Production of Disco Inferno

[Dayve]

Hi,

 

Im currently involved with the planning of the production of Disco Inferno at my school. Ive taken it upon myself to have a look at some ideas for set.

 

I have been given a sheet which has all the design for the original set (2006) - well, thats what it says anyway. I like what its got and want to replicate something similar to it. However, a lot of it involves signs and sets being flown onto the stage. As a school, we don't have professional features such as this However, would it be possible to do some sort of system which would allow us to fly banners (such as the boogie and cocktails neon signs etc) onto the backdrop of the set.

 

We have 3 rails above the stage which are designed to have lighting on, but at the moment we use the back one for holding the backdrop up, middle for nothing and front for lights. Would it be possible to have sort of system using these lights to allow us to lower banners or signs for different set changes.

 

Obviously it would need to be safe as we don't really want signs falling onto the actors.

 

Finally, if anyone has any links to other set designs etc for the production or if anyone has done it them self and has any ideas please set me know.

 

Many thanks,

 

Dave

[AndrewR]

At the risk of ruining all the fun that will follow I shall attempt to preempt everybody else. (on the flying question at least).

 

Flying stuff:

Possibly. depends on lots of factors. Get someone who knows what the are doing to come and look at your stage. (If you need to ask the question then you shouldn't be doing it :) )

 

But putting stuff in the set is always fun, I fondly remember absolutely destroying a theatres house tabs with a mobile doorway for the club in the first amateur production of Boogie nights. Just don't make lightboxes of the set out of MDF its far to heavy!

[GridGirl]

Can you hire a tab track to go on your middle bar, and then rather than flying the signs, track them across? If the track extends into the wings, you can unhook signs and hook new ones on as need be. This gets tricky if you want to use neon signs - cabling becomes difficult - but you could paint the signs in fluoro paint and hit them with a UV cannon to get a glowing effect. Banners are quite easy - make a Roman blind style thing - essentially, sew rings onto the banner cloth along both edges, thread sash cord through the rings and attach it to a batten at the bottom of the banner, then run it from the top of the banner through pulleys back to the wings so you can raise and lower the banner when you want to. If you've got a sewing teacher at your school, they may well be able to help you with this.