[SML] Supertitles Screen brainstorming

[Stephen Rees]

The first one of these things I built was only half the width of the one
you are suggesting. I think it was about 5 feet tall.  I accommodated two
lines of text with no problem. It was a hard covered, 2-part, hinged in the
middle Hollywood flat covered with a single piece of heavyweight muslin
with no seams.  It was primed and painted with a light grey vinyl acrylic
paint.  It was supposed to be a one-off but got used for about 6 or so
years.  The better one we did for Summer Opera Theatre in DC was just a 60"
wide panel of dark grey IFR velour with top and bottom pipe pockets for
3/4" black pipe. I believe it was about 16 feet wide.  It was trapezed from
a dead hung pipe between the fire curtain and the plaster line. It was
picked on 4 points using 1/8" black wire rope basketed around the top pipe
through tiny slits in the fabric. The offstage edges were also pocketed and
had 3/4" PVC pipe inserted to keep the goods from hour-glassing.  The dark
grey worked very well for disappearing above the stage while the white
light of the text was still easy to read.  Good luck.

Stephen E. Rees
RAC Addition Project Shepherd
State University of New York at Fredonia
716.366.0505 Home
716.680.1565 Mobile


On Sat, Mar 18, 2017 at 5:19 PM, Bruce Purdy via Stagecraft <
stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:

>  As many of you know, I’m involved with an Opera company, which puts on
> one show every summer. Officially, I’m the Lighting Designer, but. That
> includes hanging, focusing and operating said lighting, hanging scenery and
> other light rigging, creating sound effects and such as may be needed and
> pretty much any other “tech” needs.
>
> For the past couple of years, they’ve interested in Supertitles. Although
> I’ve made it clear that I want nothing to do with creating or operating the
> titles, I’ve been frequently asked to consult on the matter. ( Thanks for
> all the feedback and suggestions a year ago. ) The issue has come up again,
> and it looks like they want to make this happen this year.
>
> The producers had the Theatre test their in-House digital cinema projector
> on the slightly lowered main curtain and apparently liked what they saw.
> Now they want me to design and build a projection screen to hang from a DS
> batten. They want it to be 6’ tall by 28’ wide!
>
> My first thought was to build a huge “Broadway style” ( soft covered )
> flat. I also thought about a hard covered ( Luan? ) flat. Aside from the
> impossibility of transporting such a monstrosity and storing it for the
> next year, I have no place to build it.
>
> I then thought of a row of smaller flats butted end to end with
> a”stiffener” on the back. Finally, I wondered about the feasibility of a
> fabric strip ( like a short dark grey cyc ) with top and bottom pipes. To
> be honest - that one sounds the simplest as well as being the easiest to
> store and transport.
>
> I’d love to hear any thoughts, opinions and ideas.
>
>
> Bruce
> -----
> Bruce Purdy
> Central New York Magic Theatre Co.
> http://brucepurdy.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
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