Christmas 09 – Velma’s Diner “The Street”
We set out to create the feel of a small town on stage. The video drama: Velma’s diner was the central creative element of the series. We built the stage to mimic the type of small town feel that you might find the diner located in.
How we did it:
We had the problem of knowing that we couldn’t build this set from scratch in a single week’s time. We set out two weeks prior to the install week, to build the structural backbone for the set. The biggest obstacle was that it had to be planned and built modularly to fit through the stage doors. The entire set was actually built as 39 different flats, structured out of 2×4s.
We then brought in and put together these flats during the install week to create the structural backbone for the set. We used textured vac-u-form 4’x8’ sheets of bricks and stone which we cut to size and molded to the flats, tacking them in place to create the surfaces for each of the buildings. The vac-u-form was then finish painted to give texture to the actual buildings. We also sprayed a base coat of paint on all the vac-u-form sheets in the weeks prior to the set install. While the buildings were being finish painted other finishing touches like the awnings, molding, shutters, benches, tiles, and lights were being added to the set.
Special thanks to all the guys who worked so hard to make this set happen.
Stats (Approximated):
Man Hours: 1200 hrs for the install alone, 400 pre-build hrs
2×4’s: 3 pallets (Over 1,000 boards)
Nails: 6,500
Brad Nails & Staples: 10,000
Compressors: 3
Sheets of Luan: 200
Sheets of Vac-u-form: 166
Gallons of paint: 12
Scissor Lifts: 3
Awesome set, fantastic video series thus far. You have created an incredible buzz among all Church atendees and especially among us geek folk!
Sorry…wrong email last time
I was curious as to how you made or where you found the vac-u-form textures?
this information is great to me!! thank you guys for your awesome posts As Nick says, iA?ll re-read it again, and again …
Robbie,
The Vac-u-form sheets were purchased form Sketchlite productions in Ohio. We painted them and mounted them to our structure. Hope this helps.