# What Type of Drop/Curtain is this?



## mikewarner (Sep 19, 2014)

Can anyone tell me what the type of curtain in this video with the words "They Royal theatre" written on it is?



It rises like an Austrian but remains smooth when fully lowered.

Thanks!


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## MarshallPope (Sep 19, 2014)

If it has a name, I don't know it; but I'm guessing that it is just a flat muslin drop with nylon webbing with d-rings on the back, with cables running down to a stout bottom pipe. It looks like a great option for theatres with no fly space.


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## derekleffew (Sep 20, 2014)

I'd call it a flat brail curtain, i.e., a braille drop sewn with 0% fullness.


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## porkchop (Sep 20, 2014)

Why wouldn't it be called an Austrian with 0% fullness?


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## BillConnerFASTC (Sep 20, 2014)

Somebody want to take a first at bat on difference between Austrian and Braille? Correct spelling for braille or brail? Where does contour fit? And why aren't they called west coast?


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## sk8rsdad (Sep 20, 2014)

It ought to be a QOTD, but it's too easy to google the answer.


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## mikewarner (Sep 20, 2014)

The one in _this_ clip is a rather unusual one - well to me at least:  (starts at 1:50)

It's like the top and bottom are rolling into each other.

Is this a standard curtain type? What's it called?


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## MarshallPope (Sep 20, 2014)

That one is just a tripped drop. There is a second pipe pocket on the back of the drop, effectively tri-folding it in the air.


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## np18358 (Sep 20, 2014)

It appears to me that in the video, there are two separate soft goods. A Painted scrim DS, and then another curtain, maybe a fullstage black or some other masking drape, and they both roll rather than fly, probably due to lack of height for full working flys. It also appears that it could be that there is a projection, and the border of the projection makes it appear as if there is some sort 2nd drape.


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## mikewarner (Sep 20, 2014)

MarshallPope said:


> That one is just a tripped drop. There is a second pipe pocket on the back of the drop, effectively tri-folding it in the air.



It doesn't really look much like it's folding though. More as though it's rolling up.


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## BrianWolfe (Sep 24, 2014)

A Roman shade.


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## afreeradical (Oct 2, 2014)

Well to my eye's they have a Main Curtain rigged to travel
Then behind that they have an Olio or Drop made from either Muslin or Canvas, with Brail rigging, rigged to a bottom pipe.

And I can do this without looking ( I hope or my stage carp would be disappointed )

> Somebody want to take a first at bat on difference between Austrian and Braille? Correct spelling for braille or brail? Where does contour fit? And why aren't they called west coast?




Austrian refers to the amount of fullness in your curtain, which from what our designers have said in past differs from curtain to curtain and theatre to theatre depending on designer and curtain company. Can be minorly adjusted with lift lines but this tends to distort the fullness

Brail is a rigging that pulls your curtain up from multiple points from the bottom up
Contour is like Brail except you pull the points different amounts and can stylize how the curtain goes out from those points... How you get the clamshell effect
West Coasting is a method of gathering goods for quick transfer from pipe to pipe, ( can also be used for storage but not best practice for long term.)

I've helped rig all of them in my career so I hope I got that right


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## afreeradical (Oct 2, 2014)

I felt I should add only because I've had this discussion so many times on stage
and heard so many different descriptions and differences in procedure and use​
Because there are many different procedures and uses of the West Coast or West Coasting...

But to my understanding West Coasting refers to and is done by...
3 - 5 stage hands standing equidistant to each other 
with arms out beneath an incoming Goods of some kind.​As the flyman lowers the Goods 
The stage hands allow it too fold back and forth in their arms.​When the pipe reaches height. And the Flyman has called it locked and Safe to unload...
The stage hands untie the goods and move to the new pipe the goods are going too and retie them.​At which time the flyman would fly the goods back out after being weighted. 

This being the fastest way to rehang goods without them touching the floor and picking up dust.​


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## kicknargel (Oct 3, 2014)

Definitions vary, and I'm sure there are long threads about it. Here we tend to use "west coasting" to mean gathering a drop similarl to how you've described, then using a few ties to tie the whole bunch to the pipe for storage. Also called a "sail tie."

Only a guess: in a film studio you don't have a fly gallery but might be able to fly in a pipe to gather a drop and quickly store it out of the way on the pipe.


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## BillConnerFASTC (Oct 3, 2014)

As I suspected in my post above, there are a lot of different definitive definitions for these things.


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