CAMELOT Theatrical Special Effects

The illusion that is today known in stage magic, motion pictures, haunted houses and optical FX as "Pepper's Ghost" is well-agreed-upon by theatrical historians as having been designed by the English engineer Henry Dircks, who had created a small working model of the effect around 1860. The showman, Professor John Pepper, heard about this optical principle and the two men became partners and began collaborating to create the effect as a stage illusion. They applied for a patent together in 1862. In those days such principles were patentable since late 19th-century science was a period of amazement and phenomenal leaps in all directions. Showmanship was at the cutting edge and premiered many inventions and achievements before their practical applications had been discovered.

Dircks and Pepper used a large pane of plate glass set at a 45-degree angle (either vertical or horizontal) that reflected brightly lit actors off-stage or below-stage, superimposing them with the on-stage set and actors. "Pepper's Ghost" was featured at the Royal Polytechnic in London, a science museum and auditorium on Regent Street. The actor portraying the "ghost" was illuminated by an oxygen-hydrogen lamp (both gases readily available by simple electrolysis of water) and the illusion attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors, became the talk of London, made Pepper a lot of money and was imitated around the world. If you've been through "The Haunted Mansion" at Disneyland you've seen Pepper's Ghost; twice, actually. The ballroom dancers for one and "Beware of Hitch-hiking Ghosts" for the second.

The illusion was a permanent installation at the Royal Polytechnic requiring one monstrous sheet of plate glass the width of the stage and almost double the proscenium height. Pulling this gag in a community theatre production today is not even a physical possibility let alone a financial or logistical one. Where are you gonna get a 40 foot square piece of plate glass to start with? In your dreams. And then what? Forget it. Not that it isn't used today: smaller pieces of plate glass, doorway-sized, still amaze people in "dark rides," haunted houses and stage magic illusions but the gag is outdated, unwieldy, expensive and transparent (pun intended) to today's sophisticated audience.

Welcome to the 21st Century! First, let's look at the future:

Tim Hansen of Oasis Stage Werks and a major force in ESTA (Entertainment Services & Technology Association) was interviewed by Bill Sapsis of Sapsis Rigging Inc. Part of the interview went as follows:

Sapsis: "Care to gaze into your crystal ball and see where the industry is heading in the next 5 years or so?"

Hansen: "I see more technology entering the industry, more moving lights, more motorized rigging, more projected and video effects, more LED's, for instance. This is not a bad thing but it will require more savvy
technicians. It will also allow bigger and better shows in smaller spaces. As the technology becomes more affordable, the things that the High School drama teacher has always wanted for a show now become possible. Helping people execute their creative vision is a really great thing."

Thanks, Tim! "Projected and video effects" is the phrase I needed. Allow me to introduce "Anderson's Ghost," the state-of-the-art ghost effect for every production from Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol" to Noel Coward's "Blithe Spirit." It requires components readily-available to every high school or college theatre: a digital camera, a laptop computer, a digital projector (800 lumens or more), an overhead electric with dimmable fresnels, Adobe Photoshop or a similar editor and, if you really want to wow the crowd, an animation utility for GIF89a such as GIF Construction Set or Microsoft GIF Animator.

Effect: An actor enters the stage, totally transparent. The audience can see through the actor as he/she passes across the set. At any given point, the ghost interacts with objects behind it such as straightening framed pictures or picking up objects such as a flower from a vase. This is seen through the back of the ghost, yet, as the ghost turns, the object behind it (picture, flower) has changed! Better yet, the ghost becomes less transparent and finally moves to center stage fully opaque!

It's not expensive to snap the components together but it is incredibly complex as far as technical know-how. That's why you'll need my white-paper on "Anderson's Ghost," available via e-mail to Camelot (click the link) or soon on our upcoming website for a nominal fee. We're putting video together soon to show the effect and it's a shocker, guaranteed to make an audience gasp and ask afterward, in the joydit line: "How did you do that?" Write me for details.

posted by C. J. # 12:27 AM