Yellow brick road floor

[Trav400]

Hello!

 

I'm a technician in a school and we're putting on Wizard Of Oz and we want the yellow brick road coming down the stage and up the isle of the audience. I have thought about doing this with canvas and getting the students to paint the bricks. However won't this create a trip hazard? Someone has sugested lino but I don't think the site staff would be impressed with me sticking that to the new hall floor. I'm trying to keep the cost down as I've already spent alot of money building a revolving stage (very proud of that one!).

 

 

Any ideas would be amazing! :)

[Wingwalker]

How about overhead projection (if your ceiling height will allow it)?

[DJ bradderz]

A few years ago my school achieved this with cardboard gaffa taped to the floor as we had virtually no budget. we got a sponge that was brick-shaped and painted the yellow bricks on. it just about lasted a week of being walked on. If the budget allows you could use some thin ply in this way

[vinntec]

How about overhead projection (if your ceiling height will allow it)?

Yes there are several suitable gobos to do this. As a school probably does not have a bottomless pit of profiles available, It might be enough to make the complete area a deep obvious yellow using whatever lighting you have then make the part at the front of the audience have cobblestones with gobos (or use lino for that matter). But it also depends what colour the auditorium floor is! I am not convinced the cobbles have to go all the way - just the most visible part is enough as most people won't be able to see the cobbles in the aisles anyway. Just some thoughts which need to be translated into your venue.

[J Pearce]

A corridor of yellow from PARs might even be enough toale the suggestion?

[Brian]

Been there; done that; got the tee-shirt. Hardboard, painted with emulsion, shiny side up. Stick it together with good quality carpet tape.

 

 

Oh, and if you can get away with a 4' wide aisle, you end up with a pile of hardboard you can re-use next year.

[paulears]

Trip hazard? I'd have no problem doing this with canvas, calico, hardboard, 3mm MDF - and not worry at all. I painted an entire studio floor and walls once - a great project, and really messy - very good fun for students.

 

PS Calico lets the paint seep through to the floor with just one layer - so probably not ideal, unless you put something under - but it does shrink as it dries, making a rather smooth surface, and is ok, wear wise for a short period.

[Jevans]

I covered 60 m^2 of stage with white curtain lining fabric a few months ago - the trick being that we couldn't fasten into the floor in any way. I found that stretching the fabric very tight with the aid of the rest of the crew and taping very firmly around the edges created a pretty good white surface that didn't ruck up and become a trip hazard. By the end of the week it was a bit roughed up - the cast had been running around barefoot with dirtying makeup on for much of the week, so it wasn't white anymore - but it survived with only one small tear we patched, and didn't present a trip hazard. In fact, what it did present was a slip hazard - barefoot or in shoes was okay, but trying to walk on it in socks was a bad move. If I had to do it again I think I'd look at trying to get rougher, thicker fabric that would be less slippy and stand up to wear better, but then we'd have had to spend a lot more to get pure white, which is what we needed.

[Just Some Bloke]

Been there; done that; got the tee-shirt. Hardboard, painted with emulsion, shiny side up. Stick it together with good quality carpet tape.

 

 

Oh, and if you can get away with a 4' wide aisle, you end up with a pile of hardboard you can re-use next year.

 

 

Ditto.