Building the Trailer for Legally Blonde

gafftaper

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Hi there, I'm working on building the set for Legally Blonde. For the trailer scene, I need to build a flat that will fly in and out and act as the trailer. So I'm thinking about taking three 4x8 sheets of luan to build a flat 12 wide by 8 high and build a 12' Airstream. I'm thinking I'll cut a small RV door into the center section and I'm thinking about using 24" wide aluminum foil, laid down like wall paper to create the body in aluminum panels. I'll make a tire out of some sort of large round tray or lid. Paint grass and weeds around the base of the "trailer" to hide the fact that the flats are square to the floor. Oh and paint a front window onto the foil.

Has anyone ever tried gluing aluminum foil on as wallpaper? I'm debating what adhesive to use for this. Super Spray 77 would be great for strength but won't give me any time to work with the material to get it lined up perfect. Do you think wall paper glue would hold? I considered perhaps diluted Elmers glue thin enough to spray?
 
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It'll be wicked hard to keep it smooth plus you'll have to remember to pay attention to which side of the roll faces out. One side is much shinier than the other. As for spray glue, many have instructions for temporary bonding. This is usually coating one side and applying the item while it's still wet. This does give you a bit of chance to reposition but with foil, it may not be enough. I used this method to glue some foil to a piece of hardboard to reflect radiant heat from my kerosene heater away from my garage door. Came out looking pretty good and does an amazing job.

Michael
 
Most of this is my opinion, and not intended to offend, but I've been an RVer longer than I've been a TD/designer.

I would use a gray muslin to make the flats, (or gray metallic paint on luan flats) then paint reflections on corners to give it the appearance of being reflective. Randomly putting 200 sf of mirror on a stage will be a recipe for lighting designers becoming either homicidal or suicidal.

The other problem with something like foil is that it will always look like foil. No matter how careful you are, it will be wrinkly and look like a roast in an oven. Mylar would be a better choice, but still really hard to get right.

If you look at pictures of an Airstream, it's very dull and non-reflective, unless someone has spent days with a buffer and compound, so a reflective airstream isn't very realistic anyway, particularly one that is trying to portray a neglected trailer in a trailer park.

If you want some more inspiration/research, do a search for Spartan aluminum Trailers. They were around before Airstream and they have a very distinct aesthetic that might give you some ideas
 
I'm sure I've been to a deli-bar in NY that was housed in a Spartan - it certainly wasn't an airstream.
 
I agree that you'll likely want to paint the flat instead of (or in addition to) having it be reflective itself. If the flat is actually a reflective metal, it will just be reflecting the audience and the stage lights, whereas the trailer in the scene would be reflecting the rest of the trailer park.

I think having physical seams and/or rivets like Catherder mentioned would really help to sell it. There are some good videos on Youtube I found by searching "chrome lettering effect" or "painting chrome effect", but the basic gist is painting blue highlights on the top where the trailer reflects the sky and then tan and/or green where it reflects the ground. Depending on how polished and reflective the trailer wants to be, I also found a number of people doing tours of their trailers in various locations that you could pull screen grabs from for reference material. Once it's painted and weathered, I think a top coat of sealer would give it a little bit of reactivity to the lighting and pull everything together.
 
If you do go the Foil or Contact paper route <personally I'd go for the widest Shiny vinyl you could find and put it on in vertical strips to give you the Air stream aluminum panel look. > Once it's installed a LIGHT spray of Hairspray will dull it. If you want to give it some age, spray a couple of really, really thin coats of 4 or 8 pound shellac after those have thoroughly dried you can come back and do a dry brush technique with more shellac or paint. Good luck, Have fun! post pictures of the final product.

Oh, and incase no one else says it: "Make sure you know what you're doing when you rig it!" That much weight falling from any distance could do serious harm to someone's Noggin' .

*** Gaff, I didn't notice that was you! I just answered like you were a newb.... Sorry 'bout that. 🤭
 
So I went with the fake brushed staineless steel contact paper and built my trailer. It was adhesive backed and easy to install. It was very difficult to keep the lines straight and to keep it smooth. If I was trying to create a fine mirrored finish I would not be happy with the results. But I was trying to create a beat up, rusted out, 1950's Airstream... and a few mistakes in laying the paper down flat actually worked in my advantage. Once the paper was down, we painted dents, rust, highlights, and shadow over the whole trailer. I'm VERY happy with the overall results. It's definitely not the answer for any project that needs to be perfect, but if you are building something that can have a few wrinkles in it, this is a great solution.
PXL_20230203_033659400.jpg
 
I built a cartoonish trailer park a few years back for a local community theater. We went with the Shasta type vintage look (teardrops and canned-ham) because in paint tests the airstream style wasn't going to work (The painted one on the USC flat)
The other two are actual luan flats and the USR one has an authentic door I scavenged from a modern wrecked 5th-wheel camper -it was used as an entrance/exit for a few scenes.
The rear interior exit was offset from the visible door so when it was open we had the back wall flat painted like a 50's paneled camper interior. The scavenged door had a switch in the frame to trigger a motorized step so I repurposed that for interior lighting that came on when the door was opened (LED under cabinet pucks).
The door came from the bathroom on the 5th-wheel so the window glass was already pebble-finish translucent so that worked out great for the light reflection issue
Quite a fun build and after the run the trailer-shaped flats were auctioned-off at a charity gala for support of the theater so they still exist somewhere today.
Trailer Park-1.jpg
 

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