My current show is a series of five vignettes, and the director wants to use a different sort of practical lighting for each piece: one will have paper lanterns, another will use string lights, etc.
One piece takes place in a forest at night, and we're at a loss as to how to do it, but I've been looking into making a ton of
LED throwies. The magnets would be omitted, and they'd be strewn across the set during a movement piece between vignettes. (Once the vignette in question is over, we'd probably sweep them up and store them for tomorrow night.)
Does anyone have any experience working with throwies? I'm looking for general advice, although I also have two specific questions:
1) How long should I expect a throwie to last, in terms of hours? I've heard everything from 12 hours to 2-3 weeks, although I imagine it will vary greatly depending on how much we can spend on batteries.
2) It's possible to use a piece of card or plastic to serve as an on-off switch in order to extend battery life. Is this worth the effort? (Will re-inserting a hundred on-off tabs be a horrible, thankless task every night? Is it relatively smooth and quick?)
