Our Experience with "Frozen"
An exceptionally satisfying Show
• Over the years I have done 27 different MTI Shows; some of those more than once. MTI Shows are always a pleasure to put on due to their excellent support materials .... "Frozen" is no exception to this
• In any School or Amateur Production there are always a few 'Stellar' performances from individuals; but every now and then a Show comes along that elicits the best personal performance from every member of the entire Cast and Crew. This special 'Magic' may not be entirely in the material, but I suspect that the Script has a lot to do with it. My List of these truly memorable Shows would be "Chicago", "The Addams Family", "Les Mis" and "Oliver"......... and now I must add "Frozen"
• This special ‘Magic’ is even more remarkable because this production of "Frozen" was presented by a High School Drama Program as a Class Project. This was not an extra-curricular, carefully-auditioned Show ….. everybody in the Class was in, and we had multi-casting of all the roles too, with the 'Young Elsa's and Anna's' borrowed from a Junior School. As usual for our Class Productions, we did 12 Performances in 4 Days, so every Student had at least 3 performances in each of their roles …. and every performance ‘Rocked’
It's all in the Script
• When I design a Show I never watch the Movie version or someone else's Production; I have developed a process that relies on the "Script" to tell me what is needed .... and this Script told me we had to push the limits
"It came from her Hand !"
• The whole story line is dependant on 'Elsa's Magic' coming directly from her Hands ...... not some stage-lighting effect, not from a broomstick or a wand ..... and a flashlight (torch) up the sleeve was not going to cut it
• So I challenged myself to create Hands for the Elsa's that allowed full natural hand movement with remotely-controlled lights bright enough to blast through full 'daylight' stage lighting
Visible “Cold"
• Another challenge was to provide believable, ie: Visible, "Cold" to motivate the reactions from the Chorus and the main Antagonists
• So we budgeted a risky break-even production so as to afford Low-Fog and Falling Snow. We are too far North to rent this type of gear, so we purchased an Antari S-500 Snow Making Machine, and a Look Solutions Cryo-Gate to make Low-Fog from my Rosco Smoke Machine. Both effects worked very well. Low-Fog uses a lot of Liquid CO2, but it was worth it
• Why did we opt for Low-Fog? In the Script, when Elsa's protective glove is pulled off by Anna the "Magic" is released (cue the Hand Flash) and one of the Citizens cries out "It came from her Hand!". So the question becomes 'What came from her hand ?' That flash of light needs to produce something tangible to motivate a strong reaction from the Chorus. Falling Snow would work fairly well, since it is Mid-Summer and the scene is inside the Palace, but then the 'look it's snowing outside' line would need to be changed ….. We chose to raise the bar another notch; Low-Fog swirling round their Legs looks like someone opened the door when it's minus forty outside; our Northern Audience would pick up on that instantly
• Beyond that critical Moment in the Script, the various outdoor scenes battling the Storm and, of course, inside the Ice Palace itself looked so much 'Colder' with Low-Fog
• I expect most of you will probably be able to Rent this type of equipment, so your Budget wouldn't take quite such a beating as ours. (We did break-even because all the Houses were packed … “Frozen” is a real Box Office Draw)
More Info on the above:
MTI …. for Licensing and Total support https://www.mtishows.com/disneys-frozen-jr
Antari …. for Snowmaking Machine https://antari.com/products/s-500/
Look Solutions ….. for Low-Fog Machine https://looksolutionsusa.com/products/cryogate/
Rosco ….. for Smoke Machine https://ca.rosco.com/en/product/vapour-fog-machine
Our Mistakes that you can learn from
LEDs
• RoscoLED Tapes were the brightest that I could find at the time in 12v., and I happened to have a RoscoLED Demo-Kit available, so that was what I cut up and used
• This was a choice based on availability, it is NOT the best solution. The RoscoLEDs are quite expensive, they require a lot of work (and waste) to convert them for this application and RoscoLED Tapes are wider than other Brands (presumably to act as a better heat-sink for the higher power), so they are not as good a fit, particularly on slender Teenage Fingers
• To get the maximum light, from the RoscoLEDs, the strip lengths were as long as possible (see the photo in the Specs.) which made them flex too much, particularly on the smaller hands. Over-flexing breaks the soldered connections and also delaminates the LED strips so the printed circuits get damaged
• Soldering raw ends of LED Tapes is really fiddly and prone to failure due to overheating while you are trying to get the solder to 'stick'
• To resolve all these issues, I have found LEDs that are 2.25 times brighter, cheaper (because they can now be shorter), custom cut to length and pre-soldered. Ready to use without wasted time or materials. And; because they are shorter, we can change the layout on the smaller hands to avoid the flexing problems
Flexible Wire
• Ironically, the single most difficult supply to find was the Thin, flexible wire to connect the LED Strips to the wrist band
• The majority of what is readily available is for automotive and/or electronics applications and they do not have anywhere near enough flexibility for this application. Low-voltage building wire and telephone wires tend to be solid copper which is even less flexible (I had lots of all of those on hand)
• I finally found some wire in the storage room of our local Electronics Retailer. It was being used to tie up a box of obsolete techno-junk ! So that was what I used
• However, even that, at 24AWG, turned out to be less than ideal; I made a lot of repairs to fatigued solder joints.
• To resolve this problem, I have found a supplier of really flexible 27AWG (0.18mm) wire, so I bought a large roll, and you get 3.5 metres, in 5 pre-cut lengths, ready to start your first 'Hand'
Gloves
• Gloves are needed to hold the LEDs in place and control the Wires as the Fingers move –– so the Gloves need to have a skin-tight fit and four-way stretch
• The Gloves also need to conceal the LEDs and Wiring from the Audience, so the material must be skin-tone and opaque, but at the same time allow the light from the LEDs to shine through
• I thought that Translucent Latex Medical 'Inspection' Gloves would satisfy all the above criteria and, being available in different sizes, they seemed to fit the various actors and looked good in rehearsal
• When we got on stage, under full stage lighting, we discovered that the skin colour was diminished by the Latex reflecting more light than the underlying skin. So the colour was not quite 'right'
• Also, they were a bit wrinkly on smaller hands and where the Latex didn't touch the skin there was no skin colour at all, just creamy Latex. So the wrinkles really showed up
• The gloves were not tight enough, so the LEDs and Wires were not controlled as well as had been expected, they tended to conflict, adding to the casualty rate of the soldered connections
• There was not enough time for us to correct this, but the problem needed to be a resolved for later productions ….. your Production
• The solution comes from using LEDs that are 2.25 times brighter, which allows the use of Cotton Gloves
• Whilst the RoscoLEDs might struggle to penetrate through cotton fabric with enough light to be effective, the new LEDs easily shine through the fabric. (see the Instruction Video)
• The pure cotton fabric is easily dyed to match your Elsa's skin tone (just soak them in strong Tea or Coffee ….. see photo in Specs.)
• The wide choice of sizes assures finding optimum fit for comfort, movement and control for your Elsa’s
Radio-Remote Switch
• The Radio-remote switches that I used were not the best choice
• I had assumed that the flashes would be momentary, but as you see from our Production Video, the LEDs are always on for a one to three second count. Never just a 'Flash'
• This required the operator to hold down the transmit button for extended lengths of time, whereas it is designed for momentary operation. So we over-taxed the little batteries in the transmitters, resulting in frequent dismantling and replacement of the expensive button batteries
• I recommend that you use a 2-channel, latching on/off, one button per channel radio-remote switch. (I bought one for the Instruction Video and it is perfect for this job)
One Hand vs. Two
• Another mistake I made was assuming that the Young Elsa only really needed one hand (I was short of LEDs, so it looked like a good option)
• But she actually needs both hands to do convincing 'Magic' in the opening crowd scene so as to motivate the Queen's "No Magic" line. If the audience can’t ‘see’ the Magic the action is weakened
• Young Elsa really needs both hands to summon the Snow Fairies into the Bedroom
• Having both hands also gives you back-up, in case of a connection failure caused by the high level of activity on Stage (such as during Hand Slapping Game or the Building 'Olaf' scenes)
• I would also suggest that you include a move in the blocking or choreography so that Young Elsa's hands are together for the Big Zap. Twice as much light and total back-up
• So, in your Elsa Hand Kit you get two Hands for each of your Elsa's
Plugs, Jacks and Cables
• I used Plugs and Jacks with short Pig-Tails, which is how they come when bought separately. So I had to add the Cable (I used speaker wire) ….. lots of extra work and additional bulky connections
• My recommendation is to use Barrel-Jack extension cables with Flat Cables (round cables are bulkier and less flexible). Using both ends of the same cables will guarantee that your Jacks and Plugs are compatible and there are no extra connections to be made. This is what you see me using in the Instruction Video
• If you choose to go with 'available' cables ('borrowed', perhaps, from wall-plug chargers), be sure your Plugs and Jacks are a perfect match, because there are two different sizes of centre pin available with the identical outside 'barrel' diameter; a potential for intermittent connections