A really weird question, but one for you techies!

paddyrg

Fishing line looped over a bit of truss/fly bar/the grid, one stagehand in the tabs? If the actor cannot be seen to control it, then someone else must, so you need a stagehand to do it!

One last, compromise option could be for the actor to control the fishing line, not with their hand, but with an elbow (so the hands can appear to move fairly freely) and the line run across the torso and up into the hair. It would take some practice.

skivenov

Do they have to see it moving, or just be aware it's changed position?

CoolHotCold

well if the actor can't be seen moving it, and you have nobody spare as stagehands to do it.

I suppose a strategiclly placed anchor point on the top of the head (covered with hair) with small tubing running down the hairline to the ear, looping behind the ear to a little mechanical winding spool with a switch that can either be remotely controlled, or depending on the characters clothing, long electrical wires running to a cuff with the switch attached there.

I suppose it would be a rocker switch. Move one way to wind the spool and thus the fishwire or clear thread is moved with the appearance of the ponytail end getting pulled towards the top of the hair, move the other way to reverse the winding allowing the ponytail to drop back again, leave in the neutral position to keep the spool locked.

T_T_2

Have you considered using a bicycle break cable?

Fifer

gruntled wrote: »

First thought - after I stopped laughing - would be for a length of thin plastic tubing wound into the ponytail, under his shirt, and down to a hollow rubber ball in his pocket. Fill ball and tube with just enough water to reach his neck, seal ball and other end of tube. Then, when he squeezes the ball, the water should shoot up the tube and - hopefully - make the ponytail move.
Practice will make perfect, and him perhaps wet!

Second thought - change the script. Have him totally bald, and he could just wiggle his ears instead? ;-)

I suspect a pneumatic or hydraulic solution might be the most practical. A lenght of plastic tube which runs from the end of the ponytail, up the middle of the tail, down the neck and arm of the shirt to a rubber bulb concealed in the palm of the hand. The uninflated tube allows the ponytail to hang flaccid, but squeezing the bulb inflates the tube which makes the ponytail stand erect.

mrspepperpott

Thanks so much for everyones suggestions, I will let you know what we decide in the end and if it worked!

In answer to the question, the audience has to see the pony go a bit beserk not just change posistion!

Idiophreak

Does it have to move up and down in terms of length? Or where it's tied back? Or the angle? (ie, could the pony tail rotating give the desired effect?)

Does it have to move continuously, or on-queue?

mrspepperpott

The writer has it moving up and down quite frantically, but i suppose it could spin?
It moves when he receives news, so at specific times.

mrspepperpott

T_T wrote: »

Have you considered using a bicycle break cable?

How does that work? Air?

Fifer

mrspepperpott wrote: »

The writer has it moving up and down quite frantically, but i suppose it could spin?
It moves when he receives news, so at specific times.

Spinning might be easier. Ponytail attached to small battery operated electric motor (fixed to a wig maybe?) with cable running down back of neck and sleeve to a concealed handheld switch.

(You could maybe doctor something like this - it it comes complete with a concealed remote control button).