Making a Stage Look Like Hell

For the premier of War of the Worlds last week, the radio station i work for, in conjjunction with the state emergency service and the queensland police put on an emergency scene, and it really opened my eyes up to doing a great scene like that.

It started out on the street, outside the cinemas, with police and emergencyt workers everywhere, upturned vehicles, bricks and dirt and smashed up stuff everywhere.

As we walked into the cinema the devastation got worse, it was so cool. There were heaps of actors pretending to be dead and injured. They even handed out face masks for authenticity.

It was all very cool ... and then War of the Worlds just blew my mind. Pity about the ending.

But I just wanted to share that, so that you could maybe open your eyes, as mine have, that a theme can extend past the FOH stage.

[stevegoad]

Of course, an easier solution (though probably not as effective as real flames) can be done with strobes, red lighting and fog. with the right background, it at least envokes fear in a darkened room - people's imagination adds to the mix.

[Nathan J]

Chauvet makes some inexpensive flame effects (fan blowing on silk) for around $100 each. We have two of them and from 20+ feet they look genuine -- nothing compared to intelligent lights or real fire of course though

[Robert Adams]

I'm sure you have done this, but I did a little research on hell, and found some interesting facts from the Bible that I never really studied

In Luke 16, Jesus Christ gives a frightening picture of hell:
. . . the rich man also died, and was buried; and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. (Luke 16:22-2

Then, we also see that hell is a place of fire; which I'm sure you all know:
The man in Luke 16:24 cries: ". . .I am tormented in this FLAME." In Matthew 13:42, Jesus says: "And shall cast them into a FURNACE OF FIRE: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." In Matthew 25:41, Jesus says: "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting FIRE,. . ." Revelation 20:15 says, " And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the LAKE OF FIRE."

That's not surprising, but what really cought me was Matthew 12:40:
"For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly: so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the HEART OF THE EARTH. "

I interpret that; that hell is in the earth, so maybe that could give you a new take on the stage design.

Just some interesting facts...Also, instead of fire, how about seeing if possibly you could find some lava/volcano video...just for a little variety instead of flames if you go the video route...

[jorad]

You could also take a figurative approach. If good (God) can be represented as light. Evil (absence of God) can be represented as darkness. Lots of darkness, and high angle lighting (to create shadows directly on the actors faces) can really set the mood. If you are going to be doing some set construction consider creating a cavelike atomoshere, and light the walls with browns and reds and of course shadows. Use narrow spots from a high angles on your talent. You can also colour your fill lighting for an ominous effect.

[jorad]

You can also use the actors to help portray the feeling of being in hell. If you're going to use lots of shadows, they can use exagerated facial expressions and body movement to portray their anguish and desparation.

For a drama last year we needed fire in a barrel (for the homeless scene). what we did was put yellow flood (cheap alum. reflector), rotating red "police" light (from radio shack) and a small strobe light gelled orange) and piped fog into the can and when turned on we got the affect we were looking for.

One other time for our house of destiny we took hair and burnt it on a karosene heater and had a bunch of low lying fog and some haze and then very little light red and yellow light in the room very creepy.

Now for an off topic comment: It has always been interesting to me when we designed for drama/events we really had no problem creating a very believable "hell" but for Heaven was always looked fake and just not real.

Brad

[adamdiehl]

Okay the Hell Stage thing has been completed. Alot of completely unexpected factors occured the weeks heading up to camp, so alot of stuff I wanted to do didn't happen, but it was still good. Here's the low-down, if you're interested.

Doors opened 5 minutes before start time. We had a red 5 minute countdown that we used (from worshipfilms.com). We played some music from the Matrix Reloaded soundtrack really loud (the meter read 110 db). Every light in the auditorium was red... even houselights. I used Rosco #19 ("Fire"). I didn't have enough foggers to cover the whole stage with fog, but I put one low fogger at upstage center pointing straight out towards the iron podium... and two warm foggers (that shot fog out like a jetstream) in that same spot, but pointing out to the sides more. Fog was everywhere in the first 5 minutes when everyone entered the auditorium. We really wanted to get everyone riled up at the beginning (like they really were in hell) so we played that loud music, but it worked a little bit TOO good and we had to turn the music down some after a couple teenagers almost got in a fight.

After the countdown the speaker jumped (and I do mean JUMPED) onto the stage and began yelling into the microphone about hell, and how you really don't want to go there. He continued on (everything is still RED) speaking about how some people listening have been running with the Devil and are headed to hell because they have not accepted Christ. Then he transitioned by saying, "You must Accept, Accept, Accept!" The third "accept" was our cue to stop the fog and transition to "Heaven." Everything (and I do mean everything) changed from red to light-blue. It was an amazing transition. Then there was a really really long worship, altar, and ministry time and God changed alot of lives. It was extrememly successful.

Thank You.