Yellow brick road design

[Mr. B]

Greetings i am the technical director for a high school theater...(ok honestly I'm the chemistry teacher and I teach theater tech in my free time)

We just started rehearsing Wizard of Oz. Originally I wanted to build a plexiglass Yellow Brick Road with DMX controlled LEDSunder it, But the price tag was way high when our budget comes from selling Ramen noodles at lunch.

So my current thought is to paint the YBR on the floor with a reflective paint and dedicate 4-5 optiPars to light it. I envision yellow of course, the red for poppy, green in Oz, magenta in the forrest etc. I repaint 2-3 times a year so that doesn't really bother me.

Thoughts??? And can any one suggest an appropriate paint....

 

[RonHebbard]

Greetings i am the technical director for a high school theater...(ok honestly I'm the chemistry teacher and I teach theater tech in my free time)

We just started rehearsing Wizard of Oz. Originally I wanted to build a plexiglass Yellow Brick Road with DMX controlled LEDSunder it, But the price tag was way high when our budget comes from selling Ramen noodles at lunch.

So my current thought is to paint the YBR on the floor with a reflective paint and dedicate 4-5 optiPars to light it. I envision yellow of course, the red for poppy, green in Oz, magenta in the forrest etc. I repaint 2-3 times a year so that doesn't really bother me.

Thoughts??? And can any one suggest an appropriate paint....

@Mr. B
Thoughts from a non-painter: I wonder how it would look painted with a highly UV reflective paint when lit with UV down-lights EDIT: Or back-lights?
Rosco, among others, used to offer a range of highly UV reflective paints.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.

 

[jtweigandt]

First look at your sight lines. In some auditoriums, nobody but balcony and booth can really see anything on the deck at all.. Or maybe the back 1/3 of the Aud. Make sure it is worth the pain first. Your actors can just imagine the YBR, if no one else can see it anyway. Then if the deck IS visible, I like the UV idea. I got some really cheap LED UV dmx controlled pars (about 30 bucks apiece) and anything with good UV properties really pops even with other stage lighting on.

 

[Mr. B]

@Mr. B
Thoughts from a non-painter: I wonder how it would look painted with a highly UV reflective paint when lit with UV down-lights EDIT: Or back-lights?
Rosco, among others, used to offer a range of highly UV reflective paints.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.

Thank you Ron
I will be calling a Rosco Dealer on Monday morning. I like the idea of UV and will let you know how it works. Thanks Mr. B

 

[Mr. B]

First look at your sight lines. In some auditoriums, nobody but balcony and booth can really see anything on the deck at all.. Or maybe the back 1/3 of the Aud. Make sure it is worth the pain first. Your actors can just imagine the YBR, if no one else can see it anyway. Then if the deck IS visible, I like the UV idea. I got some really cheap LED UV dmx controlled pars (about 30 bucks apiece) and anything with good UV properties really pops even with other stage lighting on.

Thanks for the input. If you are about 5 foot tall and sit in the front row, you are eye level with the deck. So it's visible for just almost everyone, and I think the UV Paint will make it very worthwhile. And I am going to look for some UV lights.

We are not in Kansas anymore....Thanks
Mr. B

 

[RonHebbard]

Thank you Ron
I will be calling a Rosco Dealer on Monday morning. I like the idea of UV and will let you know how it works. Thanks Mr. B

@Mr. B Back lighting will be more beneficial than down or front lighting in your application for at least two reasons:
1; When you back-light, the floor will appear more intense to your patrons due to more of the bounce being directed towards them.
2; Ladies will be quick to note the whiteners in their favorite laundry detergent will normally fluoresce under UV calling attention to their undergarments through their costumes and crew members 'blacks'. When you back-light with UV this won't be a visible problem from the patrons' perspective but will be accentuated from the performers' POV.
EDIT: Omitted a word.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.

 

[jtweigandt]

I made a silly comment, but then remembered this is High School

 

[Amiers]

Pro-tip base with white paint where you use UV paint it will make it pop more.

 

[Mr. B]

Pro-tip base with white paint where you use UV paint it will make it pop more.

Will White UV paint "pickup" or reflect a color from my optipars? Or will I be limited to one color? I was hoping to use it to add color to the foreground in other scenes.

 

[Mr. B]

@Mr. B Back lighting will be more beneficial than down or front lighting in your application for at least two reasons:
1; When you back-light, the floor will appear more intense to your patrons due to more of the bounce being directed towards them.
2; Ladies will be quick to note the whiteners in their favorite laundry detergent will normally fluoresce under UV calling attention to their undergarments through their costumes and crew members 'blacks'. When you back-light with UV this won't be a visible problem from the patrons' perspective but will be accentuated from the performers' POV.
EDIT: Omitted a word.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.

Great insights thank you

 

[Mr. B]

I made a silly comment, but then remembered this is High School

So there is hope our actors will learn some control as well

 

[Amiers]

Yeah white on white with color shot at it will reflect a color

 

[Scott Chasey]

Done Yellow Brick road using brick paneling you hang on walls. Painted yellow and screwed to front edge of stage, just a few and gaff taped edge. We then ran incandescent rope light along back and front edge. Incandescent gives off yellow glow. Used plastic holders that grip entire length to keep rope light straight. Could cut panelling to angle back towards first leg and covered with black cloth for black and white scenes. Played those upstage but still wanted to hide the YBR. Looked awesome and paneling gave it that added dimension that played well. First few rows could only see the light but 80% of house could see.

 

[taneglaus]

Perspective....perspective...perspective... Before committing do some test prints and sit in various seats in your house to be sure it looks right from the audiences perspective. You might look at raking your stage for the traveling scenes so the audience can more easily see the yb.road

 

[DonAllen]

I used a line of PAR56 rigged as backlights across the width of the stage, with yellow gel to create a yellow road. The stage was painted an outdoor stipple, so yellow brick road appeared when needed. I have also used coblestone gobos on other shows.

 

[Frank]

I used a line of PAR56 rigged as backlights across the width of the stage, with yellow gel to create a yellow road. The stage was painted an outdoor stipple, so yellow brick road appeared when needed. I have also used coblestone gobos on other shows.

We did the show in a small theater 5-6 years ago and simply painted a yellow brick road on some ramboard which led to a set of stairs descending towards the audience. Our Dorothy danced around the hall when singing "follow the yellow brick road" and it was perfect. Don't overthink it!

 

[darinlwebb]

We did Oz a few years ago, and the YBR was 3 dancers. They'd lounge on the set or floor, and would dance off ahead of and along with the actors for transitions. There's opportunity there for the dancers to enhance whatever the mood is, or do bits with other side characters. Requires significant suspension of disbelief, so depending on how abstract your interpretation is, it may or may not fit well.

 

[Mr. B]

Done Yellow Brick road using brick paneling you hang on walls. Painted yellow and screwed to front edge of stage, just a few and gaff taped edge. We then ran incandescent rope light along back and front edge. Incandescent gives off yellow glow. Used plastic holders that grip entire length to keep rope light straight. Could cut panelling to angle back towards first leg and covered with black cloth for black and white scenes. Played those upstage but still wanted to hide the YBR. Looked awesome and paneling gave it that added dimension that played well. First few rows could only see the light but 80% of house could see.

Wow...just when I thought I had it figured out... more greet ideas. Thanks for sharing.

 

[RonHebbard]

Great insights thank you

@Mr. B How did you finally do your Yellow Brick Road and how did you light it?
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.

 

[Mr. B]

Show opens first weekend of May. So this may change but the director is currently working with two girls who have dance training and they are wearing/dragging a cloth prototype of the YBR (thanks darrinlweb).... not sure if three will be any pdaint or lights . I will let you know