Chandelier

First of all, thank you Ian for your lovely vectorworks drawings.

I've searched high and low for the sockets we're going to need to build the chandelier, and have determined after calling every single electrical company in the state (I'm not even kidding here, I can give you the list if you want) that the only place to find them is online. It looks like they're only available in green or white. I think green would be awful, but black would be better than white, and it might be easier to turn the green ones black than the white ones.

As far as light bulbs, if we go with the CA8, which is the lamp Ian drew, the wattage options range from 15-40w. With 54 total lamps, even with 15w lamps, we have a total wattage of 810w, which I think will be plenty. The only possible merit I can see to a higher wattage is that they could spend the entire show running at a low intensity, which would (I think) make them a warmer color. We could also get amber-tinted "antique" lamps.

My worry is that even with the 15w lamps, we're going to be potentially overheating the sockets, since they're normally used with 7w christmas lights. I've sent an email to the manufacturer, because I can't find any information about the rating of the sockets online.

UPDATE: I've found something that will work, and they're even black. The only problem is that they cost $1.40 each, and we need 54 + spares.

Initial ideas

So, I went through the script today on an airplane, trying to come up with enough material for a blog post. It's really quite difficult to visualize when you don't know what the set is going to look like (hint hint nudge nudge), but here goes anyways. I definitely want to "play" with the seances, but I can't even begin until I get some idea of the set.

First of all, it seems like we might want to have a sound person. I'd really like to avoid a situation in which I end up taking charge of sound just because I can blunder my way through it kindof a little bit. I think that there's a lot of fun things that could be done with microphones and moving voices around and effects and things.

When I first read the opening effect, with lights fading up on the silhouette of Houdini, I was visualizing it with the drape open, but then a few scenes after that, the drape opens to reveal the living room behind it. The silhouette effect would be doable in front of the curtain, but I think it could be a lot more effective if the drape was open.

Also, Ian, I'm giving you full license to put practicals on the set, at your discretion. I think that they could be used quite effectively, and am happy to talk to you about it if you'd like.

The lamps held by the children, and then later by the spirits: There are clearly three spirits, but how many children? I've got a couple of ideas about how to do the lamp that flashes to bright very quickly, ranging from the simple and easy to the super-complicated. Is this even my job, or is this a props thing? Or is props in charge of getting the lamps, and me of getting them electrified?

I think I might want to try some strobe caps for lightning effects. I did some very, very preliminary looking (first couple hits on google,) and it looks like we could maybe rent them for a week for about $40 each.

That's all for right now, and hopefully this will help kick start my other designers. I wanna hear what you guys are thinking!