How to make someone (but not their clothes) disintegrate

[Clive Arthur]

Rather than an inflatable dummy, an inflatable frame made from thin tubing which you can pressurise to make rigid. Use water to pressurise it, much less volume to lose quickly.

Cheers

[Robin]

Half-relief, probably not. I was thinking more in terms of mask+clothing sewn together as a single piece, with some stiffeners[1] and weights to make it drape/drop, which could be suspended from a single fishing line.

[1] a bent wire coat-hanger or 2 being about the limit of my thinking :)

[Bert Coules]

That does raise the question of how quickly even a smaller amount of water would drain, and of how to handle it while it was doing so and after, but it's a clever notion, thanks.

[Bert Coules]

Robin,

That's pretty close to my (3D) approach, with a head-and-shoulders form in expanded polystyrene maybe, or wire frame. I think with a single line there might be a tendency for it to rotate, but there are ways round that.

[Clive Arthur]

You could use many short hollow rods to make the frame, held rigid with a spring-tensioned wire up the middle, just like those wooden push-up toys...

Cheers

[Bert Coules]

Clive,

A very neat idea. Thanks!

[tabbypurr]

matt black string on matt black clothing shouldn't be too visible.

garden trellis. Cut in the right places to make a big lazy tong mechanism. Obviously some trelli are better at this than others. But the mechanism would have to extend under the stage or steps etc if the clothing heap is to go fully flat.

NT

[Robin]

Only you can judge if the director's artistic sensibilities will accept that big a lump on the floor :)

That's a fair cop, 'guv.

[Clive Arthur]

That's a bit unambitious...

Cheers

[dennis]

Maybe a fan inflated body and reverse the fan to collapse it?

[Handsome Jack]

Bert Coules posted

The Masque of the Red Death?

The ensuing bang could perhaps be covered up by one of the cast streaming loudly.

[Bert Coules]

The Roger Corman film? I've seen it but it was a while ago and I don't recall a scene similar to what I'm trying to create. Obi-Wan's self-sacrifice in the first Star Wars film is a more recent instance.

Sorry, but using the internet is frowned on during performances.

[Bert Coules]

It should be possible to rig it so it falls flatter than that. And if the mask is a solid construction rather than of cloth or similar, a certain size of residual pile would be understandable.

[Bert Coules]

NT,

Fully flat isn't necessary: the robes would have a certain bulk and the mask can be solid (helmet-like) rather than cloth or similar.

[Bert Coules]

That's enormously impressive, isn't it. But the time it must take!

[Bert Coules]

Too cumbersome for my purposes I think, but thanks for the thought.

[T i m]

Suitable elastic between the shoulders and feet, attached to internal cross wires over the range to ensure it all collapses uniformly, rather than just turns itself inside out like a glove (especially if any air is trapped in the cloak).

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

If the 'opening' was large enough and the volume of the frame small enough it should deflate pretty quickly, especially if assisted by some other means (elastic etc).

For the opening it could be a neck of a container (pringles can?) bonded to the skeleton that has it's lid removed by a spring loaded mech.

If it was positioned in the middle (vertically) the wind resistance over the length would be minimised?

FWIW, the air pressure in my Zodiac inflatable dinghy is ~3.6 PSI and that makes it stiff enough to support 4 people, an outboard motor and all bouncing about on the sea. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[Bert Coules]

Tim, thanks for that and your previous observation.

[Brian Gaff]

Actually there used to be a magician doing this all the time on stage. The joke of cores was there was a flash and all that remained was the girls bikini. No idea how it was done but obviously substitution and some hidden area I'd imagine. Brian