flat building help
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Topic: flat building help
Posted By: Guests
Subject: flat building help
Date Posted: 3/23/03 at 12:48am
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I can't recall what material is used to cover the frame of the flats. Is it canvas or muslin? What type of solution do you use to get it to stick. It has been years since I have built one and I am working with my local high school... anyone have any advice?
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Replies:
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 3/23/03 at 6:59pm
A medium weight unbleached muslin is what I use.
Here is a GREAT book that will tell you more about flats and other stage set materials than you could ever want to know. Really simple and complete and not too technical for anyone to understand.
STOCK SCENERY CONSTRUCTION HANDBOOK by Bill Raoul.
Good luck.
Doug
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 3/24/03 at 1:01pm
You might want to consider using all wood instead of canvas.
Check out this thread further down the board:
http://www.communitytheater.org/ASP/forum/Thread-It/treplies.asp?message=236
There is a discussion of the merits of using wood over canvas.
Dan
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 3/24/03 at 3:21pm
Wood is nicer to work with than canvas, imho.
I'm told that in my town the firechief will no longer allow canvas flats. This is in reaction to the fire at the Station Night Club (one theater I've stage managed for is closed down completely). They are even threatening to not allow us to use wallpaper on the flats. A bit of an over-reaction, probably.
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 3/26/03 at 11:41pm
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It used to be gesso (?sp) applied on muslin-- but now it is much easier to use luan (really thin, and easier to work with.) We get ours from a local home store (i.e. Home Depot or Lowes) and apply to a frame of 1x2's or larger-- depending on the design and need to attach--- have you though of going this route? Honestly, it is MUCH easier then the way we used to do the flats.
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 3/27/03 at 12:09am
Since this is for the high school,and I am outside the system,the director wants to keep things simple (atleast not change) so we will stick with Muslin.
I am still wondering what solution we used to use to "glue" it to the frame. It was something we could easliy find (or make) there at the school. I just draw a total blank at what it was.
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 3/27/03 at 11:05am
I use white Elmers glue, thinned with a little water. Apply it liberally with a paint brush. When you lay the muslin on it, the glue should wick up and just dampen the top surface of the fabric (tiny little beads of glue just barely showing on top of the fabric). If it is too wet, it will dry with a hard surface and look different from the rest of the fabric surface when you paint it. If it is too dry, it won't stick well when you paint the material.
The book I mentioned suggests using "wall sizing" for shrinking the fabric. I use a white latex paint thinned about half with water. I paint the first coat on the back of the flat.
I am always amazed how much the muslin shrinks and how nice it looks when it is new. A hint: make sure you do not stretch the fabric on a diagonal - pull it straight across and straight up and down. If you have a diagonal pucker it will never go away.
I also went to luan flats recently. Of interest, both Home Depot and Lowes have stopped stocking luan - not enough volume. I wanted to use 2x3 for stiffeners so I ripped a 2x6 in half - it didn't work - there was so much stress in the 2x6 the 2x3's were anything but straight. 1x4 is probably a better idea. Since our flat height is 10' and I could only get 8' luan, I had a joint that was always visable - luan edges are not sharp - (I tried everything - tape, spackling, wood filler and more) - until I decided to paint above the joint flat black and wall color below the joint.
Have fun - I really had fun making fabric flats.
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 3/27/03 at 11:31am
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Thank you , Thank you , thank you !!! I will be using ALL this advice. thanks again.
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 3/27/03 at 12:49pm
When I did canvas flats I would pull the muslin around the edges and staple it to the back of the flat. I would then put a coat of watered down while glue over the whole things.
Dan
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 3/30/03 at 10:39am
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Last year I had to build a 12-foot tall, 42 feet wide set for Lend Me A Tenor. There's no way you can build flats this size with anything else but muslin unless you have King Kong in your crew to move them, and a real heavy bracing system. I ended up with 25 flats of varying widths from 2 to 6 feet. When the set was stricken, the flats were stacked vertically against the wall occupying a space less than two feet deep. If you have to use 8-ft. lauan with flats taller than 8 feet, try masking tape over the seam where the edges meet. You should also use masking tape to cover the vertical gaps between flats. After being painted over, masking tape becomes virtually invisible from 12 feet away. Masking tape will wrinkle when the paint is wet. Be patient, it'll stretch flat when it dries. That may take some time, usually overnight.
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 4/05/03 at 4:22pm
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Just looking for a little confirmation here. Upon closer look, I have found several of our existing flats have been made with, oh god, 2x4's. Talk about heavy. Best advice? just tear them apart and start over? I hate to waste Muslin to recover them when they are insanely heavy and not pratical... impossible to do a quick scene change. I may have been out of the loop for awhile, but 2x4's? Waht were they thinking?
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 4/06/03 at 11:14am
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Aimee, I mentioned earlier our building flats from scratch for a big set. Actually, we had loads of older flats accumulated over the years, but they were heavy, mismatched, etc. etc. So we bit the bullet and made a whole set of new flats. Maybe you should do the same thing. Tear apart the old flats and use the lumber for other things. When you decide what the height of your set (flats) will be , say 10 or 12 feet, you may build flats of that height and shorter flats that go over doors and windows. So, each door, for example, will be framed by three flats. One on each side the height of the set, and one on top connecting the two side flats to complete the "wall." Ordinarily, you don't want your doors connected to the flats. Doors should be free-standing, independent of the flats, supported by their own system of braces etc. so that when the actors slam the doors the vibation isn't transmitted to the flats making them flap and shake. Or, forget all I said and get a good book on set building.
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 4/06/03 at 6:18pm
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Keep the best of the old ones - it seems like you always have to cut a flat for some reason - different style of door, different size/shape window, pass through and on and on. I doubt that I have ever done a show without having to make a special flat or cut an old one. Cut the old ones and keep the new ones whole.
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 4/07/03 at 12:17pm
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It is Muslin. TO build a flat you need to strech out the muslin really tight and then use something we call shrinky dink. It is a surprising simple soulution of mainly water and gule I think it is 50/50. Does that help??
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 4/08/03 at 12:08am
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Yes, thank you all for all the advice and words of wisdom. We went ahead and started stripping the old ones down, no turning back now :)
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