Rain Off An Eve Or In Front Of A Window
Background:
In episode 1002, the main character sings a song on his guitar while standing under an eve in the pouring rain.
MST, in a tribute to how horribly implemented the scene was, ripped the entire thing off, even down to the movie's bad vocal dubbing.
In this scene, and in most Hollywood movies, the shooting is done inside a studio, which makes natural rain impossible.
Natural rain is also very difficult to achieve in on-location shooting because you never know when it is going to rain, how much, and for how long.
As a result, many movies use giant sprayers to achieve rain; however, if your character is not going to walk into the rain itself (like in 1002), it is much easier to have rain come streaming off of an eve or be behind a window than to drench an entire set (which may not even be waterproof.)
So, a different method, described below, is employed.
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Supplies Needed:
- A source of continuous water
- A watertrough (metal gutters work fine) or a plastic window planter the length of your eve or window
- A second trough to catch the water after it falls
- A drill with a very fine bit
- Fishtank tubing (optional)
Directions:
Take the window planter, and using a fine drill bit, poke a dozen or so holes scatter across the bottom of the trough.
I'm sure you already realize what we're trying to do here, but pour a gallon or so water into the trough to see if the holes you poked produce realistic enough 'rain.'
If you need to go bigger, do so.
Now we need to mount the planter above your window (make sure to position it high enough that there is no way for it to be noticed in the scene.
If you are working entirely on a set, there's nothing wrong with simply drilling through the side of the planter into the set.
However, if you are working, say, inside of a actual home and want rain to stream down in front of a exterior window, we will need to be slightly more creative.
The easiest way to do it when hard mounting is impossible is to screw the planter into a length of 2X4 much as you would mount it to the set, but instead, find two people willing to hold onto the 2X4 up above your window (in this instance, a first story window would be necessary, obviously.)
As you already need someone to monitor the water flow, this method will only require one additional person.
If you are working outside, it is not as necessary to catch the water, but in an interior environment, it will prove to be necessary as more than likely, you will be doing multiple takes of the scene.
Catching the water in a planter directly below the other is not difficult, but it will require continous emptying as the scene progresses.
To eliminate the need to have someone emptying the tray every five minutes, we can use physics to our advantage.
It's called capillary action, sparing you a giant lecture, it basically means that if you take a tube that is narrow enough (fishtank tubing is perfect), and fill it with water and place one end in a source of water, that the water will continue to flow, in this case it will flow up.
It seems strange, but having a large fishtank, the only effective way to clean it is by taking out several gallons of water through capillary action.
This method also means that you will only need to fill the plantera single time and the water will continually cycle.
What you will need to do is fill the top planter approximately halfway, and also fill the catch planter about halfway.
Take a length of fishtank tubing and fill it with water (it is very important that there be no air bubbles).
The easiest way to do this is to submerge it in the bottom trough and siphon the water through the tube with your mouth.
After you have done this, first, ensure that the bottom opening of the tube stays submerged in the lower planter (duct tape it in place), then, run it up to the upper planter.
Tape the tubing so that the opening stays above the waterline (so that the water has to fall a few inches into the planter.)
This should allow the water to continually cycle.
However, depending upon how many holes you have punched in the upper planter, the water may flow out faster than it flows back in.
In this case take a few additional lengths of fishtank tubing and repeat the above steps until the water flow balances.
You can also use a pump... but fishtank tubing is a lot cheaper, and doesn't make any noise.
The final step is to add rain sound effects in post.
You can either search on google for rain sound effects, or tape some actual rain (make sure that it is falling in the same quantities that your effect did) and use that.
There, done, whaddya think?
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