Tips for box set using muslin flats?

[almorton]

If it's the same as the British gauge it's 4' 8 1/2" or 1435.1 mm

 

[rsmentele]

Be careful with just buying 'Drop Cloths' they are often SEAMED!!! No Good

 

[morganmac]

Thanks, all. We were gifted a large amount of muslin a few years ago and haven't really had a use for it yet, so that was part of the cost-saving theory behind this possibility. Our department chair had the idea, and I wasn't opposed to it in theory, but I wanted to do some homework. Sounds like it wouldn't save us that much in the long run, and even my experienced crew members would be working at a steep learning curve. They can assemble a stock hard cover flat in no time at all, but I'm sure we'd lose time with them learning the right way to do the soft ones.

I'm thinking we might go ahead and plan for hard skinned plats for the box set, and find a different use for the muslin this season just to get it out of my shop! Thanks again for all the input, I really appreciate it!

 

[dbaxter]

Make it hang like

a sail and do Peter and the Star Catcher.

 

[bobgaggle]

Brainstorming... but 12 x 15 canvas drop cloth is 30 bucks at Menards here. Wonder how that might work out as a covering. That would get you at least
3 4x8 or 2 4x12 with allowances for wrap around the frame.

Haven't done a full size flat with these but I've stretched the same drop cloth around many frames for my wife's art work. Works fine on a 3'x4'...

 

[jonares]

Well, Tradition. (Isn't there a lot of tradition in this biz?) Back in the day 5'-9" was the widest that would fit in the railroad baggage cars that were used to haul shows when on the road. I suppose you could build 6'ers instead nowadays.

I have also read that 5'-9" is a comfortable wing span for the "average" stage hand, carrying the flat alone.... haven't measured for myself, but seems plausible...

 

[derekleffew]

haven't measured for myself, but seems plausible...

Except that Flat, Broadway aren't carried, they're "run." (Is this where "running crew" comes from?) Standing on the non-audience side of the flat, the stagehand lifts the leading edge less than an inch off the ground, and propels forward, leaving the trailing edge dragging on the deck.* If done correctly, wind currents help to keep the flat vertical.

Any other way of moving a flat requires more than one person.

*Which may be the primary reason for not wrapping the muslin/canvas/duck around the rails and stiles; it wears out faster.

 

[JonCarter]

"One hand high, one hand low, that's what makes the scenery go."

Also, remember when building flats, that the rails always over lap stiles. This keeps the stiles from splitting when running flats.

 

[Van]

...
*Which may be the primary reason for not wrapping the muslin/canvas/duck around the rails and stiles; it wears out faster.

I was taught that you fray the outside edges of the muslin to make a lower spot for Dutchman. Kind of like the valley between sheets of GWB.