Renting a tree

malex

Member
I've been looking to rent a large scenic tree, but I'm striking out. Pretty much any company I find renting scenery is renting full packages for complete shows. Anyone know of a company that rents individual pieces or what show may have a large tree in it? I'm hoping to find something real big, like 20'-30' high. Ideally, its kinda one sided, in that the branches reach to one side for the most part. I do not relish the idea of building one. I've seen tons of big trees built all over the place for shows. I'm hoping some of these companies have one they would rent, but have never marketed it.
 
This story will be of no help to you, but reminded me of an interesting experience I had about 40 years ago as TD for a large university theatre department. The scenic designer drew up a rather intricate large tree that was to sit in the corner of the black box theatre as part of the set. Very realistic. So I got the bright (?) idea to "just" get a real tree and avoid the complex construction process. I consulted the campus phone directory and found a listing for "arborist" under the Grounds Department.
A friendly voice on the other end said "Sure, I think I can help you out. I'll pick you up in my cart and we can go look at some of the dead trees we've marked for removal." I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. It wasn't long until we found the perfect specimen and the arborist said he would arrange to have it delivered outside the exterior double doors to the space. The moral of the story is that it was the heaviest object I have ever attempted to move and it took a herculean effort just to get it inside, let alone stood up and secured. It looked good though and the designer was quite impressed. Strike wasn't any easier. Your mileage may vary but I doubt you should consider it.
 
I've been looking to rent a large scenic tree, but I'm striking out. Pretty much any company I find renting scenery is renting full packages for complete shows. Anyone know of a company that rents individual pieces or what show may have a large tree in it? I'm hoping to find something real big, like 20'-30' high. Ideally, its kinda one sided, in that the branches reach to one side for the most part. I do not relish the idea of building one. I've seen tons of big trees built all over the place for shows. I'm hoping some of these companies have one they would rent, but have never marketed it.
I can't guide you to a specific vendor but consider the props and scenic shops that cater to the movie/video market - I'm betting there is more than 1 in Florida.
 
If you can't find a tree to rent and are forced to build, I've had success with just building the trunk and using real tree limbs/branches. Since the little fiddly bits actually make it look like a tree, and take the most time to model, it can be easier to just use what nature gives us.
 
This story will be of no help to you, but reminded me of an interesting experience I had about 40 years ago as TD for a large university theatre department. The scenic designer drew up a rather intricate large tree that was to sit in the corner of the black box theatre as part of the set. Very realistic. So I got the bright (?) idea to "just" get a real tree and avoid the complex construction process. I consulted the campus phone directory and found a listing for "arborist" under the Grounds Department.
A friendly voice on the other end said "Sure, I think I can help you out. I'll pick you up in my cart and we can go look at some of the dead trees we've marked for removal." I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. It wasn't long until we found the perfect specimen and the arborist said he would arrange to have it delivered outside the exterior double doors to the space. The moral of the story is that it was the heaviest object I have ever attempted to move and it took a herculean effort just to get it inside, let alone stood up and secured. It looked good though and the designer was quite impressed. Strike wasn't any easier. Your mileage may vary but I doubt you should consider it.
OMG. I can't believe you went through with it and the arborist didn't laugh his head off! I'm sure it looked good, but I think I'd rather build one than use a real one. I got ahold of a real oak stump for a show once, only about 3' tall and I don't think I ever want to try to lift one of those again.
 
If you can't find a tree to rent and are forced to build, I've had success with just building the trunk and using real tree limbs/branches. Since the little fiddly bits actually make it look like a tree, and take the most time to model, it can be easier to just use what nature gives us.
I think this tree could be a dead one, anyway. I may just do that.
 
This story will be of no help to you, but reminded me of an interesting experience I had about 40 years ago as TD for a large university theatre department. The scenic designer drew up a rather intricate large tree that was to sit in the corner of the black box theatre as part of the set. Very realistic. So I got the bright (?) idea to "just" get a real tree and avoid the complex construction process. I consulted the campus phone directory and found a listing for "arborist" under the Grounds Department.
A friendly voice on the other end said "Sure, I think I can help you out. I'll pick you up in my cart and we can go look at some of the dead trees we've marked for removal." I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. It wasn't long until we found the perfect specimen and the arborist said he would arrange to have it delivered outside the exterior double doors to the space. The moral of the story is that it was the heaviest object I have ever attempted to move and it took a herculean effort just to get it inside, let alone stood up and secured. It looked good though and the designer was quite impressed. Strike wasn't any easier. Your mileage may vary but I doubt you should consider it.

I'd think the strike would be easier. If saw-dustier.
 
This discussion reminds me of a time when we did On Borrowed Time in high school about 1956 or 57. We had a tree on stage with an actor sitting up in it for 3/4 of the show. For the life of me I can't remember how we built the tree though. Probably lots of 2X framing, wrinkled burlap & paint . . .
 
I built one for Mockingbird a few years back. They're time consuming, but not terribly difficult.
The trunk was a 12' piece of sonotube, roots were 2x4 scraps stacked up and screwed together and covered with chicken wire and canvas so Scout could stand on them.
I built a conduit frame for each of the 3 main branches which split to several secondary branches which were bent in a natural looking curve. The junction of the tree and limbs were built from chicken wire (god, how I loathe chicken wire) and tapered down to pool noodles and great stuff which was carved to taper down to bare conduit. All of that was mus covered. Then I gathered limbs and attached them to the conduit, because, like someone said in a previous comment, fiddling with all of those tiny branches isn't worth the time and likely won't turn out how you wanted. My branches were rigged to the catwalks above, so I didn't have to worry about the structure too much, and the trunk was screwed to a wall. I tried various methods to make the bark more realistic, and went with tissue paper. Rip the tissue paper into a bunch of strips and crumple them into a ball. Flatten it back out, still leaving it fairly crumpled and stack them up in a box. Paint a glue/water mixture on your branch or trunk and place a piece of tissue paper on it. Use more of the glue/water mixture to smooth it down, taking care to not lose too much texture. After that, just pick the base color, highlights and shadows from the found limbs. Base coat it and shadow, then highlight the texture with a dry brush. Old scraps of towels that have been stapled on and painted green can help cover the seam to make a good transition to the floor.
 

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