# The dubble Cyc effect.



## delnor (Mar 4, 2003)

Here is somthing kind of cool. If you have a Cyc in the back of your stage here is a cool way to make things seem to float (Sort of). All you have to do is get some extra cyc materal or some old pieces of white scrim. Build some platforms on stage, focus strip lights on your cyc. Staple the old scrim pieces onto the front of your platforms and place a strip light behind them. If you leg the platforms correctly you can get very few shadows directly on the scrim materal form behind giving you a good solid color. This makes a great effect for concerts and things where you need a little extra light, you can change the color of the platforms and the cyc for a cool effect or you can make them the same color, which if done correctly can make the bottoms of the platforms blend into the cyc behind giving you a floating effect.


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## TechDirector (Mar 4, 2003)

Our set is going to be elevated about 2 or 3 feet off the stage so I'm going to place a couple of lights underneath the set and use it when we are performing the show so that during a scene change (look at my jounal for details) I'm going to have the lights temporarily flash out in the audience, and at the same time have fog machines go off and afterwords have a fan blow it all out and start the next scene. How about that?


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## delnor (Mar 4, 2003)

Nice, that sounds like a cool idea. If you are having a band on stage I have seen some people put beam projectors behind the drummers or other members of the band with the fog it makes for an awsome effect. If you have the frames you can gel them. I would highly suggest timing the beam projector to the music, if there is a big crash or somthing turn it on then. You can also get the same effect with a couple of scoops but a beam projector is ideal. :wink:


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## Scooter (Jan 27, 2005)

sounds cool. i should try that


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## DarSax (May 7, 2006)

We actually do that stuff every year with our Talent Show, and believe me, it is amazing. Well, not exactly the cyc/platform contrast (thats a cool idea), but the lighting up of the set is basically what makes our sets so cool from year to year.

There are actually a ton of different ways you can do the desired effect. For the last show I did, we actually used 3 different methods to do it.



First was under the platforms themselves, just as you described. We covered the entire thing with some Rosco tough spun (I forget the number, I think you can find it in most swatch books though), bought in rolls and stapled on. All in all, we should have used diffuse rather than the spun most likely, but it still looked amazing. We enclosed the other walls with luan and put 4 studio colors under there. Was very cool.


Second was was for the lockers (the set is a school). You can see that the two outer lockers are basically big translucent sheets with paper lockers glued on. What we did was use a circular saw (it was luan) to make large cuts in the wall. Then, behind, we set up a 2x4 frame so the wall would be stable and we could staple on the diffuse. The material is simply Rosco diffuse, and to light them I put two Altman zooms on the floor behind and to the side and correctly cropped them.

The inside ones were a bit more complex. They also were a complete pain to make. The lockers, though you can't see from the photo, are actually built so they stick out of the wall. Using 2x4's, luan, and a whole lot of measurements and planning, I (yeah I did these myself. NEVER AGAIN.) (Not the effect, it was amazing; I'll just make other people create the effect next year) was able to make frames of the lockers, with walls seperating each locker. From there I stapled on more Rosco diffuse. Then, with a saw-zaw, I cut holes in the floor under each locker, and alligned the lockers over each hole. By putting fresnells underneath (see picture below), each locker was able to be lit up with a different color. That is, until the director decided that he liked them all the same color. UUUUUURRRRGHHHH.



The door was yet ANOTHER story, and the biggest pain of all. We had to cut out the shape of the door from the luan (including cutting through 2x4 supports). We then attached 2x4's to create the frame. We then used more Rosco diffuse to cover it, and, using 4 or so fresnells in crazy locations (bolted to the floor, to the walls, everything) to light it all up.

Yes, it was a crazy pain to do.

Yes, it looked absolutely amazing.

Fun fact: Before my time, we created the effect with fiberglass paper (basically insulation, it's just paper made from glass strands). From this we learned a simple fact. 
FIBERGLASS IS THE DEVIL INCARNATE.


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## Radman (May 7, 2006)

Yeah fiberglass sucks. Do you have pictures of this?


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## DarSax (May 8, 2006)

Er, could you not see the pictures? I had img-linked to my Brinkster site, but since apparently you couldn't see them I uploaded them below.

Unless you meant pictures of the fiberglass, in which case I'd have to dig some up (they don't look any better than the ones I've attached)


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