tom.walford Posted January 8, 2010 Share Posted January 8, 2010 I need to turn a school hall into a 1920s dance hall. Any ideas for staging / prop / lighting? Thanks, Tom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted January 8, 2010 Share Posted January 8, 2010 Drapes - lots of them, and probably swagged - think golds and reds, lots of depth. Google palais de dance or palais de danse - it will give you plenty of the buildings and the interiors - there are more drawings than photos, but it sets the style - the period is nearly correct, but close enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csg Posted January 8, 2010 Share Posted January 8, 2010 http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii196/csgal14tp/iphoneautum2009055.jpghttp://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii196/csgal14tp/iphoneautum2009056.jpg this might give you a few ideas - this was a 1920's themed corporate christmas party marquee I rigged before christmas. the set when it went in was lots of black, white and chrome, with a black and white dance floor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted January 8, 2010 Share Posted January 8, 2010 So you went back in time and invented mirror balls and gobos for a 1920 theme? Which bit of that is the 19020s bit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csg Posted January 8, 2010 Share Posted January 8, 2010 Steady - firstly its not my design, and secondly im just trying to help. This forum can have a distinctly pedantic air about it... But to answer your comment directly, I think a design does not have to literally re-create what it is trying to portray. It is far more important in an entertainment context that the lighting supports the theme of the event and adds the necissary atmosphere. Yes, we could have lit the space with a quantity of batten floods, controlled with salt buckets but that would have given a flat look that the punters and the client that the designer was working for would have found distinctly boring ( along with a somewhat involved risk assesment for the salt buckets). And, were mirror balls not around in ball rooms? I have a couple of 1920's texts on stage lighting here, and im sure they show the use of mirrorballs in blackpool ballrooms etc. Come to think of it, im sure the Stelmar mirror spots of the time were capable of projecting gobos as well. Edit - google is amazing - just found an article about a mirrorball being used at a ball in Boston, USA in 1897. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted January 8, 2010 Share Posted January 8, 2010 On a budget of £???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted January 8, 2010 Share Posted January 8, 2010 The OP is wanting to turn the school hall into a 1920s dance hall. Sorry - not being pedantic, but although Stelmars could have masks and things in the optics train, the idea of having lots is a bit daft. Nothing in the images I see suggests the 1920s - and if this theme had been presented to me as an example of a design recreating the 20's I cannot put it in any sensible context. They had mirrors in the 20s - but nothing like a mirror ball, at least not like the ones that spawned in the 70s when very narrow angle pinspots made them do what they do today. Lighting in those days was very different from today - that's my point. We're talking parquet floors, and even daylight in venues. Performance light was more likely to be gas derived - electricity was still a pretty new thing really. We're 40 years after disco, they were 10-20 years away from the first world war! A design may not be (or might have to be) period correct - but I just cannot equate moving head gobos and everything else in the shots with the 20s - sorry! To me it evokes the 70's, 50 years after the date we're talking about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csg Posted January 8, 2010 Share Posted January 8, 2010 ok, well im not wishing to start a rather boring argument here, but mirror balls were being used in dance ball rooms well before the 1920's as a lighting effect - as I stated in my last reply I found one article on google refering to one such event in 1897 using the light from a carbon arc reflected off a mirrored ball suspended above the dance floor. As a small point, since we are in an " accurate" mood, the gobo projection in those pictures comes from 50 deg. source 4's. I guess it was a good thing that the lady paying the substancial bill for that event was delighted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted January 8, 2010 Share Posted January 8, 2010 Chris - don't misunderstand me, I know that arc lamps were used theatrically, and therefore probably in dance halls too, very early in the evolution of lighting - and of course somebody had the idea of pointing one at a ball covered in mirrors - which may or may not have spun around. The Source 4s do an excellent job - it all looks very pretty - BUT I somehow can't see it fitting in with flappers, tea dances and Agatha Christie - too modern. I'm sure the lady who was happy thought it looked great - for what it's worth I do too - BUT it isn't, in my humble opinion evoking the era of the 20s, that's all. The 1920s 'look' is quite distinctive. Let's call it a draw? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the kid Posted January 8, 2010 Share Posted January 8, 2010 Jumping in, having a wiki mirror balls were there ish but not in numbers. But having a google brings up not ALOT, however it does bring up some interesting art deco stuff so perhaps take some hints from there. It depends where it's for and how real it has to look. Also and Paul says Agatha Christie, I am SURE there will be photos of dance halls in the TV shows of the books. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csg Posted January 9, 2010 Share Posted January 9, 2010 fair enough Paul, lets leave it there. It would be a boring world if we all held the same opinions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamtastic3 Posted January 9, 2010 Share Posted January 9, 2010 1920's dancehall...... I'm thinking more reds and gold here. Maybe you want to have small round tables with small boutique style lamps on them with red lamps inside, maybe candles scattered around the place (tealights in holders), maybe drapage with a mirrorball at the most but I guess it would all be pretty static, warm in tones but not suggesting the style of some seedy strip club .... or am I'm I just thinking 1930's Berlin here....? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tom.walford Posted January 9, 2010 Author Share Posted January 9, 2010 Chaps - Thanks very much for the ideas. Very helpful ... Tom PS Paulears - the first world war had already finished!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted January 9, 2010 Share Posted January 9, 2010 Search Wikipedia for Blackpool Tower the ballroom there is shown. Although this was first built in 1890s the style in the pic says the right thing to me. Bold reds and golds and chandeliers for ambient. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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