The Conjuring Music Box
- Thread starter Chris Craig
- Start date
Well an update, finally! I stripped the gears in both movements and had to replace them. An eBay search turned up movements specifically designed to drive animations so I bought a couple. I also took the opportunity to change my 3-lobed cam for a 4-lobed one so that the clown goes up and down more frequently to match the film prop better. Here is where I am, so far:
http://youtu.be/A8-fJ162ghA
The shut off switches for the clown and the mirror both work when the lid closes.
Now to finish the painting and weathering of the outside!
http://youtu.be/A8-fJ162ghA
The shut off switches for the clown and the mirror both work when the lid closes.
Now to finish the painting and weathering of the outside!
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cottageofstone
New Member
Hi there. I joined so that I could hopefully get some guidance on making a Conjuring music box for my son. He is a horror movie fanatic and I would love to surprise him with the music box... only I am not the engineering sort of mind... So I am having a hard time following along with how you did the mechanical parts of the music box.
Bear with me...
For the 2 mechanisms you used, are these available in any online stores or are they strictly vintage parts were no reproductions are made, so I have to scout eBay? I have looked at some online stores but am not really sure what I should be looking for.
Once I track down the 2 mechanisms it looks like I need, I will check back with you for next steps (if I can't figure it out!). I need to start the woodworking part with the birdhouse. And making a clown head (if I cannot find something similar that is vintage).
I really appreciate it if you can help me figure out the moving parts. Bowie will go nuts over the music box. It is his favorite movie!
thanks
Sarah Beth
Bear with me...
For the 2 mechanisms you used, are these available in any online stores or are they strictly vintage parts were no reproductions are made, so I have to scout eBay? I have looked at some online stores but am not really sure what I should be looking for.
Once I track down the 2 mechanisms it looks like I need, I will check back with you for next steps (if I can't figure it out!). I need to start the woodworking part with the birdhouse. And making a clown head (if I cannot find something similar that is vintage).
I really appreciate it if you can help me figure out the moving parts. Bowie will go nuts over the music box. It is his favorite movie!
thanks
Sarah Beth
cottageofstone
New Member
One follow-up... I understand the mirror spins with a movement from a music box like the old Ballerina spinning ones... just not clear on what I need to make the clown head bob. You used an airplane one, and I found one on eBay that uses an "orbital" movement. But it seems like it should be more back and forth than orbiting.
Happy to help! Especially when I am clearly helping the Mom of the Decade! Come on! A mom making a Conjuring music box replica for her horror movie fan son? My mom was too busy throwing out (trying to throw out!) my Aurora monster models to do anything like this!
1st: read the whole thread. Later on I scrap those original movements and buy two new movements on eBay meant specifically for animating music boxes. I stripped the gears on the first two! Here is the movement I used for both the mirror and the head:
http://m.ebay.com/itm/250881930297?txnId=1363738773015
The bent rod they use to move the head of their figures is useless to us, sadly, as it is too big to fit in the box as is. The motor is good and strong, though!
2nd: you are correct that the rotational motion of the music box tune drum has to be converted to the bobbing motion we need for the clown's head. This is done by adding a cam and a cam follower. The cam is like a flat, three- or four-bladed propeller. The cam follower is just a brass rod, hinged at one end, and arranged at the other end so as to rest on the edge of the cam so that it drops down into each "valley" and is pushed up each "mountain" as the cam turns. Think of the cam as a starfish with only 4 arms; as the starfish rotates, the rod traces the edge, dropping down into the gaps between the arms and then slowly forced upward along the edge of the next arm, up over its tip, and then dropping down again into the gap between this arm and the next. The clown head sits on a post loosely and as the rod rises and falls it pushes up the head with each upward movement. The head is allowed to drop back down as the rod drops into the next "valley" in the cam.
I will try to post more photos but the box does not lend itself to disassembly to get good photo angles.
One more tip: my clown head is too big relative to the screen used one. Sculpt yours a little smaller and the movement will be better.
Ask any questions and I will try to help as much as I can!
1st: read the whole thread. Later on I scrap those original movements and buy two new movements on eBay meant specifically for animating music boxes. I stripped the gears on the first two! Here is the movement I used for both the mirror and the head:
http://m.ebay.com/itm/250881930297?txnId=1363738773015
The bent rod they use to move the head of their figures is useless to us, sadly, as it is too big to fit in the box as is. The motor is good and strong, though!
2nd: you are correct that the rotational motion of the music box tune drum has to be converted to the bobbing motion we need for the clown's head. This is done by adding a cam and a cam follower. The cam is like a flat, three- or four-bladed propeller. The cam follower is just a brass rod, hinged at one end, and arranged at the other end so as to rest on the edge of the cam so that it drops down into each "valley" and is pushed up each "mountain" as the cam turns. Think of the cam as a starfish with only 4 arms; as the starfish rotates, the rod traces the edge, dropping down into the gaps between the arms and then slowly forced upward along the edge of the next arm, up over its tip, and then dropping down again into the gap between this arm and the next. The clown head sits on a post loosely and as the rod rises and falls it pushes up the head with each upward movement. The head is allowed to drop back down as the rod drops into the next "valley" in the cam.
I will try to post more photos but the box does not lend itself to disassembly to get good photo angles.
One more tip: my clown head is too big relative to the screen used one. Sculpt yours a little smaller and the movement will be better.
Ask any questions and I will try to help as much as I can!
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More photos:
In this view, looking toward the inside of the front of the box, you can see the cam (white plastic) attached to the front of the tune drum via the female threaded fitting on this special movement (link to follow). The clear plastic separates the movement from the clown's lace collar! You can also see the vertical brass rod on which the clown's head slides. Attached to the front wall you can see a vertical piece of brass channel in which the tip of the cam follower is constrained, so it does not just fall off the cam to the right and fail to be picked up by the next lobe of the cam.
Better view of that brass channel:
Here is a video so you can see it all in motion:
http://youtu.be/7NCzhsfwbG8
Here is a view, front to back, so you can see the back end of the cam follower:
Finally, if you can't find the birdhouses locally, I have a spare I will give you to get you started!
In this view, looking toward the inside of the front of the box, you can see the cam (white plastic) attached to the front of the tune drum via the female threaded fitting on this special movement (link to follow). The clear plastic separates the movement from the clown's lace collar! You can also see the vertical brass rod on which the clown's head slides. Attached to the front wall you can see a vertical piece of brass channel in which the tip of the cam follower is constrained, so it does not just fall off the cam to the right and fail to be picked up by the next lobe of the cam.
Better view of that brass channel:
Here is a video so you can see it all in motion:
http://youtu.be/7NCzhsfwbG8
Here is a view, front to back, so you can see the back end of the cam follower:
Finally, if you can't find the birdhouses locally, I have a spare I will give you to get you started!
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cottageofstone
New Member
Ha! I get some funny looks sometimes when people see the pictures Bowie draws since he is 6... he draws happy pictures at school, but at home, he draws very Tim Burton-esque pictures. The clowns are often grayscale but with neon pink noses and a big knife! He really isn't a psycho - we are just a Halloween house and he likes drawing scary clowns!
If you can get me links to the movement mechanisms you used, I will order those. How big is the head you used? I am finding some vintage vinyl heads on Etsy that I might be able to paint and "patina." That would save me some work sculpting.
My husband should be able to assemble it... he is an engineer and much better at this kind of stuff than me.
If you can get me links to the movement mechanisms you used, I will order those. How big is the head you used? I am finding some vintage vinyl heads on Etsy that I might be able to paint and "patina." That would save me some work sculpting.
My husband should be able to assemble it... he is an engineer and much better at this kind of stuff than me.
I edited the post above. Good luck and don't hesitate to ask. It is a fun project!
My clown head is 2 3/8" front to back and 2" side to side and 2" tall. Be careful! A vinyl head might be too heavy. Mine is a very thin shell of epoxy putty over a styrofoam ball. The hair and collar add weight, too!
My clown head is 2 3/8" front to back and 2" side to side and 2" tall. Be careful! A vinyl head might be too heavy. Mine is a very thin shell of epoxy putty over a styrofoam ball. The hair and collar add weight, too!
Be sure and pack that thing in salt and bury it in the yard before it causes you any grief.
Creepy ****ing movie!
Creepy ****ing movie!
robbieProps
New Member
I was the prop master on the show, and this is exactly the way we did it. We had two separate, remote controlled servos, one operated the clown head movement and the other operated the mirror. We could also change the speed by which the mirror rotated and the head moved up and down as desired. It took a lot of work to fit the servos and remote receivers in the very small spaces, especially the one that went in the lid, and they made a lot of noise when in use, so you'll find that there is very little if any on-screen dialogue spoken while the prop is actually functioning. And of course the music was put in later. We had no idea what the music was even going to be when we filmed the show.
We made 4 of the boxes as they were very sensitive and if one went down, we had to quickly switch to another while we fixed the first one. Only 2 had all the working mechanisms. One was mainly used when the box was being held or examined but not functioning, and one was made as a solid piece with no opening lid for stunts, like when Lorraine Warren crashes through the space behind the wall into the cellar and the music box comes through with her.
The box took weeks to make and went through various iterations. The box itself was custom-made from scratch and several prototypes were made for director approval before a final shape and size was decided upon. The clown head was based off an old toy I had in my prop kit, which was then altered, sculpted and molded to make multiples. All were hand painted and the hair added by hand. Then our scenic hand-painted the exterior design on the boxes based on a vintage design our production designer found in research.
It was a very fun prop to make and it achieved its desired creepy effect. It took a whole group of people to conceive, create and make the prop work, but it was worth the effort. And the Annabelle doll took even longer!
Thanks, so much, for that info! You did a superb job with the props for this film! I love this music box! Now that I hear exactly how you did it, I feel a sense of pride in having made a replica that is self contained, with clockwork that is triggered by opening the lid, and that actually plays music (albeit not exactly the right tune[emoji26]). Thanks, again!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
robbieProps
New Member
You've done a great job in recreating the box. Bravo!
The key on the outside, which actually was just attached to a winder that did nothing since the action was controlled by battery powered servos, I found on eBay. It's very close to this one with the cherub head:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-Vtg...116?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4adb3c7434
I was fortunate to find 3 of them that matched and we could move them from one box to the other if needed.
Also the design on the mirror, as some folks might realize, was inspired by the circular design on the cheeks of the doll from Saw, as kind of an homage to the earlier James Wan film:
http://images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/21500000/Billy-billy-the-puppet-21516626-1195-1024.jpg
As for the exterior graphics, there isn't one source that I can call your attention to. It was kind of a conglomerate of old circus posters, sideshow imagery and things of that nature that our designer gathered. They also had to be altered and re-imagined so they were original to the show and legally clearable for use. We couldn't just copy existing imagery and use it without permission from the original artist, so we would gather source material as inspiration and alter it until our legal department said we had departed sufficiently from the original as to avoid copyright issues.
I have a lot of photos of the box somewhere in my archives. I'll see if I have some close-ups of the artwork to help you in your endeavor.
Great work and I'm pleased that folks appreciate the creepy props in the show. They were fun but challenging to pull off, for all kinds of reasons.
The key on the outside, which actually was just attached to a winder that did nothing since the action was controlled by battery powered servos, I found on eBay. It's very close to this one with the cherub head:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-Vtg...116?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4adb3c7434
I was fortunate to find 3 of them that matched and we could move them from one box to the other if needed.
Also the design on the mirror, as some folks might realize, was inspired by the circular design on the cheeks of the doll from Saw, as kind of an homage to the earlier James Wan film:
http://images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/21500000/Billy-billy-the-puppet-21516626-1195-1024.jpg
As for the exterior graphics, there isn't one source that I can call your attention to. It was kind of a conglomerate of old circus posters, sideshow imagery and things of that nature that our designer gathered. They also had to be altered and re-imagined so they were original to the show and legally clearable for use. We couldn't just copy existing imagery and use it without permission from the original artist, so we would gather source material as inspiration and alter it until our legal department said we had departed sufficiently from the original as to avoid copyright issues.
I have a lot of photos of the box somewhere in my archives. I'll see if I have some close-ups of the artwork to help you in your endeavor.
Great work and I'm pleased that folks appreciate the creepy props in the show. They were fun but challenging to pull off, for all kinds of reasons.
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Chris Craig
New Member
That would be lovely if you could post some of the photos. I've still yet to paint mine and get the clown working. This has been two years in the making now for me,really just want to get it finished.
Chris Craig
New Member
ahoudini , I've re-read this entire thread so many times and still cannot make sense of how you got the mirror to trigger when the box opens ? Do you wind the mirror up and then shut it?
