[NEohioPAL] FW: Special Effect question

[James Kosmatka]

Dave and the rest of Cleveland,

I'm copying this from the archives of the Stagecraft Mailing
List<http://stagecraft.theprices.net/>,
because I think it's pretty important stuff to know:

<<Does anyone have suggestions to make colored fog or smoke.  Im
looking for black smoke .................>>

Chris,

While this has been covered before, I can't get the list archives to

work.  So here goes.

First, there is no way to produce a "fog" that is colored.  This is

because fogs are a vaporized form of a fluid. Notice that virtually

all fog fluids on the market today are water based and basicly clear,

no color.  Even the haze fluids that use mineral oil or similar are

for all practical purposes, clear.   As yet there are no fluids with

an intrinsic color that are safe to breathe by mammals and many other

living organisms, think mustard gas. If you want colored fog or haze,

light it with color.

Smoke, on the other hand, can be colored almost any shade of the

rainbow.  The color is produced by unburned particulate matter,

frequently various hydrocarbons.  However smoke is can be deadly.  In

fires, most deaths are caused by smoke inhalation, not the flames.  In

the past, colored smoke was sometimes used on stage and often used in

film and video.  The use of colored smoke on stage is now a thing of

the past due largely to the unions who (wisely) declared them a

serious health hazard to performers and technicians.  In film, colored

smoke, including black burning oil, is rarely used today (if at all)

in the presence of "talent" or added or tinted in post.  Movies can

skirt the issue in a number of ways.  It is only one take if any for

the Talent.  Stunt people often and technicians always, can wear

respirators or other protective gear. The shoot for a smoke FX is

usually out doors. On stage the gag is rehearsal after rehearsal, day

after day.

Any colored smoke, especially indoors, will coat any surface it comes

in contact with.  A prime example would be any household with a coal

stove (I grew up in one).  Spring cleaning wasn't just a saying.  Over

the winter, with the house closed up, every surface was coated in a

thin layer of carbon soot.  Even though the air always seemed clear

and clean, even though most of the particulate matter went up the

flue, when you rubbed your finger across a surface in the spring, you

could see it.

The carbon in the air was very small and of a very low concentration.=20

That's why you couldn't see it. Yet it left a coating on everything,

windows, walls, lungs.......  Imagine what  particulate matter large

enough and concentrated enough to see would do.

Black smoke is basicly pure unburned carbon.  It is a very oily,

smelly and sticks to everything.  To see a good example, find an

oxy-acetylene welding kit. Light up the torch with only acetylene, no

oxygen, and turn the flame down until you see the air fill with wisps

of pure carbon.  Hold a board or something near it and then look at

the result. Check out the  area a few minutes later when all the wisps

have settled down on everything. This is what will cover your entire

theatre, lights, costumes, electronics, floors, hair, lungs, etc.

Bottom line, you don't want black smoke on stage.

--

Michael Powers


They also tell stories of explosions from airborne particulate matter
igniting. If I were you, I'd tell the director that black smoke is probably
not doable safely and without griming up the theatre.

James



On Fri, Mar 4, 2011 at 1:00 PM, Dave Wells
<ghhstheatreboosters at hotmail.com>wrote:

>
>
>
> Hello,
> The Garfield Heights High School will be presenting "George Washington
> Slept Here" in May.
>
> at the end of Act One, "great clouds of black smoke pour ino the room" from
> the fireplace.
>
> Does anyone have an Idea on how to do this without poisoning the actors and
> audience? I don't think a regular fog machine will cut it.
>
> Thanks Dave Wells
> GHHS Theatre Boosters
>
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