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Dear All at Talk Magic

I’m involved in a new play of “The Picture of Dorian Gray” that is going to be performed at the Edinburgh festival this year. As an amateur magician, the director has asked me if there is any illusion that could achieve an effect he is looking for.

In the story the main character has a portrait painted. Throughout the story the character does not age physically, but the portrait does.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Picture_of_Dorian_Gray

Would anyone know of an effect where a portrait could be placed on stage and slowly age at different points? My first thought was some kind of projection. If anyone could suggest a trick/effect that I could look into it would be really valued.

Thanks

Matt

Our own Seige sells something that may be right up your alley...

http://www.nothingupmysleeve.co.uk/marketplace/index.php?cPath=56

They're called Haunted Memories - The official site is here

http://www.hauntedmemories.com/gateway.htm

NUMS sells the 5x7 versions, but 11x14 and 16x20 sizes are also made. They are perfect for what you're looking for. Not sure they have an actual Dorian Gray version - but I'm sure you can find one that is a suitable likeness.

From there, you can easily set it up where instead of the audience moving - you can slowly turn the portrait (the slower the better to sell the illusion) as you talk about Dorian Gray - and watch the portrait change right before their eyes.

If you need rigging ideas, pm me and I'll see what I can do. Hope these links help.

I think the main difficulty with using the Haunted Memories pictures would be that you only get a four-way lenticular change.

Not a problem if you want quite a sudden A-B transformation, but I'd guess that the aging of Dorian Grey would actually require more than 4 steps?

That said, I'm not really sure what else to suggest either

EDIT: hold-up a mo; you've already suggested a projection onto the picture frame....

It would be quite easy - even in something very basic, like MS Powerpoint, to create a multi-stage morph, and would be very controllable too, if run through a laptop projector, surely?


Oh...and you might want to drop a quick introduction onto the forum too (in the introduction Thread, funnily-enough )

i you think of a triangle shape in 3D...and maybe each side being painted...well...

I disagree that you would only get a quick change effect - but yes - it is slightly limited in how long you can go and how gradual the change is.

The change would be workable on a computer, but I would hardly say it's easy. It's easy to do it poorly, yes - but convincingly and to make it look good is not as easy as just slapping a few images together. While the computer route may look like a shortcut, lack of effort and care will make it look awful.

My other problem with using a computer is a lack of authenticity to it. It's not so much an illusion anymore, as a nicely created powerpoint presentation.

Abraxus' idea is solid - and worth thought. From a personal perspective, I might go with a mixture of his idea and Rob's computer idea. Printed versions of your gradual image shifts, mounted on a 3d shape (If you wanted to be more gradual, you could make a rig that is 4 or even 6 sided), which are set behind a facade of a picture frame. All you'd need then, is a little bit of misdirection, someone to turn it, and you'd have a thing of beauty.

Look up a gent named Ed Fowler, he was the head Medium of the Houdini Seance at the Magic Castle for years... he or Mark Edward may be able to point you towards effects that were actually developed for the Dorian Grey story.

printing various stages in the change out on to a long sheet that is put on rollers accessible from behind the set could be an easy work around.
Either the complete picture replicated, or even just extra features altering over time put onto muslin cloth to allow the original to still show through behind the added deteriation.

I know you might think that it would be seen changing, but it would be a simple matter to choreograph the audiences attention across to the other side of the stage as the changes happen. If smooth, it would only take a second each time and go right past most people watching (probably).

Just an idea.

I like the powerpoint idea, although that would be lit and seem less like a painting.

...also, the correct heavy lighting could infact help turn a thickly painted portrait into something a little more scarey...

like if you shoot someone with the light underneath their chin, they take on a ghastly appearance...and if this was painted in thick oils, the the pitted the better, and the light would effectively "age" it for you, or rather make it more grotesque looking...

but, a simple 3d triangle, or if you wanted to, have a full body portrait painted, then cut the face out, mount the frame inside something black, and you could technically (just picturing it in my mind here), have someone with make up place their face inside the painting, slowly contorting their features or whatever...

asuming the picture is near the backdrop or above the fire place and that mr grey can't look at it or he'll die then its a simple mater to have a set of curtains that can be pulled open and closed off stage and just change the picture.

also you could use the peppers ghost principle and darken the picture change it and relight it, the change would apear quite smooth with some practise, or use a laptop / projector or even an ohp and the same principle.

Who says he can't look at the portrait? to the best of my knowledge, that was only brought up in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen story.

Demitri wrote:Who says he can't look at the portrait? to the best of my knowledge, that was only brought up in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen story.

Absolutely correct - in fact, Dorian gazed upon his transforming portrait numerous times throughout the story. The picture itself doesn't simply age, but transforms to show vile emotions piling up, with each of Dorian's real-life transgressions (at one point, after he commits murder, the portait of him becomes blood-stained itself); this is a fascinating story of much, much more than a picture that ages, instead of it's subject.

It's really quite disturbing

see i told you i didn't know what i was on about.

still from a production point of view my ideas are still valid.

Thank you all so much for your ideas. Such a great discussion. I will investigate them all . I will let you know what we go with in the end and how the staging progresses. Then when we get closer to august I will put a notice in the off topic board so that you can see the play if you like Cheers

Matt

And as with so many things these days, the whole text of Oscar Wilde's story is on line - check out http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/do ... reface.htm but don't have nightmares...... .

Sorry for making such an ineloquent suggestion on a magic site, but what size does the portrait have to be? If you could get away with a head and shoulders portrait (depends on your audience and venue size I guess) then I would be tempted to build a picture frame surround for a TFT monitor screen, and then use powerpoint and a morphing package to output the image changing over time.

Would be far more realistic and less prone to external influences than a projection would, and with careful cabling could be carried a limited way around the stage if required. Gives the opportunity for remaining lit in an eeire type way when required as a focal point and won't be as affected by lighting as a normal projection would. Luminescence could be controled by careful output levels so it didn't appear to 'glow' unless required.

Or possibly to combine an idea in a previous post, a very light muslin painting of the initial state over the top of the TFT and then bring additional lines, shading and features in slowly from behind - would need a bit of experimentation.