Falling floor effect

1906 Views 9 Replies 7 Participants Last post by J-Man, Mar 16, 2015

jbrown45146

Discussion Starter · Mar 14, 2015

Ok..i have an elevator entrance to add to my haunt this year and would like to somehow use the effect of a falling floor .i've seen the video of LG'S commercial ,need something similar.I'm gonna use a thick piece of plexiglass for the floor,and would love to use a projector from underneath to give the same effect,but can't for the life of me figure out what type of scrim to use and still get a decent detailed footage....seems to me it will still be kind of "fuzzy"...Here's the link to the video. Any thoughts?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_v8pFYJT65Q&feature=player_detailpage

Save

Reactions: 1

1 - 10 of 10 Posts

J-Man

· #2 · Mar 14, 2015

Hats off to LG, that's pretty cool. There's several pitfalls with this (no pun intended). The material you use for the floor has to be strong enough to support several people without any warping, I'm guessing they supported the floor with the framework that remained when the panels "fell" out. You could get pretty good video clarity using a white shower curtain liner but the other problem with using a projector is that you'll most likely need to get it about 10 feet beneath the floor to get the proper picture size.
Another problem would be keeping the floor spotless, if there's any debris or scuff marks on the clear floor it would ruin the effect.

Save

jbrown45146

Discussion Starter · #3 · Mar 14, 2015

Never thought about a shower curtain liner...gonna mock it up and see how it looks...the distance on the projector may be a problem also...and so will keeping the floor clean.....might need to re-think this a little...thanks for the input J-Man..

Save

WickedWino

· #4 · Mar 15, 2015

That was such a cool effect! Keep us posted if you recreate this!

Save

Reactions: 1

victor-eyd

· #5 · Mar 15, 2015

The 1st problem you would have with a falling floor effect is the fact that you need to dig a big enough hole to hide the projector (for the the throw needed to create an image big enough to be useful) typically about 7-10ft deep. Instead, project from the top. Its much cheaper and easier to create a mount or scaffolding for the projector to fire downwards onto the floor.

Now yours might not be as big as a court, but you can still achieve your goal without digging a huge hole in the ground

Victor

Save

Gym Whourlfeld

· #6 · Mar 15, 2015

Maybe some of you won't believe this,but I once did the elevator like this: I has some nice grey close-pile carpet, like you might see in an elevator,I put that on the floor in a small rectangle space. I had a wall of steel bars five feet high by 4 feet wide,not too thick on wheels that could roll back and forth.
I would ask if anyone wanted to go for a ride in my new elevator? (That I had just built!)
Maybe 6 people would walk into this space,i would slide the steel bar door closed ,make eye contact with as many of them as I could and say:"Here you go!"
Then I would slowly bend my knees .. some would scream,gasp,almost fall down.(Giving the illusion that they were going "UP".)
Of course maybe some of the reason this could work for me is because my house is full of wacky things I have built and maybe they all thought I was crazy?
You really should make the fullest use of every,anything you might have going for you,"Youth" Age,a wacky face inherited from a relative on the crazed side of your family tree?

See less See more

Save

jbrown45146

Discussion Starter · #7 · Mar 16, 2015

Cool video...i just thought being in such a confined space..10ftx10ft..the shadows of the "participants" would really interfere with the projection....and yes a deep hole would be needed...again...thanks for the idea's...still in the thinking stages.

Save

Icepick

· #8 · Mar 16, 2015

As was said the video of the overhead projection mapping on the court, they used several projectors. The main reason is so they can overlap images/videos, so there won't be shadows. So unless you have a real large budget, I don't see that one happening for an elevator prop.
Shooting direct from the projector to the underside would be an issue with clearance under the floor. As was posted, you would need a good distance. An ultra short throw projector, would help cut down on that, but would still need about 2 plus feet of throw distance depending on floor size. A raised platform will probably be easier than a hole in the ground. Another option is using mirrors. This will need a platform to be built. Something similar to this may work.

This is how a lot of "bottomless pits" that customers/patron can walk over, are made.

See less See more

Save

Reactions: 1

cmerli

· #9 · Mar 16, 2015

Icepick is using the same technique that Disney used in their Haunted House attraction. I think this would be the best way to keep a short distance and create the effect.

Save

J-Man

· #10 · Mar 16, 2015

cmerli said:
Icepick is using the same technique that Disney used in their Haunted House attraction. I think this would be the best way to keep a short distance and create the effect.

The mirror trick does work for some applications but I don't think it's suited for this. The mirror below the floor would have to be almost as big as the elevator if it's going to be close to the floor. A small mirror can be used close to the projector because the image is still tiny, not the case when the image is almost to it's destination. Even if the elevator is only 6' x 6', that would be a pretty big mirror and you would still need at least 3' under the floor to fit the mirror at a 45 degree angle.

Save

1 - 10 of 10 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.

Top Contributors this Month