CAMELOT Theatrical Special Effects

Every now and then you'll encounter a script that requires an actor to levitate. Before you call Flying By Foy, ask the age-old question: "How high?" A few inches is impressive. For that matter, what constitutes levitation anyway? The answer is: anything that isn't
980 cm/second/second on earth or, more universally (if you're performing on another planet)
F=G((m1*m2)/r²)) gives the appearance of defying gravity. Duh. All right, so how do you do it?

Believe it or not, there's a website devoted to this topic: http://www.levitation.org/ and it's presented by the folks at Ellusionist who will be happy to sell you some secrets to get you airborne. They're not alone. Effects on the market now, coming, rumored-to-be-coming, imitations and others include: Balducci, King Rising, Asrah, Zero Gravity, Elevator, Aliun, Fearson's Fantastic Flotation, Retro Gravity, Invisible Force, BroomFlight, Airborne, Floating on the Edge, Mid-Air and On Thin Air. Those are just a few (gasp!) I'm not even going to start describing them all let alone buying and trying them all. Let's just say: the performers are not the only ones up-in-the-air here. I own a few and they work. Some are cheap and some are expensive. My down-to-earth advice right now? The cheaper, the better.

posted by C. J. # 9:55 PM