Thread: what to do with this coffin ?

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Hey guys so i tried a night time video again and it really isn't worth posting because you can't see much at all. I have some photo's instead Enjoy




Thanks

Phil

Were they taken with a flash? Can you try without a flash so we can see more of the lighting & effect on the fog? Try and set your camera to 'night' and then take some pics - I only realised recently what a difference setting your camera to night makes when taking pictures at, er, night!

Hey phil , i tried every single mode i had on my camera but really there wasn't much difference, on every shot taken without flash the entire coffin couldn't be seen and it was just a blur of blue and green light, on the night the coffin will be lit up more by our outdoor house light so hopefully any pics taken will come out good without flash on.

Thanks

Phil

Yeah, cameras can be rubbish at times, which can be really frustrating when you're trying to capture something the way your eyes see it.

You mention it will be lit up by your house light? Would that be a halogen type one? What you could try is filtering your outside light - in fact you could buy some more cheap halogens (electrician's suppliers like TLC, Maplin or even your local B & Q or Homebase sell 150W lights sometimes for less than £5) and filter them all, although it would work on virtually any light.

If you look here;

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Theatre-DJ-Lig...LEDsStrobes_RL

This guy sells filter gel which you can place over the light. He does loads of colours (check his other items) along with other things like UV spray and cobweb spray! I've used this stuff myself and it's very good - if you covered your light with it everywhere would be green (or whatever colour you choose).

A tip though. If you do have a halogen, don't do what I did and cut a piece to size and fix it inside the halogen against the glass window - the heat was too intense and it bubbled up!

I then had to arch it over the glass panel outside the light housing, but it was fine then as it had a little distance & air to breath from the heat.

You can use these to cover/filter virtually any light and I would heartily recommend them for a great effect.

Anyway, good prop!

Thanks Phil i think ill give this a go, would the gel melt if i used a regular lamp bulb ?

Thanks

Phil

Originally Posted by phil121

Thanks Phil i think ill give this a go, would the gel melt if i used a regular lamp bulb ?

Thanks

Phil

Not sure what you mean exactly but I would say no, unlikely. This stuff is used in the theatre & stage world all the time so can withstand heat. Remember, what I did was seal a piece inside a halogen lamp (I opened it up as though I was going to replace the halogen bulb) placed a piece cut to size to fit tight up against the inside of the glass, then closed the window part again and screwed it up tight.

The problem was that whilst the metal casing and glass can withstand the heat (there's not much of a vent in those lights), the gel couldn't. However, outside of a closed environment like that should be fine - as long as the heat from the bulb can be dispersed and isn't contained in one sealed area, it should be fine i.e., with a halogen light the main heat is within the casing, the heat that escapes via the glass is less and as long as you leave a gap for it to escape it shouldn't come anywhere near to melting the gel filter.

Good old trial & error basically (like I found out!) but as the stuff is used in the commercial theatrical world it must generally be pretty hard to melt it (like I did!).

Give it a go - a few quid and you can convert a whole load of lights to which ever colour you want.

Originally Posted by phil121

Thanks Phil i think ill give this a go, would the gel melt if i used a regular lamp bulb ?

Thanks

Phil

This is the type of halogen light I mean.



See where you can unscrew the front (see screw at the top) - you then lever the front glass/hinged panel down to change the (long) bulb. I opened mine up, placed a square of the gel filter up against the inside of the glass (a nice tight fit!) and then closed it & screwed it up tight. That's where I went wrong.

If you have something like this (you can buy these with stakes to push in the ground for less than £5 each - I think you could probably pick them up for less than £3) then just cut a larger piece and stick it down (on the outside of the glass housing, not inside) at both the top & bottom edges, or left and right edges, leaving the other two sides open to allow any heat build up to escape.

Oh im sorry Phil , i didn't fully understand what you were talking about. I think that this is a really good idea, and as you said you can get halogen lights like this for dirt cheap. This should defiantly work.

Thanks

Phil

Originally Posted by phil121

Oh im sorry Phil , i didn't fully understand what you were talking about. I think that this is a really good idea, and as you said you can get halogen lights like this for dirt cheap. This should defiantly work.

Thanks

Phil

No worries, it's hard trying to explain something without pictures or diagrams.

Anyway, it's well worth a go as these light up a huge area (go for 150w max), are cheap and you can always change colour by just placing a different filter over the top.

Originally Posted by thehorrorfinatic

I've seen lots of people do phenomenal Fogging Coffins.
Heres a nice example of a "Ground Fogger Coffin"
YouTube- reverse flow coffin fog chiller pt3

If you wanted something more decoration, Jeff Baird did a nice one.
YouTube- Animatronic Coffin

And Lastly, I don't know who did this one, But it's one of my favorites!
YouTube- Haunted Coffin

Good Luck with whatever you do, Phil

This is very nice. Next year, I'm building one of these.