rather simple, however very effective. We took a simple scrap of quarter inch plywood and cut three rectangles out of the panel and placed three standard light switches in the holes and screwed them down. The fourth switch couldn’t be screwed in or mounted flush because it was a rocker so it was taped down to the board. When we began to wire the switches it would have made sense to place the one AC switch on one end, however thinking what was going to be easiest during the play we placed the switches in the order the effects happened in the play. This chronological order made the switch board less error prone and more logical to the controller working it. One AC and one DC power strip were wired in to the control board and the three DC switches were split off of the DC power in. The best part about the control panel was that it was completely free we were able to reuse other teams’ leftovers as well as our scraps. For a complete schematic diagram of the control panel see Appendix D.

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Conclusion Team 7 of section 12 of ENGR 162 performed the play Super Friends on Thursday, December 9, 2004 at the Helms Theater. While not everything went exactly as anticipated, in general, the play was considered a success. Setup went smoothly until two problems arose. First, the hubcap ramp fell over, and the solenoid-gate mechanism had to be moved back into place. However, that problem did not hold up the play. The problem that did affect the play had to do with the thunder effect. When the thunder effect was being set up, the string got tangled and needed to be cut off of the box. The string was then retied onto the box, however, the group did not have time to tie the string the way it was meant to be tied. The group simply had to improvise and wrap the string around the box. This had dire consequences later. The setup took a total of 4 minutes and 59 seconds, and while there was some dispute as to whether the group was in the acting space at the moment the clock struck 5 minutes, the group was assured that the setup was within the time limits. The play started out perfectly. The first effect, the balloon pop, was perfectly on time and sounded terrific. The director was very pleased with the effect. The situation was the same with the headlight effect. The light was timed almost exactly to the script, and the actor did a great job of interacting with the effect. After the headlight effect, the next effect was the thunder effect. It was at that point in the play when the string attached to the thunder box snapped. The string did not break at either end, but right in the middle, in clear view of the audience. This occurred just before the first cue for thunder. Because of this, the stage manager had to say “thunder” to the audience, so that the play could keep going and be understood. After announcing the effect to the audience, the stage manager instructed one of the group members to go out onto the stage and pull the string to create the thunder effect. Because the string was wrapped around the box instead of tied to it, the box did not rotate in quite the same manner as it was supposed to, but even so, it did create the effect of thunder. For the duration of the play, the engineer sat out on stage and did the thunder cues, so only the first cue was missed. The effect did cause trouble, as the engineer interfered with the play, but the actors were not thrown off, and the play went on as normal, as though nothing were wrong. At this point in the play, that is, after the first thunder cue, the next effect that needed to be triggered was the flag-dropping. It was at this point in the play that the control board lost DC power. It was not known at the time why the DC power was not on. It is not correct to say that the control board lost power, because the control board manager tried plugging the electrical leads directly into the power box, and there still was no power. The group now knows that there was a problem with the fuse in the power box, but at the time, there was nothing the group could do. Therefore, the next effect, the flag dropping, which relied on DC power, could not be triggered. Because the effect was located on top of the grid in the very front of the stage, there was no way for the effect to be triggered by hand. The stage manager did not announce the effect’s absence, and the actors kept going with the play. Therefore the flag dropping effect was completely absent from the play.

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The next effect, the hubcap rolling, also relied on the DC power, however, the difference between the hubcap rolling effect and the flag dropping effect was that the hubcap roller was located offstage on the ground, and there were engineers standing around it. Therefore, when the time came for the hubcap to be rolled and the DC power was still not on, the release mechanism was simply triggered by hand. The hubcap rolled out perfectly straight and rolled right to the Commissioner, just as it was supposed to. The audience didn’t even know that there was anything wrong with the effect, the hubcap behaved exactly as it was supposed to, so the effect was very comical. The hubcap being rolled out on stage, in addition to the sound effects being made by one of the actors, had the effect of cracking the audience up. The Commish picked up the hubcap, said his final lines, and left the stage. The play was over. For take down, everything went smoothly. The group finished taking the effects down and cleaning up the stage in well under 5 minutes. All in all, the play was a success. It would have been nice if the flag dropper and hubcap roller had been powered electrically, but the audience didn’t really notice the absence of the effects. The presence of one of the engineers on stage did detract from the play, but the thunder effect was worth it. The other effects went very smoothly, and for the most part, the special effects had exactly the effect desired on the play. After the play, the DC power was restored. The two effects that required DC power, the hubcap roller and the flag dropper, were proved to work. It was also admitted by one of the judges that the loss of DC power was not the fault of the electronics used by the engineers, but that the loss of power came from the fact that the fuse casing fell out of the power box. Therefore, no blame for the loss of power was placed on anyone; the incident was not the fault of anyone in particular.

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Appendix B

Set Up Procedure 1. Rogers takes ladder 1 to setup Light 2. Min takes ladder 2 to setup thunder effect 3. Dave takes ladder 3 to setup flag effect 4. Remy takes control board to corner to setup 5. Patrick takes balloon effect to setup 6. Patrick sets up hubcap effect 7. Rogers adjusts light to flash where the actor will be standing 8. Dave loads up the flags in the flag dropper 9. Remy tests power to control board by shining light 10. Patrick loads hubcap to ramp 11. Min extends string for thunder effect across grid and to audience 12. All people who brought in a ladder remove it 13. Remy and Patrick tape downs all loose wires while ladders are removed Done Take Down Procedure 1. Rogers takes ladder 1 to take down light 2. Min takes ladder 2 to take down thunder effect 3. Dave takes ladder 3 to take down flag effect 4. Dave hands thunder effect to Patrick to put away 5. Remy removes all tape that is in the grid 6. Patrick removes the balloon effect and all traces balloon in grid Done

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Appendix C

ALL ELECTRONICS K-Mart

Lowe's

No. Part Number Description Cost 3 MPB-1 Push Button Switch $ 1.05 2 SOL-58 Spring Solenoids $ 3.00 2 SOL-81 Small Solenoids $ 6.00 1 DCM-215 Motor $ 3.00 1 DLA-1 Door lock motor $ 5.50 Total: $ 18.55

1 76508 200 watt light bulb $ 2.98 1 49221 Flood light bulb $ 2.98 2 Packs of bbs $ 0.99 2 7701 Plywood $ 6.92 1 Pack of ballons $ 1.50 1 60954 Spring $ 4.97 1 146886 Swivel caster $ 3.23 1 31119 50' black rope $ 9.50 4 196038 L-Brackets 1" $ 7.12 1 2967 Wood Screws $ 2.57 1 196067 L-Brackets 1.5" $ 1.87 2 196574 U-bolts 2.5" $ 1.54 1 69122 Nails $ 1.81 4 19453 Electrical Tape $ 2.16 1 211632 Dimmer $ 4.93 2 58536 Door Wheels $ 5.36 1 Duct Tape $ 2.99 1 Twine $ 2.59 1 Needles $ 0.99 Total $ 67.00 Total Amount Spent $ 85.55

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Appendix D

Balloon Popping Effect

ACDC

AC Circuit

DC Circuit

Hubcap Effect Headlight Effect

Control Panel

Flag Dropping Effect

Inductor/Solenoid

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