Hi folks,
Last time I visited this forum you all gave me great advice on making multiplying moon pies! It was all great info and advice.
So now I come to you with my latest idea hoping you kind folks will save me a dozen or so non-working prototypes!
I want to swing a pocket watch in front of my assistant in iconic "hypnotizing" fashion only when I snap my fingers, I am "stopping time" for her! When I snap I want the watch to stop at the far end of its normal swing path. It becomes a "stopped watch".
After that I take it back from her frozen hand and drop it and the chain back into my hand jsut like a normal watch and chain. I think this has very powerful potential in a lot of effects, in particular the bizzare routine I envisioned it for. Any help is good help!

The effect it a good one but I don't know how you could exacute it, the only tip I can give is try to think of ways to give the impresion that the chain has frozen but the chain dose not become stiff, its just that somingthing has stop the watch in mid swing, like a black fishing line might work is you have a black back drop.

If you used a chain that was made like a breakaway wand instead of having regular links, this might accomplish what you are looking for.

Amos McCormick

How about this for super simple.

For the stopping of the swing at the end part, Simply don't use a chain. Have the "chain" be a rod of some kind (approx same diameter and length of a real chain). I just played around with one of my sons toys, it could look as if it where a real chain.

In your description you say that you will hold the chain when you stop time, but then you take it from her hand. I am a bit lost, did you give it to her?

For the restoring time and having the watch chain turn real, some sort of a switch... possibly the fake watch with the rod 4 a chain is "flip sticked" back behind her arm. Or something like that...

I hope you get this worked out, it sounds like a cool effect. Hopefully your audience will be able to see the pretty subtle effect though, would be really cool on TV!

best of luck

scott

Here's another thought, start off with the chain rigid like in my previous post. But I have an idea for how to make it ridgid, what if you had a really skinny plastic tube, like a vanishing candle that is as skinny as a straw (or smaller). At the begining, this tube would be around the real chain and when held would be rigid. When you release the plastic sheath in your hand (but still hold the end of the chain) and then the watch would fall.

Don't know if this really would work, but hey...it's brainstroming!

scott

Clarification: she holds the watch and I start it swinging. It freezes and then I take it. Good! Keep em comin! Thanks!!

Well, this might not fit your patter but this is the best solution I could come up with:

Find yourself a small, thin roller chain (Think a small bicycle chain). Either paint it gold or put it in a gold colored woven sleeve. At the point where the chain meets the watch have a pivot point, allowing you to turn the watch 90 degrees from it's natural position. With roller chain, it only bends/contorts when its motion in is one direction, so by turning the watch 90 degrees (And then reorienting it so it faces the audience), you are no longer working in the chain's "direction." While the chain may still bend forwards and back, this can be minimized with some practice.

If you don't understand my suggestion in all of my rambling glory, I recommend just getting a piece of roller chain with a slight weight on the end if you want to see this idea in action, you'll quickly see what I am talking about if you just play with it.

Nick Fox

Nick,
Great idea. I shall try it today.

After playing with some chain myself, you might be able to get away with just attaching the pocket watch to the chain without any sort of pivot, so long as you don't attach the watch "parallel" to the chain's motion. With just a slight twist of your wrist, you could achieve the same effect (In the audience's eyes) without going to all of the trouble of putting in a pivot. The face wouldn't, umm, face the audience directly, but it would still seem to work in the audience's eyes.

I really hope that this made sense too.

Nick Fox

If the watch was on a swivel and was weighted on one side, it could always be perpendicular to the floor, facing the audience.

Amos McCormick

If you were to hold her hand 'steady' after you had started to swing the watch you could possibly use IT to put tension on the chain to make it appear rigid. With the right handling it may work.
AB

Mabe have it from a chain that has a stron magnetic rod inside that you controll from the end of the chain? the magnet would stop the watch

Depending on the background you use- think variation on black art, the chain held by the assistant, can be threaded with black painted wire. When it is stopped, and you reach up for it, she retains the wire, until you cause the misdirection with the chain in your hand- a pull or surreptitious drop to the floor covers the wire.
If the watch is a shell, you can look at using a length of solder painted black as well, soft enough to "Push" down into your hand with the chain.
k