Quicksand Fans

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVZeskfKxw0&feature=youtube_gdata_player

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50_-zqsgDA4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Found this today. At $15 for 2.2 lbs of this stuff, obviously I realize there is no way it would be even remotely financially feasible for a producer to fill a pit with it (although I'm certain I would gladly pay buku bucks for a scene featuring this substance), but I can't help but wonder what it would look and feel like.

A man can dream though.

Here they play with greater amount of the sand: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA3NpWo9imI

I wonder how soon we'll see a Barbie doll or some anime figure sinking in it?

Billie Bonce wrote:Here they play with greater amount of the sand: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA3NpWo9imI

I wonder how soon we'll see a Barbie doll or some anime figure sinking in it?

I would guess it would take at least a gallon of the stuff to sink an object with the dimensions of a Barbie doll. A gallon of water is about 8 pounds and sand would be on the order of 10 to 12 pounds for a gallon. If we adjust that downward to 11 pounds that equates to 5 kilograms, which, at 15.00 a kilogram comes to about 75.00, plus delivery unless its available in stores.

But this would be for an extremely minimally sized pit, even for a Barbie doll. I have found through trial and error that a reasonable miniature pit actually requires a couple of cubic feet. At 8 gallons per cubc foot, the cost suddenly inflates to $1200.00.

For what its worth, a pit for use by a real person typically requires something like four cubic yards, so now we are talking roughly $65000.00. Not going to happen unless the movie is funded by Steven Speilberg.

Fred588 wrote:
For what its worth, a pit for use by a real person typically requires something like four cubic yards, so now we are talking roughly $65000.00. Not going to happen unless the movie is funded by Steven Speilberg.

Or somebody with a dilly of a wish list hits the lottery and orders a custom shoot.

A fully-jointed Barbie doll, though, might be mighty interesting.

I absolutely love the way that stuff looks!

Nessie

While I'd be willing to try a custom involving a Barbie doll and a couple of gallons of the stuff is someone wanted to underwrite it, there is another member here who would be much better at working with doll-sized, err,.... people. He would be the best judge of how much material would be needed.

I do have a miniature pit, filled with coffee grounds, but its volume is about two cubic feet (too much).

Nessie wrote:

Fred588 wrote:
For what its worth, a pit for use by a real person typically requires something like four cubic yards, so now we are talking roughly $65000.00. Not going to happen unless the movie is funded by Steven Speilberg.

Or somebody with a dilly of a wish list hits the lottery and orders a custom shoot.

A fully-jointed Barbie doll, though, might be mighty interesting.

I absolutely love the way that stuff looks!

Nessie

Well, I see a big contradiction in this idea. If one wants to animate a doll, he doesn't need already animated sand. A doll, even if she really sinks into the Kinetic Sand, would be motionless and emotionless. It is possible to sink a toy car or bus into a little pit of Kinetic Sand, but we wouldn't see a busload of cheerleaders jumping out of the bus and right into the deadly clutches of quicksand. It doesn't worth the price.

Here is an idea for a QS scene. Two kids are playing with Kinetic Sand, like we have seen in that ad. We see a Barbie doll in her box, watching how the kids are playing. Then the voices of parents call the kids to go to bed. Kids leave the room. In the night, the Barbie doll comes to life. Of course, we see an actress playing the Barbie doll. She goes to explore the Kinetic Sand (actually she goes into full-sized quicksand pit - an indoor setting may be used, and probably a green screen is necessary). The "doll" sinks into the "Kinetic Sand" and gets stuck. She struggles a lot, but cant get out. Exhausted, neck-deep in the sand, she falls asleep. In the morning kids run into the room and discover their Barbie buried in the Kinetic Sand. They pull her out and put into the box. Of course, the kids are sure that the doll was playing in the sang and got stuck by accident, but their parents are about to punish them because they are sure that the kids simply buried the doll in the sand.

For those who faints when hears just a mention of kids here is a kid-free option: Parents are playing with some Kinetic Sand, taking about presenting it next day to their kid (or kids). When they leave, everything happens exactly like in the first scenario. In the morning the parents return to the room and pull a hapless Barbie doll from the sand. They are terribly irritated that their kids instead of sleeping were walking around, playing with Kinetic Sand, and even dipping the Barbie doll in it.

Billie Bonce wrote:Well, I see a big contradiction in this idea. If one wants to animate a doll, he doesn't need already animated sand. A doll, even if she really sinks into the Kinetic Sand, would be motionless and emotionless. It is possible to sink a toy car or bus into a little pit of Kinetic Sand, but we wouldn't see a busload of cheerleaders jumping out of the bus and right into the deadly clutches of quicksand. It doesn't worth the price.

Here is an idea for a QS scene. Two kids are playing with Kinetic Sand, like we have seen in that ad. We see a Barbie doll in her box, watching how the kids are playing. Then the voices of parents call the kids to go to bed. Kids leave the room. In the night, the Barbie doll comes to life. Of course, we see an actress playing the Barbie doll. She goes to explore the Kinetic Sand (actually she goes into full-sized quicksand pit - an indoor setting may be used, and probably a green screen is necessary). The "doll" sinks into the "Kinetic Sand" and gets stuck. She struggles a lot, but cant get out. Exhausted, neck-deep in the sand, she falls asleep. In the morning kids run into the room and discover their Barbie buried in the Kinetic Sand. They pull her out and put into the box. Of course, the kids are sure that the doll was playing in the sang and got stuck by accident, but their parents are about to punish them because they are sure that the kids simply buried the doll in the sand.

For those who faints when hears just a mention of kids here is a kid-free option: Parents are playing with some Kinetic Sand, taking about presenting it next day to their kid (or kids). When they leave, everything happens exactly like in the first scenario. In the morning the parents return to the room and pull a hapless Barbie doll from the sand. They are terribly irritated that their kids instead of sleeping were walking around, playing with Kinetic Sand, and even dipping the Barbie doll in it.

Great idea but much more plot development than I think most of us require. Get a hot blonde and cut from the Barbie doll in the darkened room to the real "doll" in the scene. She sinks under and the next day mom (played by same actress off camera) is heard "What do you mean you can't find your Barbie doll(s)?"

Duncan Edwards wrote:Great idea but much more plot development than I think most of us require. Get a hot blonde and cut from the Barbie doll in the darkened room to the real "doll" in the scene. She sinks under and the next day mom (played by same actress off camera) is heard "What do you mean you can't find your Barbie doll(s)?"

Oh, I remember how people complained that in many scenes girls are simply walking, talking or throwing Frisbee for too long before the actual fun begins

There is another extremity - a YouTube style scene. The camera starts when a victim is already knee-deep in quicksand and desperately struggles to get out, to no avail. The voice of the second girl behind the camera (apparently the victim's friend) with laughing tells us that "Ha-ha-ha, Barbie (or substitute any other name) stuck in quicksand! Ha-ha-ha". When the actual fun has to begin (i.e. when the victim gets really deep in the mud) the camera girl suddenly comes to the idea that her friend is gonna drown, and it is not funny, and she has to do something, so she turns off the camera. I'd say, the whole scene would be the pure sinking

How is this for a plot: It gets rid of the dolls altogether. One, or two, hot business women see an ad for the Kinetic sand, or they read about it somewhere. They decide its a cool product but way too expensive so they decide to find out where the factory is, get in somehow, and try to steal the formula for making it. They scout out the factory one night. They cannot find a way in but they do discover, accidentally, a dump of reject batches in the grounds behind the factory.

Wow that sand is unreal, it's really like living quicksand or something!! It does look like it would make a really interesting quicksand. Polymers are amazing!