Sourcing white legs for shadow projection

[simonplights]

Hi there,

 

Just looking for some opinions on drapes. I'm preparing to send out a design later this year, and one element of it is an upstage full white with 4 x 1m wide white legs hung 1.5m in front of it. Footlights will throw shadows onto these, and as the footlights (Mac Auras) pan, the shadows will split between them.

 

I've been offered a sharkstooth for the main full white - which is fine as it'll just be a full black behind and thus take shadows and colour nicely. However I've been offered white Voiles for the legs - does anyone know how this material will render shadows/light thrown onto it? It would be doubled over. I'm not sure if I'm thinking of the right stuff, but isn't Voile quite silky? Would it glare/shine much?

 

Thanks,

 

Simon

[andy_s]

I wouldn't describe voile as "silk" - it's a very sheer material, quite see-through. Have a look at this: link from J&C Joels website for an example of voile in use for an awards ceremony ( by coincidence at my alma mater, though I googled Joels, not Hull University :) )

 

I think it would take colour well, and drape nicely; I'm not sure how well your shadows would be rendered. I think I'd veer towards something more solid like a cotton casement, though this can crease easily, and might not be so easy to make look good from that point of view. You can get white wool serge, which might work quite well, I did a show a few years ago which had a set of white wool serge tabs which were then projected onto - not (for the AV purists) a projection surface to provide cinematic quality - this was in keeping with the show's low-tec aesthetic.

[simonplights]

Amazing thanks Andy, Voile is the stuff I think it is then. Cotton casement is a good shout. In context of this show the creasing won't matter at all, looks cheap as well...

 

Cheers!