Thread: Levetating Body

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I am trying to come up with a way to make a body appear to be floating above an altar in a chapel for our grave yard haunt.

Any ideas?

Build the body out of chicken wire, with a frame coming out from a wall behind it, and have only one point of view. Place clothing on the body of course. That's how pro magicians do it.

Make the body as lightweight as possible, and use fishing line to suspend it from the ceiling? Or, maybe make two or four decorative type poles to either side of the alter and suspend the body from them with fishing line?

From some of the magic shows I have seen, it appears that the body is laying on a thin frame with a very narrow horizontal support that goes back from the middle 90 degree's from the body and at the balance point. Think of a very wide spatula. There is a curtain very close to the body and it is split where the support is to allow the body to rise and lower. The magician usually passes a very large ring around the body to prove it is not suspended from above, but does so in a manner that does not take the ring past the center in the rear. Naturally with the curtain so close to the body, even viewing from the side makes it hard to see the support.

Buckaneerbabe wanted to have a "ghost" floating above a coffin in our hearse and we finally got it done using a short throw projector on a sheer black cloth (scrim). We really didn't get a good clear video of it last year or in 2009 but if you watch the video for the scenes where the hearse is in view, you can see the ghost floating around above the coffin. What I like about this effect is the transparency. You can see through the ghost to the other side of the hearse.

This is 2009's video and the ghost is seen about 2 minutes into it.



This is 2010's video and the ghost is visible, about 1 minute 18 seconds into it. Because of the angle of the camera you only see the legs and the light reflecting on the plexiglass makes it hard to see from that angle as well.

Buck,

Great Haunt !!!

I saw one of a woman and she had long hair that hid the support holding her in mid air.