Help - Lighting emergency!

TDT

Member
I am directing a high school production of How To succeed in Business Without Really Trying and my set design included panels that we wanted to backlight in order to create different looks for different scenes (sort of like windows in a huge office building). We aren't sure how best to do this now, and the plastic we originally thought we wanted to use is too expensive. Any help would be appreciated, and please keep in mind that I am nowhere near a lighting expert.
 
How big are the windows? Do the windows move around during the show?

Any plastic can be used. It does not have to be fake brick or anything like that. If you don't mind not being able to see through the windows painters drop clothes work well.

The best cheap solution is to use screen door material. It acts like a scrim, it catches the light that hits it at an angle but allows you to still see through it.

When you go to light it, try to light it from an angle. This can be done from the floor or from above. It works rather well.... just play with it.
 
It depends on how big your windows are, and what look you are going for. Gel sheets are around $5 a sheet and a good thick diffusion might work. I just did the Mid-West Arts Conference and had a booth that I took my pop up display and backlit it with my LED units. I had a friend that works in the sign biz and she got me the backlit plastic used for bus signs and such. I got 3 strips of 26" wide by 8' tall for $70 total.
IT was durable plastic that held pictures on it. If you are really tight on budget get and are using flats for the main structure, some painters plastic (comes in rolls of different thinkness) from the hardware store and do a thin coat of water glue mix on it. Elmers will dry with a slight milky look. Use a roller so you don't see brush strokes.
Or, find the thicker vinyl used for making your own storm windows, next to the sceen material Footer mentioned.
 
You can also use the winter window insulation plastic. The one where you tack it in place and then heat it with a hair dryer which causes it to shrink taught. If you want it opaque, spray a little hair spray on it.
 
Butcher paper will transmit quite a bit through when lit from back as well. It all depends on how big the windows are. Another fabric solution is Tricot. Search it on here, I've posted a billion and one uses for it.
 
Thanks, everyone, for the suggestions.

The bottom half (or so) of the set will be flats, but the top half will be 2 x 2 frames (of different shapes and sizes) that we wanted something in to backlight. If we use a cloth or plastic, what kind of lights would be best behind them? and can I have each panel (about 40 in all) light for different colours - or am I out of my mind?
 
how it is lit is up to your inventory. any light from a 1K par (with distance for heat) down to christmas lights or rope light is up to you. If you wanted each window to be able to change colors, LED units are the way to go. Strip lights in your inventory?
 
Yeah, those three color strip lights will let you do whatever color effect you want. However remember the darker you coat your "window" Panels the less light can get through, so if a lot of lights on a darker panel will actually be a waste of time.
 
If you dont have LED striplights in your inventory, you can always use a standard cyc situation, with a three color RGB cell. That said, your color pallate will be more limited, but if you only have three or 4 colors, you can probably get away with a 3 cell cyc.
 
If you have extra lekos in your inventory, you could put them on bases and pipes and shutter each opening. If you wanted color changes then you could regel during blackouts or use a color changer. The strips will do fine but you won't be able to isolate windows.
 
Various fabrics as mentioned above in addition to scrim or a little wider hole but thicker materal to bug screening on the market I forget the name of is also often used. This as with applicators which could work well but could also have you fight the direct glare or reflection.

For lights also with the above, what do you have available and or can you scroller them?

Say scroll gel #1 with dimming would get darker, next scene up to full again and with a new color that's darker and more towards sunset you also dim it or add a second fixture dimming up while you dim it for sunset. Next scroller gel in the string you get say night etc in using a fixture with a scroller on each panel and say perhaps a supplemtal fixture that's easy enough to behind the scenes change the gel on for supplement or accent say morning for.

Perhaps lots of frost or silk on such fixtures as secondardy gel to spread the and soften the beam, a moving moon beam concept added perhaps, heck could even do this wash part with construction type work light fixtures if you just need a wash with gels taped to them. Been there, done that with construction work lights as wash lights. Won't mount a scroller without lots of work but will take a gel tapped to them as needed. Cost of scroller rental verses say a cyc light to light lots of panels and color mix, this verses a scroller or three lights with primarys etc... design options based on your inventory and amount of dimmers available, time and budget.

Without money for extra fixtures or scrollers.. people available for changing gels while say doing two lamps per panel with dimming? Even if having to change gels on construction work lights... ways to work around that. Can be done, let your imagination meet that of the design idea.
 
Another great translucent material is Coroplast. I use the 4mil "natural" (clear) in a lot of corporate sets, and it takes backlight really well. It's available at sign suppliers or plastic suppliers (I use Regal Piedmont) for under $10/ 4x8 sheet in quantity.

Here's a picture of coroplast in action:
Coroplast panels.jpg


Nicholas Kargel
You Want What? Productions INC
scenic and lighting design and construction in Denver, CO

www.youwantwhatproductions.com
 
As was just posted, call your local plastic dealer about coroplast. It's really cheap and the clear is awesome with colored lighting.

Another good option is Parchment Paper for cooking. I've never tried using it with colors, just white. The great thing is it's designed for using in the oven so it takes a lot of heat to burn. It comes in 24" wide rolls.
 
Muslin works great too and is super easy to work with! Do you have any extra laying around?? As for lighting, I'll give a "me too" to what others have saud...if you want to light each "window" individually and in different colors the best way to go about that would be to use a ERS/Leko instrument and then shutter them off the each window. Depending on the material you use, you might need to play with the angles and where you put the instruments so that the audience doesn't see the source of the light through the material.
 
We had a situation last year where we needed to light a door's window from behind, but not see what was behind it. We used a 70 deg. Source 4. It projected onto the door, which had a piece of plexiglass in it, with butcher paper taped to the back with gaff tape. worked like a charm.
 
You might also look at black vellum paper, like the stuff you'd do drafting on only black. It's fairly cheap, easy to work with, you can put it behind like a faux window frame and it appears to just disappear when there's no light on it, but shine a light on it from an angle and it glows with whatever color gel you've got.
 

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