What's It All About

There's an anonymous commenter that wants to know exactly what the Masonite cleat was all about.  It's about this:

Crumpled Paper Backdrop
Carnegie Mellon School of Drama

The 2009 production of Grapes of Wrath Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama provided a unique challenge for the production team revolving around the curved paper backdrop designed by Meg Cunningham. The goal was to create a curved backdrop that was completely covered in crumpled brown paper in a specified pattern outlined in the model (fig 1).   Depending on the lighting this drop would represent mountains, clouds, or water.

The project provided 2 major challenges.  The first challenge was to come up with a way creating the paper shape in such a way that it would look correct and also able to be manipulated without tearing.  The second was to find a way to get the large irregular piece to hang properly in the space without an unreasonable amount of install labor.

Many fabrication techniques were discussed: chicken wire, hardcover backing, carved foam, laminated paper layers, starch combinations, aluminum backed molding cloth and even a metal pencil rod topographical system.  There was much concern over the crumples “hanging out” over time, leaving a flat drop.  Because of this, the team decided if we were to use actual craft paper some kind of rigid backing or armature would be required.  Eventually a solution of laminated layers of craft paper and a Tyvek backing won out.  The Tyvek selection centered on the large available size of the raw material, its being very light weight, and its resistance to tearing.

The final drop construction had a back layer of overlapping Tyvek sheets adhered to each other with 30NF Contact Adhesive.  The overlapping pieces were required due to the overall size required exceeding the height of a roll.  The backing was married to a middle layer of standard brown craft paper, again using the 30NF.  The middle layer insured that what we would see would be paper if the front layer gapped.  At this point the perimeter shape was cut out.

Scenic artists worked with the piece applying a crumpled layer a little bit at a time.  This layer was adhered with Rosco Flex Bond so the adhesive wouldn’t crack when the drop was handled.  The long tack time of this adhesive also allowed for some adjustments to be made as the overall shape started to manifest.  Occasionally the top layer was stapled down to the floor or held down with weights while waiting for the glue to set.  At the conclusion of this step the drop was treated with a liberal amount of spray flame retardant.

Once everything was dry and set the carpentry crew grommeted the top edge of the piece through the backing and mid layer on two foot centers.

The design of the drop called for a curved footprint in plan and as little visible support as possible (fig. 2).  Since the top of the piece was irregular it was not practical to create a batten on the drop.  The shape was created by a custom curved batten made from 1”X1” square metal tube that bridged two house pipes above the vertical sightline.  Since there were so many lines required, and the overall weight was insignificant, the connection from the batten to the drop was made by over thirty 1/16” Dacron ® lines.  The abundant number of picks helped maintain the curve and enabled precise trim heights for the multi-dimensional object.  The 1/16” line turned out to be nearly invisible in this application.

Due to the irregular shape, keeping the curve flat and the top from lolling over between picks required very precise and fairly repetitive trim adjustments to every support line.  The original plan was to terminate the line with a knot and then untie and retie to adjust the length.  In practice the 1/16” line proved fairly inconvenient to make and break.  To streamline the process the team employed a cleat fabricated from 1/4” Masonite (fig. 3).  A square piece of wood had small band saw kerfs cut in from each side.  The support line went through the drop’s grommet from front to back and then laced through each of the kerfs on the cleat.  The lacing provided sufficient friction to keep the line from pulling out, and the cleat kept the assembly from pulling through the grommet thereby supporting the drop.  Adjusting the trim by unlacing and re-lacing the cleat turned out to be simple.

The final result (fig. 4) was a successfully scaled up paper drop using cheap effective means for the paper to maintain its crumpled appearance and shape. The micro-adjustment cleat developed for the drop has been utilized several times at Carnegie Mellon University since, and has proven useful for lightweight scenic pieces rigged with several thin lines that require fine tensioning.