Crumpled Paper Cyc

[drummerboi316]

Hello CB,

For our annual student play festival, our set designer has introduced the idea of using a crumpled paper cyc. I would go into all the specifics of why she chose to do this, however I'm sure ya'll don't really care...

Our upstage opening is 19'x32'.

We are trying to achieve the effect pictured below. That was a photo taken from our a show our resident Lighting Designer designed a few years ago. We plan on discussing with him how they did it there, however he is really busy with multiple shows right now and is kind of hard to contact. Also, they had a large budget, a convenience we don't have.



Basically we want that type of texture on the upstage wall with the following requirements:
Cheap.

That's basically the only thing we need it to be. We'd also like to hide the seams as best as possible.

If you guys have any ideas on how to make this work, I'd love to hear them.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

If you could do it with a heavy foil and paint, then you wouldn't have to worry about flame retardant. Just an idea, but just crumpled paper treated with Flamex or equal might be more costly than a non-flamable material.

 

[Derickls]

You may be able to get this effect by using an unpainted lightweight muslin drop that isn't stretched.

 

[FatherMurphy]

You may be able to get this effect by using an unpainted lightweight muslin drop that isn't stretched.

I think I might be inclined to go the opposite way - paint out an old, crusty muslin drop all-white (or whatever base color seems right), crumple and mash it when dry, and hang without a bottom pipe.

Anything with paper is going to be hard to flameproof, and also hard to hide seams on. A fabric drop will make both problems easier to deal with, and I think you're more interested in the texture, not the material, so anything that gives you the irregular surface will work (unless you're also wanting translucent for backlighting).

 

[hslighting]

My cyc looks just like that, which would be great if it was supposed to... just let some high schoolers handle it for a few years and it will look mighty fine.
Or an even better idea: we can trade, my crumpled up, stained and hole-filled cyc for a brand new one!

 

[BrianWolfe]

Looks like a crumpled canvas backdrop to me. Don't over complicate it.

 

[drummerboi316]

So the show opens up next week and I wanted to follow up with our conclusions and solution.

We decided against the paper idea, as it would be hard to flame proof, hang, and get that large and hold crumples. Luckily we found a couple cyc's that were too small to fit our stage, as well as our old cyc that was sitting in storage, throw them in some rubbermaid tubs for a couple days, and hang them with lots of swag. This achieved the texture we were looking for with ease.

It provides many surfaces for shadows to be created allowing for very creative choices in lighting. Natural shadows as well as key vs. fill light look excellent.


Pics will be coming for those of you who might want to use this technique in the future.

Thanks again for your input. This is why I love CB.

 

[derekleffew]

Too late for drummerboi316's application, and doesn't meet all his criteria anyway, but wire screening (Aluminum wire mesh data, prices, helpful information) when lit properly, makes a fun and relatively inexpensive backdrop. Though one must hang it as panels of 4' each. The more crumpling, the better it looks. It was all the rage in Rock&Roll tours for a while, but the trend seems to be waning.
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