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How to Make a Rain Machine, Pg. 2

The Hose
So instead of using PVC, I decided to try a flexible hose. Rain is a part of nature so it should come from a naturally occurring shape like a spiral. OK, I just made that part up. Anyways, spread your garden hose in an even spiral across the surface area of the frame. Start from the outside.

Once you have it evenly spread out, use the cable ties to secure the hose to the frame.

Right now you have a giant dream catcher. So you need to drill some holes in it to make it a rain machine. Using a very small drill bit, drill holes in the top side of the hose every 4 to 6 inches. Make sure not to make these holes too big. You'd be surprised how much water will spray out of even a tiny hole. You can always drill them bigger later if you need to, so start small.

Last, screw on the plastic cap to the end of your hose (should be in the center of our rain machine) and the valve adapter to the beginning.

The Set Up
So unless you have a crane, you'll need to hang this rig from a tree. Using the four eye bolts and some rope, hang the rain machine like a chandelier. I figure the higher you can get it, the better, but for our test film we had it about 8 to 9 ft up and the rain looked fine. Now, just connect a second hose to the adapter at the side of the rig and go.

When you hang this thing, you want the holes in the hose to point up. This will make the water spray up and then fall down with gravity. This provides a much better spread and droplet size. The first time we set it up we had the holes pointed down, and it just looked like a big shower head coming out.

Conclusion
This rig provided at least 50 square feet of quality rain. Roughly a 5' by 5' space to shoot in. This is perfect for dramatic scenes between two or three characters. You could always build a few and create a bigger rain area.

(Reprinted with permission from IndyMogul.com from their Episode 13 Blog)

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