Leg curtain size in a short fly loft...

[chieftfac]

Here is the low down, We are a multi use rental house, everything from real theater to blues concerts...

My theater has a short Fly Loft. (At least most of the people I've talked to have said that the max batten trim height should be 3 times the Height of Proscenium Opening, in a perfect world)

My theater is;
Width of Proscenium Opening: 31’ - 9”
Plaster line to back wall: 23’ - 7”
Height of Proscenium Opening: 12’ - 9”
Maximum trim height of battens: 26’ - 4” +/- 2"
21 linesets

What size leg curtains should I have?
Is it normal to have different sizes?
Mine range from 13'-2" to 15'-6" in 5 sets, on battens 6,9,12,15,18, shortest DS to tallest US.

Have had a few vendors in (we are looking at replacing anything over 12 years old) and have gotten differing opinions on layout and sizes...

so, people out in the field, what are your thoughts?

Thanks,

[derekleffew]

...My theater has a short Fly Loft. (At least most of the people I've talked to have said that the max batten trim height should be 3 times the Height of Proscenium Opening, in a perfect world) ...

Bull pucky! I know of VERY few houses where max trim height is 3x proscenium height. Most texts say the "ideal" is 2.5x. You're right at 2.0x, which should be workable in most situations. How often do you fly full-height backdrop s or scrim s, in a location significantly DS of the cyc?

... What size leg curtains should I have?
Is it normal to have different sizes?

If the legs were purchased at different times, or acquired pre-built, certainly normal. Your practice of going shortest to tallest, DS to US, is a good one.

As for new, as long as when fully flown out there is ~8' clearance below the legs, taller is better, although obviously you don't want to waste money on fabric that will never be seen. Can you ever see the need to create a soft portal by hanging a border and legs from the same batten? If so, you'll want to add the height of the border to the new legs. OR, you can tail down the legs on their own short pipes from the border's batten.

It's more or less standard to trim the first border to the same as proscenium, particularly in low proscenium houses. Trim of subsequent borders depends on vertical sightlines: how close and how low are the end seats in the first (or second or third) row? Often all borders are the same, other times trim gets higher moving US. You've given us all the pertinent information except the height and location of your borders.

Spending some time with a vertical section of your space will answer your question. Don't forget to consider lighting angles, particularly of backlight. It's a big chess game. Move one thing, and that affects ten others.

(Sorry for the non-answer.)

[josh88]

A short fly loft is 1.5 like what I have, making me unable to fly my cyc all the way out, or put my scrim anywhere but upstage. Whoever bought those didn't stop to think about the issues of having it hanging in an extra 10 feet. Derek's 8' suggestion is a good one as is the spend some time in your space. If you hang some different length markers and sit in your lowest seats you'll get an idea of what you'll be able to see or not see from different positions in the house. From there you should be able to determine a workable length depending on what you want it all to look like.

[chieftfac]

@derekleffew... Boarders? we don't need no stinkin' boarders!!! ...the boarders move around a lot, and are sometimes not used as with 21 line-sets (3 electric, 5 legs, 1 cyc, 1 main rag, 1 movie screen, 1 black traveler, 1 full black and 1 hard portal boarder) there is never enough room when the local community theater group is in. We do 4 classical music concerts and those people HATE soft goods anywhere near the stage. Thank god for acoustic shells, we have the Wenger portable system so legs are never down for those shows anyway. I like the tail-down idea as I am removing the hard boarder and NON MOVABLE torms in a few weeks and that is a great solution for those rare times when a renter wants a shorter proscenium. Sounds like I've put off doing a vertical section of the stage for too long. Time to get out the drafting software!! @josh88.. I'll stop complaining, that sounds like a complicated space to work in. Thank you both, you have given me a good starting point to think this through...

[derekleffew]

...the boarders move around a lot, ...

Well of course they do; that's why they rent a room, rather than purchase.

Spelling of theatrical brands/products/terms - ControlBooth

[chieftfac]

... Flingin' flangin' spellcheck!!

[JohnD]

No one ever 'dissed Chaucer for lack of spell check.

[chausman]

No one ever 'dissed Chaucer for lack of spell check.

Who? Chaucer?

[tprewitt]

I'll second derekleffew's "bull pucky" I work on several of these a week and below 2X starts to cause problems, 2.5X is great, 3X is high end PAC or big showroom. Frequently at 3X the weight of the wire rope in the rigging system cause as out-of-balance problem as it transfers from arbor side to batten side and is enough it has to be compensated. This complicates the rigging and drives costs up.

A section view really is needed to be sure, but sounds like I'd be trimming the bottoms of my borders at about 12' AFF. This would put my legs at about 13'6". If I was doing a FR cotton I'd probably do 13' or 13'3" as it can stretch/draw up as much as 2.5%-3%. Synthetics are much more stable at less than 1% of dimensional change, so I do 13'6" on synthetic.

I'm interested, however:

Your practice of going shortest to tallest, DS to US, is a good one.

Why for? If I have a high trim issue I trim lower & narrower as I move US. Forced perspective type thing. This helps me clear scrims/drops/cycs and I pretend it makes the stage look deeper. What does going lower DS get you, and doesn't it look odd?