Thread: Lighting Question for Cage Prop

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I have built a cage prop that will house a skeleton in shackles. I am wondering what would be the best way to light the inside of the cage. I will have a hinged top for the cage, but don't know if putting a bulb into the top of the cage would detract from the effect. I would love to do a black light, as it would look eerie to have the skelton illuminated in this kind of light.

The cage height is approximately 5' 5" and the width and depth is about 4 '.

I built something just like this a few years back. I ended up using a 28 inch blacklight mounted towards the front of the cage. If you make a "shade" along the front side of the top of the cage, your guests will not be able to see the light bulb, just the effects from it. If you want to down light it, I'd suggest putting your light in a can. It will also hide the source from view and it will keep the light concentrated only in the cage and not washing into the surrounding areas.

Thanks for the information. I would love to do a can for my cage, but it is much smaller in scale than yours. It is more child size than adult size. I think I will have to use the tube black light solution. I could possibly mount it along the frame at the top of the cage, or create a box near the center. The can would be too big for the cage, but I would rather spot the light than wash it. Oh well, if it comes down to just putting an external light on it I will go that route. Too many projects and not much time left.

Thanks for your help, and the picture did allow me to see what you were talking about much better.

If you get the stake lights for lawns they have bases that you can use to mount to walls. I would get one of those and do the idea above but also add like a dim faint 60 watt red bulb to it. When you mix red with a black light, it is very cool looking. It has to be dim though and not over power the black light.