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[Blade]

Hey all!

My church is putting on a conference over easter and I have been asked to try and bring the stage to life. I have put in a request to purchase the materials to build a scrim (psyche or whatever you all call it) using lycra material rather than pro material. As it is a permanent install I believe the durability will be fine and with the right lights will look sensational, as well as being able to project directly onto it.

Any way, onto my question. The other guy in charge of production keeps on insisting that we should buy a light black material to go in front of this, as he believes when the lights are on you get the same effect, and when they are off you end up with a black stage backdrop. I work for a production company, and have visited many churches as well as gone to and set up concerts. I personally have never seen this done and do not believe that it is worth it. It would also wreck my idea of projecting directly onto it.

Has anyone seen this done before? And if so what effect did it give?

Thanks

Jarrad
Palm City Church
Events/Production Director
NT Australia

[Rob Timmerman]

You are looking to make a "cyclorama" or a "cyc" for short.  A scrim is completely different.  A scrim is a loosely woven cloth that is transparent when lit from behind, but opaque when lit from the front.

A black scrim hung a foot or 2 in front of a cyc will indeed give you the option of either a black background or a colored background.  You can still project onto the cyc, but you will get a phantom image on the black scrim.  As an added bonus, you get an added illusion of depth for the cyc.

One theater I worked at had this setup, and it worked, including projection.  I wouldn't project things requiring mucho detail, but it was fine for words and image effects.

[Steve Cohen]

I have put in a request to purchase the materials to build a scrim (psyche or whatever you all call it) using lycra material rather than pro material.  


 I would make sure the material is rated for what ever type of fireproofing it needs to be, Steve

[Blade]

Thanks for the responses.

Had another talk with the Pastor yesterday and are going with my suggestion as it is going to be considerably cheaper. Unfortunately our projector died on the weekend so wehad to buy a new one. Got to wait a few weeks to do the cyc now No time to do b4 easter. Oh well, will do it with what we have! (The up side is we now own 2 projectors as the other one will be fixed on warranty)

Jarrad Semmens
Palm City Church
Events Production Director
NT Australia

[RogerOwens]

You can get some 3 cell cyc lights. Scoops also work pretty well for this type of application. Only problem you may have would be trying to get even coverage from top to bottom if you have a lot of light around the cyc.
-Roger

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