Tall, Tall Set!

[theaterscout]

Ok ladies and gents', I am some what in a bind on how to go about construction of my set. We are doing "1984" as our fall play and
the designer that we sent the script along with our directors ideas too, came back with plans for a 22' tall set. In all fairness it is a simple set: a 30' long back wall with a 3' door built in and two 13' long side walls also that have a 3' door built in so it makes this 3 sided box. The only challenging part is building it. This is what I have come up with so far.

We are covering the set with muslin so im debating to stay with 2" x 4" or to ease up on the weight and go with 1" x 4". We've broken the back wall down into 3 sections: each section is goin to be 10 1/2' wide and 22' tall. If you notice that is actaully going to be a bit bigger than 30' that is due to the width that the muslin that we are covering it in, thats how wide each roll is. Thats also basically how we are going to do it on the side walls as well but I think that I'm just going to break that down into two manageable sections as well. One of the main problems that I've been mulling over is support and bracing. The main wall I am going to bolt together all 3 sections and put multiple eye hooks into the top of the walls and chain it to a rigging batton. I'm then planning on anchoring it to the floor with 3" drywall screws and with 10' 2" x 4" braces also screwed into the floor. If you have another idea as to how to do it I would love to know!

[Footer]

That all looks good, if you have a rigid grid withing access you could also do compression booms, which work rather well. Also make sure that you have plenty of bracing around that door so when it closes you don't get a ripple effect through the entire wall. When it comes to actually loading in this piece be sure to rig it then fly it out slowly so the mid section does not buckle.

[saxman0317]

We have a full time set up for just this reason called "Friggen" On our back pipe we have a wall thats about 28' tall by 50' long. Simple constrution with metal studs and 2x4 plates. Covered in some 1/8" plywood, weighs about 1500 pds and is able to be flown in and out when needed, and if really needed, moved since its in sections. Works real good for back walls, painted white for doing lighting and band shells, and we have hooks to do differnt backgrounds on it down by the art club if were doing something that has backing behind the set. tends to work pretty good for building off of to.

[propmonkey]

why dont you make 11' walls and then stack and bolt them together? or is that what you are doing? i would go with 2"x4" if your going to have that tall of walls you'll need the support.

[theaterscout]

yeah we're breaking it down into two bottom sections of 8' tall and teh top section 6' tall and bolting it together. if anyone wants it i think that i can try to send them a CAD image or a .jpg

[disc2slick]

Do you have a grid, or structural steel you can hang the units from? Anything that tall will really want to be supported from the top and bottom as opposed to just building huge braces from the ground up. For weight purposes, then, I'd say go with the 1x as framing, it will be easier to hang, and if they are muslin faced you don't need a lot of support. The lower units, particularly the door probably want to be screwed of lagged into the floor if possible.

-dan

[theaterscout]

We have the rigging battons that im going to chain the set to. we're going to put up the top piece, chain it to the batton, then raise the bar to attach the next section. After all of that is bolted together, then the bar will get raised again, allowing us to bring in the next section and bolt it all together. When everything is all in place then all the back bracing will be put in place and (hopefully) everythign will be perfect. Even though I know that nothign ever is perfect!

[jwl868]

Sounds like you’ve put some time into design of this already.

I think the top of the bracing should be about three-quarters the way up, so 10-foot boards for braces may won’t be long enough. You might have to reinforce that joint between the top and bottom pieces. Arguably, there is a potential for the wall to “bend” there if some unexpected force is put on the braces or even the wall (although if its supported from the top, that should eliminate that issue).

Has any one calculated the weight of this and whether or not the batten can support it? - there must be at least 400 lb of wood there? (2x4s weigh about 1.28 lb/foot)


Joe

[theaterscout]

The batton can take about 1500 lbs. I think so that it most likely can, I need to check the specs on it again. I know for sure it can take 1000 lbs. for sure because thats how much I unloaded after one show! That was a beast and boy did it get warm.

[moderately_clueless]

No specific ideas for now, but my school's doing 1984 this fall too. It shall be interesting to see how you do the show differently. I shall check back...