Set as Pop-up book?

Doug Lowthian

Active Member
i am starting set design for an upcoming production of Willie Wonka. As they move room to room in act 2 I had the thought of using set pieces that were designed like pop-up book pages. Actors/extras could "turn the page" as they move cross stage, thus revealing the next room.

Anyone ever done anything like this and have lessons to be learned? i am deconstructing pop-up greeting cards to see how to hinge and fold flats!
 
One of our set designers did something like this for Fairy Tale Ending.

It's an ambitious undertaking and requires some beefy hardware to support moving walls. Flats are much thicker and heavier than a piece of paper so the hinge mechanism can become quite complex. The area through which the pages pivot needs to be clear. If actors need to enter and exit through the structure it will take some careful thought to line up the portals. It's possible to cheat to keep the stack of pages manageable by adding and removing pages and using some sort of hanger mechanism on a common pivot.

You're going to need a lot of double-sided flats in just the right order. For Wonka, your other design consideration is the orchestrated demise of all the "brats". Some of those effects may require special set pieces to be incorporated into your origami contraption.

Projection mapping may be easier than doing it with physical flats.
 
I wonder if instead of one large set piece, come up with something akin to an inverted periaktoi. Imagine a row of these each with turnable pages. Keep us posted with how this turns (sigh) out.
EDIT: I wonder if coroplast would be usable for the pages?
 
Very cool concept! I've done a few book page sets before, but the flats were attached to different parts of the walls instead of all in one central location. Cool to do, but figuring which flat to turn before which other was a logistical nightmare. Great for spaces with no wings, though! I got sentimental and attached a few pictures from my first attempt at bookpage design, Cinderella, back in 2005. This was at a different theatre. Poor camera quality, please don't judge...

We just did Willy Wonka jr for our Penguin Project show this year, but I can't for the life of me remember how many rooms there were. The Shrinking Room, Bubble Room, Chocolate Room.... pretty sure there are a couple more, but that was two shows ago. I'm already thinking lighting for the next three shows, lol.

If I'm understanding your question correctly, I'm seeing a major issue right off the bat: If you build the flats old style, they're still going to be an inch thick (if they're built using 1x4 and 1/8" luan). Those flats will stack up quick, unless you can figure a way to recess the "page" once it gets turned. Hinge placement could be a challenge. What are you thinking for the size of each page? You can have a couple of 2" casters at the bottom of the flats to make the turning smoother.

Love the idea, though, and hope you can figure out a way to make it work! :)
 

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If you could live with "pages" that are maybe 6' x10' max, seems likevit could be like banners - a kind of mini-drop - and just a series of arms hinged off a rear wall or perhaps scaffold structure. If they were progressively a little taller. Could be arms all off one "column" or pipe. Just less material and work than "hard" pages.

If you could roll a piece of track and support it, just attach the gutter edge to wall or structure and support other edge of page on a carrier. Might need a stiffener at top of page.
 
I think The Nebraska Caravan Theater has a history of touring Children's productions as pop up books that were able to fit in a cargo van, so if it's on the smaller scale that could work. You might also check out a system similar to how they display large area rugs in department stores for spacing and mounting of hinges.

I did a show once that was a full stage popup book that was automated, on a rake and the furniture popped up out of the floor after the book opened... but that's not a design I would readily recommend again...
 
we're in the midst of prototyping several pop up scenes for a christmas display in a retailer's storefront windows. for our purposes, we don't need the set to pop out in the same motion of opening the leaf. Makes for a much easier build. Operator opens the leaf, then moves all the associated bits into position. We're in the middle of testing materials to use for the pop out bits. we're working with a 3/8" corrugated aluminum panel now. planning to cement hinges on so we don't have to deal with crushing the hollow material with bolts. Seems like 1/2" sintra is good for armatures as well, light and rigid. We've got a mock up I might be able to get a video of.

I will say that if you want the whole thing to pop out with one movement, it limits the options you have for movement within the piece. (at least without getting incredibly complicated with your rigging... Pop up cards are great because they can use a scrap of paper to push/pull other pieces, and that doesnt scale too well hahah
 
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Always thinking simpler less costly means to carry out a concept, two "page" size drops, stacked, maybe velcro or some other pull off attachment - so to turn a page an actor grabs one side of the drop and pulls it off its attachments and into wings, revealing the next two page drop.

PS: Maybe if you want furniture to "appear" the drops have a slit in bottom that or techs can "pop" through with a chair or what ever and set it in place. Just trying to get the spirit rather than a much scaled up literal representation, which I'm sure you could do with enough time and money.
 
All great ideas. I'm leaning towards two set pieces, each made of 3 flats. picture a book with a cover, back cover and 1 page. Between the cover/back cover, inside cover/pg 1, pg 2/back cover that makes 3 scenes. Simple 3D square or rectangle popouts to provide 3D effect, with set dressing. Casters at hinge, middle and front corner, some sort of horizontal stabalizer as well to prevent tipping.

Still experimenting with models.

Set will also have five 10ft tall periaktoi, 4 ft on a side, (which we have used quite a bit before ), a wagon or two and various props and things. Stage acting area is 50x25 and we have huge backstage (size of a basketball court).
 
I'm probably a little too late to the party, but I am currently working on re-mounting our Musical Panto: Aladdin. The set design called for a full stage book with 5 individual pages including the front and back covers. We used a large pipe as our spine that was firmly anchored at both ground and grid. We sleeved collars over the pipe (3 per page) and used UHMDW rings between each collar to reduce friction. One off the biggest challenges was getting the book to close. The pages were framed with 1 1/2" box steel and faced on both sides with 1/4" plywood. The thickness of the pages meant they could only wrap so far around the pipe before they ran into each-other, resulting in a very open book. To fix it we welded up some low profile trusses out of 1" box steel and used them to increase the distance from the end of the page structure and the center of the circle. At the end of each page we used a zero through tri caster, but the centers were completely supported by the "spine". Once the structure was together we wrapped the pages with muslin drops that our scenic had pre-painted. After the run it all came apart and has been in storage for five years. Next week we pull it out and see if it all still fits together.

I'm not sure all of those descriptions make sense, so hopefully some pictures will help. Unfortunately I don't have great photos of the finished product, but I will add them if I find some. Aladdin Book Angles.JPG Page Extensions.JPG Aladdin open pages.JPG
 
We've got a mock up I might be able to get a video of.

Finally got this thing built....

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