[J Pearce]

Right,
The next big show at work will be having a large oval screen at the rear of the stage (sort of eye like).

What I'm after is a cloth or flat with the right shaped hole in it to mask the screen behind (which we already have). Is this something people are likely to have in hire stock or have I got to brave carpentry or even worse needlework :| ?

[TomG]

J Pearce, on 07 September 2011 - 04:45 PM, said:

Right,
The next big show at work will be having a large oval screen at the rear of the stage (sort of eye like).

What I'm after is a cloth or flat with the right shaped hole in it to mask the screen behind (which we already have). Is this something people are likely to have in hire stock or have I got to brave carpentry or even worse needlework :| ?

I've done something similar with a circular truss and white cyc. We masked off the outside of truss using 2 tab's and a black curtain. The two tabs were at top and bottom and the two curtains were drawn in to the side all of it was then shaped around the truss using cable ties and those small tag's that you get to hold labels onto new clothes. It actually was quite effective at masking the white cyc into a the circle truss.

Hope this provides a few more ideas

[J Pearce]

No more ideas on this folks?

My current plan is to build the screen from 3x2 and 3/6mm ply then cover with proper screen material.

I'd much rather have the screen revealed rather than proud, but I haven't the resources to build a surround to cover our whole cyc.

[kerry davies]

Jon, my hippies used to build screens of all sizes with kite strutting and ripstop. Is that any use rather than heavy timber framing? Using the jointing pieces you could form a lattice framework of whatever shape required and sew a seam around the edge of the screen material.

Mad thought but ....

[steveo]

We have done Oval Screens quite a bit but don't tend to keep them, easy way to make a ply / mdf frame by laying the board on the floor and referencing measure lines from your drawing. Find some thin ply or prefrably flexi-ply and bend the ply to the shape required and scribe the shape. Jig saw / router the shape. Then flip over and create the other side of the oval. You then have the 2 halves to cover / paint as you desire. You can then create a frame to strenghen quite easily. Screen material can be attached to the rear side once strengthend.

I would use a 6mm ply for the surround minimum therefore using 4mm staples etc, attach all the material

[J Pearce]

Well to wrap the topic up, I ended up making a screen.

I used 9mm mdf for the front surface painted with plain old white emulsion, with bracing/flying framing built of 3x2 on the back.

Budget meant a proper surface got cut, but the plain paint gave us a very reflective surface that competed well with the lighting and looked very impressive.

If anyone wants it let me know before I get the wrecking bar out over christmas!