back-projecting onto draped cloth

[bruce]

Not sure whether "Props & Wardrobe" or Video would be the best place for this one - lety's try here for the moment.

 

I'm going to be involved in an event which will be set on (and actually produced in the hold of!) an old sailing ship.

 

The director wants to have some draped sailcloths as part of the set, and to project images onto these during part of the event. Sharp focus and clarity is probably not too critical.

 

For various reasons - lack of headroom being the main one - front projection is awkward. We're toying with the idea of using draped gauze to give the "draped sails" effect, and rear-projecting.

 

Has anyone tried something similar? What sort of material did you use? Did it work?

[Russ83]

This sounds like an interesting project.

 

This picture might give you a little comparison but I apologise as it's not the best.

The centre image is front projected from a Hitachi CP-X1250 onto gauze and the two sides are rear projected from a Panasonic PT-LB50NTEA onto cotton bed sheets. Both worked very well and could still be clearly seen when the stage lights came on.

 

The bed sheets are certainly the cheaper option and given a little bit of front light could be made to blend in with proper sails. Only thing to think about with bed sheets is the fire risk. Heat from a projector is very minimal but there are normally plenty of other sources in shows.

[w/robe]

It may be worth posting in Video as there are probably people who flick through New Posts and do not look at anything in Props & Wardrobe.

 

A few things that I would think you would have to know/think about;

 

How 'draped' is your Director thinking that the fabric is going to be? If it is so full that parts of it are 3 layers of fabric deep or there are sections that are at right angles to the projector then the image is going to be seeriously compromised.

 

Will a gauze look like sail canvas?

 

Unless you are also using it for 'gauze effects' would you not be better with a solid cloth where there is more surface area on which to project?

[bruce]

Well, the gig was a couple of nights ago, and all went well..

 

As I said, it was in the hold of an old sailing ship. Seated audience of around 200. Low ceiling. The "stage" was built on a 6-inch riser, with black backcloth. Lighting was a fairly minimal setup, due to lack of power - just 3 profiles driven from an alphapack, and some LED pars.

 

When we arrived, there was an 8-foot gap between the ends of the black cloth and the side walls, and a roll of white cloth. Not sure exactly what it was - it was white, solid, fairly light, and a little shiny on one side.

 

We weren't optimistic. We were even less so when the venue said we needed to leave a passage at one side to allow access to the toilets.

 

The white cloths were hung, secured at the top, flapping at the bottom, about 2 feet from the deck. We were about to secure the bottoms to stop them

flapping in the breeze when the director said "that looks great, I love the momement.....it adds to the "sailing" effect.

 

Would back-projection work?

 

We had a couple of 5k projectors. We mounted them behind, and fired them up. It worked surprisingly well - the director was happy - and that was with the house lights on! Once we got blackout it looked pretty good.

[PDS]

The usual lycra sails probably won't work as they are too thick.

I'd try voile, gauze or filled cloth.

 

Voile and Gauze are quite see through, so there's a good chance you'd see the projector through the cloth, which might make them unsuitable.

Filled cloth is quite thick so might not be see-through enough!

 

Bit of experimenting required!

[smalljoshua]

Well, the gig was a couple of nights ago, and all went well..

You're 2 months too late.

 

Josh