Revolving columns

[Ella]

I need to build 4 revolving columns, each side covered in a different surface.

One is a stone effect, one shards of mirror, and for one the director wants to use frosted mirror, though Ive never come across this.

The columns will have to be as high as the pros arch, and so obviously keeping them upright is an issue.

I'll need to keep the materials very light weight, especially whatever the surfaces are mounted on.

If poss, we were thinking of lighting the columns from inside, but that could be overambitious (esp for a student production).

 

Any advice greatly appreciated!

Cheers

[Malcolm Gordon]

Try searching the Blue Room (or elsewhere) for "periaktoi".

 

HTH

[Just Some Bloke]

Have a look at the back of the Lee swatch. Maybe something like 273 ('Silver Reflector') might be able to be used as a top surface over something else. There's plenty of different textures to play with, anyway.

[Psychedelic Theatre]

Would be useful if you gave us some dimensions...How high is your proscenium, how wide/deep can the columns be?

 

Also, is there a rake?

 

 

If there is no rake, then it's really a case of working out how wide/deep your column needs to be to make it stable.

 

Another way of making sure it doesn't tip, would be to use a top hat type system underneath, and another on the top with the pole attached to the roof/lx bar. Have the columns mounted on castors and then they will just rotate on the top hat type thing.

 

I hope that makes sense.

 

 

For shards of mirror you could use sugar glass. It's fairly easy to make and you can find recipes online. What kind of surface are the shards sticking out from?

 

I suppose you could also do something with cardboard and tin foil (thinking budget here )

 

 

Hope that helps,

 

Tim

[Cormac]

Hi,

I have done something like your describing.Our towers were slightly more complicated..in brief we had 4 x 1 tonne verlinde motors mounted in in a steel framework that were modified with DMX cards to be run from a lighting console that controlled the direction and side of the tower that you wanted to be visible.

Each of the 4 towers were triangular and had different media or images on each of the three sides,we had 4 triangular sections that we attached trilite sections in various lengths to create the towers in the height required.

We used lightweight silk scrims with velcro edge's but I suppose your material is a choice that has been made already,

if you need more info mail me hope this is of some help.

 

Cormac

[AndyJones]

Search for Tweenies Live!. They have a very simular system that works VERY well.

[Ella]

Cheers! The top hat sounds like a good idea, as there's no rake.

 

Cormac - what is trilite?

 

Any ideas for lighting from the inside? I was thinking maybe just one footlight inside the base, cabled all the way up to the overhead lx bar. I guess it wouldn't give an even light the whole way up, but that maight be quite a nice effect...? The other surface is stained glass/lighting gels!

 

Ella

[paulears]

Tri-lite = lightweight triangular section truss, similar to Astralite, but with plain end tubes, with internal spigots.

[MarkPAman]

A length of rope light inside would give a nice even light.

[Psychedelic Theatre]

It depends on what the surface is.

 

If it's a stained glass window it could look quite nice...though it could also look atrocious. If it was made with a nice diffusion gel, or something to diffuse the light slightly it would look really nice.

[Bryson]

Cormac: DMX running stage automation? Oh my. Tell me that there is at least a deadmans switch in the control system as well...?

[Cormac]

Cormac: DMX running stage automation? Oh my. Tell me that there is at least a deadmans switch in the control system as well...?

 

 

"at least"