Open Forum

Good Morning!

With regards to lifting a student into the air, I always air on the side of caution. I would schedule a consult with Flying by Foy. To me, its not worth the risk of something happening to the student. 

Would it be possible to have the cast lift him?

If you have an architect, design or construction teacher, check with him/her. They might be able to figure out a safe way to execute the effect.

I was in the cast of a production of Daniel Rocket back in high school.  When we did the show, the bedroom was on a raised platform and Daniel stood upstage of the bed. We had a small platform attached to a lever (sort of like a teeter-totter) that was below the floor of the bedroom.  Daniel stood upstage of the bed, on the small platform and several tech crew members under the platform laid down slowly on the other side of the lever and it lifted him a few inches off the ground. Not high, but it was effective, especially when well timed with the dimming lights.

In my experience (I'm a full-time set designer), simple effects like this can often turn into major engineering projects and eat up a good chunk of the budget and time. But, at the same time, we want to be sure the effect is safe.

Depending on how much time you have available, I would suggest a couple of things. First, decide how high you want the student to go. Two or three feet can have a different solution than eight or ten feet. Second, look at your set design and decide where you want the effect to take place. As someone else suggested, a piece of furniture may help hide the mechanism---or it may want to be done in the middle of a room.

Then, once you know that, call Foy or another flying company and talk with them. It won't cost anything and they might be able to give you some ideas right off the top, or refer you to someone else who did the same effect.  You can also do a web search for this effect; there are various tech theatre sites and trade magazines that often have online archives.

One thing I would suggest not doing is calling a magician or magic shop. Although there are several ways of doing a "levitation" effect, they tend to look like magic tricks no matter how you dress them, and you want the audience to focus on your story and not think you dropped a magic trick into it.

Try borrowing a small hydraulic lift--if you dress it properly it can be very effective.  I've used lifts to raise the Lady of the Lake in SPAMALOT and Farquaad in SHREK.  They are slow and safe.  

A safe option is just creating the illusion of movement.  If you use a gobo scroller or a video projector to create a pattern of light that looks like downward moving stars or clouds around the actor as the lights fade-out, they will appear to move upwards.  The audience will get it, especially if the background (cyc) has a gradient color shift from sky blue near the floor to dark (space blue) farther up, with the transition point moving downward during the fade (you need a set of ground-row cyc washes and an overhead row of cyc washes to make this work well).

Another way to create this illusion would be to have the background drop painted with birds and trees, or whatever the scene's earth-bound background is, and above that have the trees, clouds, stars - then lower the batten from which the backdrop is suspended to create the illusion of upward movement.  The backdrop can just pile-up on the floor in the dark.  The drop may have to be very tall to achieve this, so it may be limited by the amount of fly-space you have.

I realize that this effect is important to the production and there has been many suggestions on how to accomplish this effect. The first and the most important item is safety. Companies like Foy are in business for a reason, they are professionals at lifting/flying people. Please don't atttept to physically do this effect without consulting a profrssional entertainment company like Foy. As a lighting designer I have done many lifting and falling effects just by using a lighting effect(s). By using your set and lighting you should be able to accomplish this important effect for your production. 

You shoiuld also check with your school's or school district's insurance policy to see if this is type of 'effect' is covered. 

I don't want to sound all doom & gloom but I have seen too many people hurt by folks trying a "simple effect" on their own. Please leave these type of effects to the professionals. Safety First. 

Don't let this be you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr0O3hKKnrk