This is topic small screen for live theatre's "coming soon" events in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


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Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 02-15-2013, 09:05 AM:
 
Weird question: one of the places where I show movies is a performing-arts house that primarily presents live shows (music, comedy, etc.). They have a full-size movie screen on a frame that they fly in when showing feature films. This works well for the intended purpose.

They also have a video projector and would like to find a way to use it to promote upcoming events before their live shows. Since many music acts need to set up their instruments on stage long before the start of their performances, the full-size screen (and curtain) cannot be flown in (instruments, chairs, etc. would be in the way).

Our current thinking is to either project the "coming soon" stuff onto the cyclorama, or to get a smaller screen that can be flown in upstage of the main screen for this purpose.

Has anyone seen or done this sort of thing somewhere? Is it possible to have a screen frame that can fly in, but not touch the ground and also not drift back and forth? I am curious to hear if anyone has managed to do this in a non-obnoxious and non-intrusive way. We can zoom in the projector and/or scale down the image as needed (and image quality is not paramount for this application), but I am not as knowedgeable about stage design and how to add an attractive and functional screen for this purpose.
 

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Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 02-15-2013, 02:01 PM:
 
Can you drop the regular screen half way? then fly it out of the way when the act starts?
 

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Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 751) on 02-15-2013, 03:54 PM:
 
When I was working at the now defunct Riverspace Arts Center in Nyack, NY, they flew an electric 25' roll down screen for this exact purpose. It lived up behind the first row of stage lights, and electrically rolled up and down. It worked great.
 

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Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 02-15-2013, 08:28 PM:
 
We have several P.A.C. houses using "house promotion projection" either on the cyc / rp screen or a smaller 9' x 12' or 12' x 16' AVStumpfl screen + frame flown in.....Media usually Powerpoint or Keynote or a DVD. One location also has a LCD screen working the street hung above the boxoffice window.
 

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Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 02-15-2013, 08:43 PM:
 
We often project onto the cyclorama.

The cyc is approx. 20'x40' and our 8,000 lumen projector can project a floor-to-ceiling image bright enough to see in moderate stage lighting or average room lighting. We often shrink the image using the zoom lens so that it appears above the scenery. In which case, since you are projecting over a smaller area, the image is a bit brighter.

The quality would never be good enough to watch a movie like that but, for backdrops and things like that, it's good enough. I don't see why it wouldn't work for pre-show ads.

One caveat. The projector is bright and people who look into it might be temporarily blinded. Either arrange things so that performers don't have to look directly into it or turn it off before the show starts, proper.
 

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Posted by Mark Hajducki (Member # 1732) on 02-16-2013, 08:47 AM:
 
Do you have a safety curtain? If it is not highly decorated then a screen could be painted onto it.

Since the path of the curtain would have to be kept clear (and in a lot of places lowered at least once per performance) this would be an ideal solution.
 

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Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 02-16-2013, 08:56 AM:
 
I don't know about you guys but our safety curtain is a bitch to get back up again.

It only gets lowered when it has to be lowered for required testing. When it is lowered, it takes two guys to crank it back into place. We're never sure it will fold properly so as to go all the way back into its pocket above the proscenium. Sometimes we have to lower it part way back down and raise it up again to get it right.

I wouldn't want to do all of that right before a performance.

If you can't or don't want to project onto the cyc, the next best thing would be to get a "Fast-Fold" screen and fly it on a batten over the stage. Put a black border around it or get one with a black border built in. It would be light and easy to move. It would look good and it could easily be taken down and stored when you don't need it.
 

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Posted by Mark Hajducki (Member # 1732) on 02-16-2013, 09:09 AM:
 
Theatres round here are required to lower the curtain (at least) once per performance (they usually do so at the interval) so the effort of refolding it would have to be done anyway.
 

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Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 02-16-2013, 10:18 AM:
 
Is this the animal that raises your curtain?



Truly a pain in the ass!
 

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Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 02-26-2013, 09:46 PM:
 
Scott, I have done exactly what Mark suggests -- we've painted the Fire Curtain white and have projected on that. I used that to project Disney's CINDERELLA because the 1.37 really was dwarfed and the Fire Curtain was downstage of the screen so without any masking I could get a really nice size image. BUT, of course that requires that everything is set up behind it. We have an orchestra pit that comes up to stage level so that it effectively becomes a thrust stage. Most of the time musicians set up on the pit all the way upstage of the Fire Curtain so it presents the same problem as flying the screen -- stuff gets in the way of it, although a really fascist stage manager can demand that enough space be left for either the Fire Curtain or the screen fly to fly in unobstructed. Our Fire Curtain flies in with the push of a button, no pain in the butt as far as that goes, but it does take a good 45 seconds to complete its journey -- not too bad if you can cover it with music or an MC, but the downside with ours is that it makes quite loud grinding and moaning sounds of the hydraulics. I think there is a NYC ordinance still on the books saying the Fire Curtain must be brought in for every show, but we stopped doing that about two years ago -- not sure why or even if we are not in violation. We never use it during a show, only before and after and only when the house is not yet opened. (Hey, anyone ever see what happens when you cut the safety cord on that massive Fire Curtain? Ask me.)

More often than either the main screen or Fire Curtain, we use rear screen for projection with live acts going on in front of it. We do have a shallow stage -- 35ft back from the proscenium line (it does not include the thrust stage -- so the RP screen is about halfway downstage at the first second traveler. That necessitates are very short throw lens; only thing with rear screen projection and especially with a short throw lens is, just like silver screen front projection, RP has a nasty hot spot. I mean REALLY nasty. For promotional stuff that is not the main focus of the show, it's tolerable for audiences -- for me, just looking at it and I need to take serious anti-psychotic medication.

If your stage is deep enough, RP is a good solution.

As for a fly screen either RP or FP, almost always the frame is heavy enough that they don't sway unless someone is messing with them. Our RP has a bottom skirt and usually the stage hands put a sand bag on it and that's enough to stop any movement that air flow might cause. Our main screen is on heavy metal frame; NOTHING moves that once it's flown in. We to use stage anchors which bolt it to the floor to secure it in position only because it was not hung absolutely dead center and with the scope image going pretty much the full width of the proscenium, you can't be off even a little or you'll be hitting the wall, so we anchor it to force it to play center.
 

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Posted by Kenneth Wuepper (Member # 1174) on 02-27-2013, 06:57 AM:
 
Frank,

In SAGINAW, Michigan the fire marshal would close your building if there was ANYTHING in the way of deploying the fire curtain. The stage manager is charged with making the stage comply with the fire code. I do believe that this is all in the best interest of safety.

KEN
 

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Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 02-27-2013, 08:10 AM:
 
We are still kicking around ideas for this.

Interestingly, the theatre in question does not have an asbestos fire curtain. The procenium opening is sufficiently small that a "deluge curtain" (a main drape that can be automatically closed and drenched with water in the event of fire) is used instead. This meets local code and avoids asbestos and other issues.
 

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Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 02-28-2013, 12:14 AM:
 
In NYC they required all theatres with asbestos fire curtains to be removed. They are replaced with some other non-carcinogenic material. It was a huge job -- the theatre had to be encased with plastic and a negative atmosphere created. It took a week to complete.

They were toying with the idea of a deluge curtain but given the fact that we can have millions of dollars worth of instruments on the stage including Steinway pianos, the idea of drenching everything with water was a tad unappealing.
 

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Posted by Jack Theakston (Member # 4484) on 03-01-2013, 02:43 PM:
 
At my theater, the line that has the screen is something line the 7th and 8th bar back, so it's relatively close to the foot of the stage. We drop the full screen down, and set up as close to it as possible, and have the DVD audio coming from the PA system (the trailers are on a loop on DVD).

Since this isn't an option for you, I agree with the previous poster that you might drop the screen down half-way (we've done this to varying degrees of success). If it were my theater, I would probably work with the band's tech director and my tech director to make it work with the screen down full, but I understand my politics are different than others.

quote: Frank Angel

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In NYC they required all theatres with asbestos fire curtains to be removed

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