Karel Bata

OK. Great tips. Fortunately the venue is already almost blacked out. It's the top floor of an old warehouse called Bargehouse behind the OX tower in London. Great location. Rather crap inside. But hey... Here's a pic Whoah - that pic's come out big! I'll be using the space from the windows back to the second girder. So lightweight curtains all around (cos they're cheaper) and heavier curtains at the front across the space with an entrance. With the room you can see beyond (another artsy installation that requires the wearing of 3D specs) this will need 42m x 3.4m of blackout material! This is a video of the install I'm putting in. https://vimeo.com/75155968 It's evolved a bit since then. It's going to be a part of something called Mars and Beyond in February. A big challenge.

It's got to stay up for a month, and the surface - frames - isn't that even. A bit of tape will do the job.

Sorry for delay. David - I'll gaffa some silver foil over the windows as a first blackaout layer. Onto - thanks for the links. Gyro - good point about exit lights. Someone will be present all the time outside with an infra-red camera and monitor keeping an eye on things, but it's a good question.

Silver foil - nice idea. I'll use gaffa tape.

That's an interesting resourse. Thanks. Have you used that material? Just how heavy is it? I need a large quantity to cover walls (I can cover the windows with newpaper first), and then need something else a bit heavier to hang in two sperate pieces that run parallel and form a short entrance 'corridor' and light trap. I think this would be too lightweight for that? So what kind of weight should I be looking at? M.H. - I entirely agree with you. Folks are entitled to make a living. All I meant here is that this adds up when you start to cover a large space. I need to source 42m x 4m of black material to completely black out two large rooms for an immersive arts installation - out of my own pocket! Plus the flooring. So I'm looking for reasonable ways to cut corners.

Thanks. It should do for covering some hideous walls. But I'll still need something a bit more like traditional drapes. 4m x 3.5m and 6m x 3.5m. It's all hideously expensive.

Ah. That's useful. Thanks.

That's an interesting idea.

Thanks. What I have found online is this. Polyester / cotton. Not quite matte, but good enough for my purposes. https://www.ebay.co....UK/232348803079 And then they'd need fireproofing...

Really good suggestions. Thanks. I'm thinking of perhaps using a steel document tray and building around that. Then add the gravlocks and a bit of scaff. I've got a few months to do this.

Any ideas on a cheap way to attach a projector to an overhead girder? It'll be up there for a month, so hiring something would be expensive. No real budget. Projector is 260 x 216 x 60, and weighs 2.5kg (with media player). Not a big one. Venting is out of the front. I have plenty of time, and a skilled helper, to make/adapt something. Cheers!

Will be needed for an arts event for a month in central London from February. Lots of it, and not much of a budget. Any ideas?

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I'm genuinely torn here! The 7kg LED profille is tempting and I might get it anyhows (byt WHY is it so heavy?) Gyro's suggestion of the Showtec Par 16 is intriguing, but it gets a really poor review on Amazon, and I doubt it's bright enough. Be curious to see it in action. Dave suggestion of using a projector will likely win out. I've got several projectors that are never used, and plenty of media players (that all boot-up into play on power-up), so that gives me a chance to make it bit more dynamic. I'll run it in eco-mode wit the brightness down and cross my fingers about it lasting for a month - 360 hours, with 30 power ups. Should do. I now have to think about how I rig it to the scaffolding beam up there. On a non-budget. Hm...

A bit big n heavy at 7kg, But that's an amazing price. Thanks! Any reason not to get one? DMX control. Hm. There won't be a DMX controller available. Is there some (cheap) way to control these without a lighting desk? [thinks for a bit] Maybe with a laptop and MagicDMX? I do have one, but it's never seen use. What software? (I have a Mac) This will get unplugged each night. So what happens typically to DMX controlled lights when there's a power outage - do they go back to the last state when power is restored? Thanks for your help guys!

Hm. £1,000 and £500. That's a bit overkill for this. And it's only needed for a month.

It'll be on to a piece of white card. The location - an interior - will be rather dim, so it shouldn't have to be all that bright. As bright as a side street at night. Maybe not 2m. More like 1.5m. Thanks!

I've got a setup coming up where I'd like to have a logo projected on to a wall for a month. It needs to be about 2m wide. There are ceiling rigging points (girders) 3.5m up, 2m and 4m away. Ideally it'll be a LED fixture so I can use a gless gobo. Lightweight is good. Cheap is great. Any suggestions? Cheers!