Translate

Saturday, June 25, 2016

Giant Movie Reel Prop

So I was asked at the last minute to make a giant movie reel prop for a stage.This is what it ended up looking like.



According to the project triangle, this was going to be cheap and fast.



I started out with 3/4" pink styrofoam. The color doesn't matter.  The pink and blue styrofoams are denser than the regular white stuff. I measured out two 4'x4' squares and cut out the two outside reel wheels from it.  (I forgot to take pictures of this.)  Then I cut out a small separate piece to serve as the film.  This piece (shown behind the main reel) is shaped like a donut with the hole cut out from the middle. The piece shown is the front. Does this make sense or should I type slower? 


On the inside of the back piece, I glued some styrofoam pieces in a circle to hold the cardboard in the next step. This will make more sense as we go along.





Now for the "film." I took some cardboard and cut it into a 2' wide by long enough to wrap all the way around the small donut circle that I cut before. 



Here I was making sure the piece was big enough to go all the way around the styro blocks.


I test fitted the front to see if it would fit, and it did.



I attached the cardboard to the blocks with screws.
Then just to get rid of the corrugated cardboard edge I covered the edge that would be shown in masking tape.





I put the front piece back on and screwed the cardboard to the inside reel.




I dipped the screws into Gorilla Glue before screwing them in place.



Here it is standing upright.



I painted the "film" flat black.
 

I then cut a piece of black visquine 2 foot wide. I wrapped the visquine around the cardboard reel and taped it into place using black duct tape.

If I had more time I would have added some more details.




Here it is onstage.