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The Legend of Sleepy Howell
Presented by Illuminatus Lasers
New! Videos - click here for links
The Legend of Sleepy Howell was a drive-through laser lightshow experience held in Howell, Michigan, on October 23-24, 2020. This festival was originally held in downtown Howell as a trick or treat event. With the onset of Covid social distancing, the organizers decided to have a contactless drive-through event, with cars driving past laser displays we set up in beautiful Scofield Park.
We featured five major displays, each utilizing a facet of laser artistry: images, interactivity, lumia, abstracts, and beam shows. A true multi-media event, we also featured a live music performance by Ken Kozora, and dancers interacting with the lasers.
This is our 2nd biggest show to date (the first would be the halftime show we did at Michigan Stadium in 2013), employing 30 lasers over five major sites at one time. We also had first light on two major setups: Drums N' Lasers and the Vortex Radiator system.
The music was broadcast through an FM transmitter installed in the pavilion, with 300' of balanced stereo cable connecting to the tent where Ken was playing.
Howell Area Parks and Recreation Authority, who ran the event, had local theater and other groups in costume handing out candy via butterfly nets to trick or treaters safely enclosed in moving cars.
Dances With Skeletons
Here are dancers dressed as skeletons dancing to the music of Ken Kozora. Their movements are being picked up by a sensor, sent to a computer which translates the imagery into laser scanning, and sends the result to the laser proving the display. In addition to the graphics display, there is a background of swirling laser lumia.
More info here.
Haunted Pavilion
Inside, behind the screen.
Using a technique we pioneered at the GLEAM Festival in Madison, WI, we spun puppets of ghosts, bats, and skeletons through the beams from lumia projectors, creating spooky shadows. The puppets were hung from spokes attached to slow motors to create the effect.
More info here.
Vortex
This is an example of an abstract pattern combined with a scanned image. The circular abstract design was created by a Neon Captain Radiator Synthesizer, a brand-new device just released in Oct. 2020.
The approaching Headless Horseman animation was created by Nisha Ramnath. She also did the animated galloping horseman seen at the entrance show. The rationale for this is to be found on the Back Story page.
More info here.
Hill of Beams
We had 14 lasers blasting away here on the side of a hill. The new Drums N' Lasers apparatus was firing six beams down the hill, terminating on the ground, while being controlled by six of Ken's electronic drums. At the base of the hill, eight lasers were firing up the hill into the sod; each of these lasers runs through a diffraction grating that splits it into hundreds of beams, mixture of brilliant color that creates a memorable mesh of wonder.
The dotted effect on the beams was caused by the weather: it was raining, and you are seeing raindrops falling through laser beams.
More info here.
Aux Projections
As an amuse bouche, we had a smaller display setup rear-projecting lumia onto a screen affixed to the fence running next to the road. This was between the Pavilion and Vortex displays. The projectors here were lunchboxen first used in our Dow Museum exhibit L is for Laser.
More Info Here.