We actually do that stuff every year with our Talent Show, and believe me, it is amazing. Well, not exactly the
cyc/
platform contrast (thats a cool idea), but the lighting up of the set is basically what makes our sets so cool from year to year.
There are actually a ton of different ways you can do the desired
effect. For the last show I did, we actually used 3 different methods to do it.
First was under the platforms themselves, just as you described. We covered the entire thing with some
Rosco tough spun (I forget the number, I think you can find it in most
swatch books though), bought in rolls and stapled on. All in all, we should have used diffuse rather than the spun most likely, but it still looked amazing. We enclosed the other walls with
luan and put 4 studio colors under there. Was very cool.
Second was was for the lockers (the set is a school). You can see that the two outer lockers are basically big translucent sheets with paper lockers glued on. What we did was use a circular saw (it was
luan) to make large cuts in the wall. Then, behind, we set up a 2x4 frame so the wall would be stable and we could staple on the diffuse. The material is simply
Rosco diffuse, and to light them I put two
Altman zooms on the floor behind and to the side and correctly cropped them.
The inside ones were a
bit more complex. They also were a complete pain to make. The lockers, though you can't see from the photo, are actually built so they stick out of the wall. Using 2x4's,
luan, and a whole lot of measurements and planning, I (yeah I did these myself. NEVER AGAIN.) (Not the
effect, it was amazing; I'll just make other people create the
effect next year) was able to make frames of the lockers, with walls seperating each locker. From there I stapled on more
Rosco diffuse. Then, with a saw-zaw, I cut holes in the floor under each locker, and alligned the lockers over each hole. By putting fresnells underneath (see picture below), each locker was able to be lit up with a different color. That is, until the director decided that he liked them all the same color. UUUUUURRRRGHHHH.
The door was yet ANOTHER story, and the biggest pain of all. We had to cut out the shape of the door from the
luan (including cutting through 2x4 supports). We then attached 2x4's to create the frame. We then used more
Rosco diffuse to
cover it, and, using 4 or so fresnells in crazy locations (bolted to the floor, to the walls, everything) to light it all up.
Yes, it was a crazy pain to do.
Yes, it looked absolutely amazing.
Fun fact: Before my time, we created the
effect with fiberglass paper (basically
insulation, it's just paper made from glass strands). From this we learned a simple fact.
FIBERGLASS IS THE DEVIL INCARNATE.