Decorative Metal

Looking through the latest issue of The Fabricator I saw an add for TwistedBars.com. As the name implies, they do sell twisted rod, but they also sell a variety of other products as well; such as embossed, hammered, birdcages (baskets, spheres and oblongs), finals (ends, cut silhouettes, and wood grained metal. They can do steel, aluminium, copper, and brass. The wood grained piece caught my eye because there have certainly been times in the past where the designer wanted the look of wood, but the scenery needed the structural support of steel. While paint can do wonders, wood faking steel and vise versa never quite work. But, it the steel had a wood grained texture - perhaps this would be a suitable alternative in those situations.

Transformers Filming

Transformers has been filming here in Chicago the past several weeks, and it has brought out lots of crowds. Last week we went down to check out the installation of some of our rental deck (not installed by us). Nothing like working on top of a 25 story building. Of course, you could ignore the view and count the number of OSHA violations....


On the other hand, it was cool seeing some of the scenery they brought in. They had scenery sitting in lots across the city, on trailers, staged for future use. With the cranes, a casual glance most of it looked like no more than building ruble... the lack of hardhats, coupled with sharpie inventory marks made it a little more obvious.


Looking at the scenery brought up an interesting topic: How much of this was built for the show, and how much was pulled from stock? The ruble, the cars, and even the damaged bus shelters were generic - they could be used repeatedly, just like many theatre props. On the other hand, these pieces are large - and would cost alot to store, and with travel and set up could require additional touch up. At what point then does the cost of storage out weight the cost of building new? Thoughts?

AV Technology Course

Info Comm is offering an online course in AV Technology. There is one thing that is certain - and its that AV technology isn't fading any time soon. Its an affordable and green way to give a variety of looks, content, and feel to a very basic set for a variety of uses. Especially for coporate work - meetings, trade shows and such, AV is an option that is increasingly popular, and it is often incorporated into more and more traditional theatre.

Better yet, the quick start class online is free! You can take a look at that course here.

The course is online and an introduction leading to further certification. The test costs $200 to non-members.

If you want to take the pre-test to test your knowledge go here

This is a PDF that discusses the requirements for full certification.

Info Comm also has an article about project management and budgeting for live events.

Regardless if you choose to take the class or not, sheck out the site - there is a variety of worthwhile info to check out!

"Green" Paint

Bommerang Paint offers paint that is recovered from old, unused paint. While it does come in a limited color pallette, it only uses about 1% new paint, and has excellant paint qualities. While the palette certainly limits its theatrical use, it is a good product to keep in mind when going green is a priority.