Need help with an idea - Duck Pond

[RobfromErie]

I'm just an actor at my local haunt, but every year I bring my own thoughts, ideas, and costume to the haunt. Every year I have to try and outdo myself. The first year was pretty basic, with just "great" acting. The second year I brought my own stilt costume. This year I want to build a duck pond game.

This year our theme is 'carnival of carnage'. The company I work for has a lot of carnival games and smaller rides, so it should work out. As I said, I would like to bring a duck pond game.

The current idea is to make the tank very deep so that I can sit in the pond and grab peoples hands/jump out of the pond. This of course will require a scuba tank for breathing. I'm ok with that.

My question to you guys is, is there a way to hide underneath a shallow pond and just have my hand/arm come out of the pond without being inside the pond? Or is this impossible due to the pond draining?

And does anyone know of any tanks/ tubs that would be well suited to do this.

Thank you !

any other thoughts and considerations are welcome

[Allen H]

This is all in theory so take that with a grain of salt.
two possible solutions
#1
make the duck pond 6" deep and 3ft or so off the ground.
use a pond liner to line it. cut a hole in the liner and glue in an arm length PVC glove.
Make sure it seals
you should be able to retract the glove so its inside out except for the hand and under support shelf for the pond
http://www.sharpesafety.com/catalog/...ay.php3?ID=922

#2
build the pond up off the ground the same way as #1
except have it be more of a duck lazy river as opposed to pond
that way the actor could be on the other side under a flip lid of astroturf
as the guests approach and reach for a duck he flips it up and reaches at them over the 1ft of water wide duck river
the lazy river could work well and I have done something similar to that just themed differently

[rfsystems]

I've thought of doing a water themed scene many of times and always opt on going a different direction. Using water in your scene and getting into the water of your scene are two totaly diferent things! Being that we're normally open in October, the weather always finds a way to dip into the "Too Clod For Getting In" temperature. I always figure out a way to pull-off the same effect with out getting all wet. I think Allen has the right idea. Or maybe even use both his ideas combined, two ways to get'em instead of just one...

[Greg Chrise]

Pond liner and some kind of hands on a stick are the way to go. We have done swamp scenes where the water is only 6 inches deep and full of floating leaves. Once that is introduced, someone always has a water pump from a water fall or fountain to set up.

I wouldn't do the scuba thing. You can do aligators that spit small streams of water or actually raise things up out of the water from over head like a marrionette puppet. You can have a system of submerged water to blow bubbles into that make it look like something is moving because there were bubbles here then there and then over there with three seperate pipes or hoses blown into or hooked up to a compressor, fire place bellows of the back side of a shop vac.

There are submersible speakers. You can just have a shark fin go by on a track. You can have decoy ducks and it is really ontop of some larger monsters head that rises up out of it. Or prehaps there is a submarine coming up and that horn sound they have in the movies.

If the pond is outdoors there can be a deeper hole where some effect might go and the rest of it pretty shallow. At night with lights off to the distance you can't see under the water. Or it could be a gag where all of a sudden there is a monster with a shower cap and yellow rubber duckies pop up on an entire tray that is leveraged from the back drop area.

In all of that the only thing that is expensive is the pond liner material available at an agricultural store or even some Lowes and Home Depots sell small fountain kits for your back yard. Waterfall pumps get a little expensive, $120 to $225 but they last a long time. You are also in the relm of fun with electricity and water as the cords on these things are not too long.

Something that jumps up or sits up is not going to register that it is a puppet on cables if it is dark enough.

[Jim Warfield]

Those galvenized , oval shaped animal water tanks? They might run 30 inches deep?
Get two. Cut one end off of one of them. Place, fit it in one end of the complete tank leaving a space at that end behind the actual tank wall that contains the water. This faux-tank wall should be shortened so the water just hides this short "Fact".
Have a wall or cutain at this end of the tank to hide behind, stick your arm down behind the faux tank wall then back up into the part of the full tank . You can hide behind the curtain picking and choosing when and who you decide to do this to.
No cutting water containing walls or plastics, you are just sticking your arm into the water behind a shield then back up again.

Only ONE actual water tank was harmed perminently in the creation of this effect.