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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Author
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Topic: Screen fabric/ material
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Bill Brandenstein
Master Film Handler
Posts: 413
From: Santa Clarita, CA
Registered: Jul 2013
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posted 09-15-2016 02:41 PM
This has been an interest of mine for some time but haven't yet pulled the trigger. I can hang an 83" Draper on our shed to do our occasional backyard shows, but that's way too small for scope, and a standard pull-down screen at a suitable width is both cost and weight prohibitive. So Brad's Formica idea has intrigued me for some time.
Our local Home Depots don't seem to have Formica wider than 96". Perhaps on special order they can get the 120" widths, I haven't tried yet. The widespread availability of it worldwide is also a huge advantage.
However, Sean mentioned an idea that I've also been toying with: a PVC sheet. It can be as thin as 3mm and have excellent matte reflective properties, at 3mm or 6mm can be rolled up when not in use, and because it's PVC, it can be painted with high-gain and black matting paint if so desired. There are many PVC products on the market, but an expert in the business has suggested to me a patented product called Sintra, which may not be conveniently available in your area, but can be viewed at Foam Board Source. And even THEY don't offer the 120-inch size!
What we've been considering is having them fabricate a 146-inch wide screen by glueing "wings" on the ends, and with a paint job, the seams should become invisible.
Formica sounds like a LOT easier!
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Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 09-18-2016 12:14 PM
Monte, yes....that works! Years ago (1966 or so) a HS in West Haven CT handed me two Holmes projectors -- navy model, I think -- and asked if I could get their gym/auditorium to double as a "movie theatre". And do it on the cheap...very cheap. With a little cleaning, lub and outfitted with change-over dowsers, the projection end was easy, although I had to cut three port holes in the cinderblock wall of the coach's office to make it the projection booth (I was not his favorite person thereafter).
Because of space limitations, I had to mount the projectors one on top of the other on a stand the kids made in wood shop. Unconventional, but it worked and I don't argue with success. But what to do about the screen?
The auditorium had a stage with a fly system -- quite unusual for a HS auditorium, but it served me well. I had the head of the Theatre Crafts dept build a frame about 35ftx15ft (not quite Scope, but had physical restraints). Next went out and bought bed sheets -- lots of them; cheap ones. I had a few volunteers from the mother's auxiliary sew the sheets together and the finished big sheet was attached to the wood frame as taut as possible. It looked decent.
Next up, finding the cheapest flat white paint -- in 1969 I recall it was something like $6 a gallon. Had the kids paint the sheet and then low and behold and much to my dismay, the moisture of the paint caused the sheet material to sag and droop everywhere. I was really up the creek. Thing is, the next morning I came back thinking I would have to come up with a different solution, but there was a perfectly flat, tight screen with not a wrinkle or sag in it and taut as a drum head. Sometimes physics works for you. Seems, yes the paint caused the material to stretch and sag, but when it dried, it shrunk and pulled everything very tight.
First movie we ran was HELP! In those days the exchanges dubbed the HS as a "shut-in" and the studios gave us prints just off the break for a "handling fee" of $10; I kid you not. Yah...those were different times. Fun times, actually.
I can vouch for the formica material. Used that in my nephew's video projection setup and it worked like a charm. I've also used foamcore material, and while it had good reflective properties, occasionally from an off-axis angle it would speckle very slightly. I used it in a conference room setup. I thought perhaps if I used a very fine sandpaper and sanded the entire surface it would eliminate the shine, but it was only way off-axis and even then wasn't bad enough to try any questionable stuff. The nice thing about the foamcore as opposed to formica is the weight -- the foamcore obviously being much lighter.
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