Ghosts

Apparitions of all kinds have fascinated people for as long as they have had imaginations. Producing ghosts on stage or screen can be done with an actor wearing a white sheet, but it won't be very convincing.

"Professor" Henry Pepper presented the famous illusion of an actor interacting with a ghost on the London stage in 1862, as the illustration shown left, drawn at the time, shows. An actor below or to one side of the stage, dressed as a ghost, was illuminated by the light from a lantern. His transparent image reflected toward the audience from an angled sheet of glass in front of the stage. Amazing for the time, this sheet of glass went right across the entire front of the stage.

This technique has been used in many formats ever since. You can replicate this set-up with the box theatre you have created.

Pepper's Ghost in your box theatre

You can recreate the Pepper's Ghost illusion with your box theatre, a plate of glass or clear plastic and a torch.

You will need to experiment. Make sure you are looking at the effect from the position of the audience. The actors on stage must look at the position of the ghost as the audience would see it. They can see nothing.

Many special effects specialists started by playing around with models and seeing how the effects would look on a real stage. It is still very often done that way. Models of stage sets and necessary equipment are often constructed in the preparations for professional productions.

In these days of digital cameras, it is easy to take photographs of the stage and the effects to judge how they would look to an audience. It is an essential part of the design phase.

The lit candle in the glass of water

Can you get it to work in your set and photograph it?

Create the ghost illusion using the Pepper's Ghost technique.
Play around with the method. Can you get a lit candle in a glass of water? What other illusions can you create?