Sharkstooth scrim alternative?

[stickygreen]

hey, I've got a client asking about sharks tooth scrim, I found this place: http://www.rosebrand.com/product743/...stooth%2bScrim that ships out of California, should be close for me. any way while on the company's site, I noticed this stuff called textilene http://www.rosebrand.com/product861/...stooth%2bScrim it only comes in 98" wide. So for this application I'd need to join pieces together, cause the final piece will be 20' x 15' it's alot cheaper though? anyone ever try it? or something similar? if so how'd you join it?

Also anyone with experience using sharkstooth scrim, any pointers? I'm thinking a 4K or 5K, the venue is prety dark, but I don't know how much light this stuff catches, and how much just passes thru?

[asterix]

Someone has an excellent video where they used this technique.


Another thread might be of use: http://vjforums.com/showthread.php?t=24948

I wouldn't worry about the bleed through except that you'll notice a loss of brightness depending on the weave.

I believe sharkstooth works differently depending on the back lighting too.

[unjulation]

i cant remember which way round it is but basickly you can get sharkstooth gauze to disaper in a theatre seting by either lighting it from the front or back -

so you can have the gauze as part of a stage set that revels its self or disaperas depending upon which side you light it

like i say i cant remember exactly which way round it is - i think it might be light it from behind and it disapers and light it from the front and it appears - but don't quote me on this

also as i learnt this when doing theatre stuff you have control of all the lighting, ambient included which allows you to use this kind of effect - i don't know if you'll be able to do this ware you cant control the ambient light conditions

[stickygreen]

wanted to post an update here, The client took my advice and ordered some sharks tooth gauze. The stage dimensions I was working from were wrong so after re measuring, we needed a piece 30' long by 15' high, instead we've got two pieces 15' x 15' so there will be a seam in the middle so when the sharkstooth gets pulled away it will be pulled away from the center, as opposed to up from the floor as I've seen it used elsewhere.

I'll try and get some pics of the show, I'm not VJing the gig, it was just a consultation, none the less it sure will be interesting...

[deepvisual]

here is one i did a while back.
you don't light the scrim, just what's behind it.
with front projection, white looks opaque and black looks transparent.
( poor vid, only gets going around 2 mins in..)

YouTube - Duran Duran - Dirty Great Monster- NYC Barrymore 11.9.07

YouTube - Duran Duran - Dirty Great Monster- NYC Barrymore 11.9.07

[stickygreen]

Update #2

Here is a video of the scrim in action, I took it with my phone so it's very poor, but you get the idea.

YouTube - hard rubber drum and light (shartstooth scrim)

YouTube - hard rubber drum and light (shartstooth scrim)

if anyone is interested in using sharkstooth gauze in the future, I would recommend getting it in a darker colour. like grey, - dark grey. I used white for this client, and although he seemed happy with the outcome, I was disapointed. I thought the screen could have been more translucent by simply not using WHITE sharkstooth scrim, using a darker colour would have made this perfect in my opinion. When the video content was dark and heavy in black, the scrim was very see thru, but in a lighter, heavy contrast situation the band was hardly noticable at all. Deepvisuals even went as far as to suggest black scrim? but I don't know how well that would have worked? maybe a future experiment is in store?

[many2]

For the transparency effect to work properly you need a dark grey or black scrim. The thing is you also need a powerful projector if you want your image to be seen. First, the material itself is dark so it absorbs a lot of light. Second, a good percentage of the light is lost through the holes of the scrim. This not only affects the brightness of your projected image, but also its gamma curve : you will see that almost everything that is dark in your projected image will appear black on the screen - you will need to crank your output quite a bit if your source is not already high contrast and deeply saturated.