There was a hip nightclub in Manhattan, located on the second floor of a midtown building. To get to the velvet ropes from the lobby, you walked up a double staircase. The stairs were black. The walls were black. The lights were dim. The venue used Neoflex as both a light and an effect. On the lower part of each wall adjoining the stairs, a curved line of 120 volt Blue Neoflex looked cool and lit the way up the stairs.

For those who are unfamiliar with it, Neoflex is a row of LEDs spaced every 1/2 inch inside of a flexible, diffusing plastic tube. Unlike rope light, NeoFlex achieves a consistent light without hot spots. A lot of folks use it as a low maintenance, durable, easy-to-install alternative to traditional glass neon. Consuming 70% less energy than neon, NeoFlex is more eco-friendly and it quickly pays for itself.

In the above example, Neoflex was installed by:More...

Rose Brand ShowLED curtains are often used as backdrops to achieve a programmable starry night effect. There are two versions of ShowLED -- Classic and Chameleon. Classic uses a white LED, which emits a cool, blue-white light. Chameleon uses an RGB LED, which can produce virtually any color, including a warm amber-white light. ShowLED LEDs are specifically designed for installation in fabric and scenery. Rose Brand has sold and rented ShowLED curtains for events as formal as a Presidential ball (i.e., Obama's inauguration) and as traditional as a corporate event or high school stage performance.

Rose Brand ShowLED curtains are easy to set up, easy to maintain, and are cost effective. When you buy or rent a ShowLED drape, you're paying for a complete package -- the drape (fitted with LEDs) and the LED controller. Nothing else is required to program the drape.

The device that controls the intensity, color, and frequency of the LED twinkle is designed for both novice and professional users.More...

Photo Provided by Austin Johnston for AK Johnston Production Design 

While preparing for an outdoor summer wine and art festival event at a luxury country club in California, A K Johnston Production Design created a wonderful new concept that became the perfect alternative to a standard event tent. Their vision took advantage of the venue's gorgeous panoramic views, which would've been obscured by the walls of a traditional outdoor enclosure. With the help of Rose Brand they created "The California Canopy," a structure that emphasizes the airiness, beauty and organic nature of any outdoor venue.

Rose Brand manufactured the custom-sewn canopy from white Poly Muslin; a cloth that drapes and swags beautifully. Rose Brand also developed matching truss covers from white Tendo stretch-fabric to soften the look of the supports and help them blend-in beautifully with the canopy.More...

You don't have to know every detail of your Stage Curtain to get a reliable budget estimate. Part 1 of this series of articles, on specifying curtains for an estimate, covers the most important factors that affect the cost of the Main Stage Curtain: Fabric, Dimensions and Fullness.

Stage Curtains break down into several categories. Main Curtain, Main Valance, Legs, Borders, Tabs, Blackout Drops, Mid-stage Travelers, rear Travelers, Scrims, and Cycloramas.

The curtains on a stage play many roles, mostly to create illusions. Cycloramas bounce light and projections. Scrims bounce light, create depth and then become "invisible" to allow the upstage scene to "bleed through" for the audience (see our blog article on Scrim). Legs, Borders, Tabs, Blackout Drops, Mid and Rear Travelers are called the Masking. Their role is to block and absorb light and disappear. More...

As high-grade recording equipment becomes more affordable and non-linear editing software becomes more robust, even grade-schoolers can now post high quality video content to YouTube on a regular basis. The improvement in the technology and its affordability has also enabled video producers, at every level of expertise, to incorporate special effects into their videos. One of the more popular special effects techniques is called "keying." Keying, or compositing, is the combining of visual elements from separate sources into single images, often to create the illusion that all of those elements are parts of the same scene.

The technique requires the use of a uniformly-colored keying backdrop such as a "green screen" to achieve the effect. Through the magic of keying and compositing, the green colored item/s in the scene (i.e., the keying backdrop) becomes transparent, enabling an editor to select a different background in its place (e.g., a street scene, a mountain, etc.)

Keying backdrops come in two main types and colors:More...

One might think that a fabric company has little to do with lighting. After all, while scenery and lighting design are inexorably linked, how important can fabric be to either? Yet the choices a designer makes in fabric, as with all the other elements, will directly affect the final look of the production. This series of articles discusses common types of fabric, why they are used, and challenges they may present to a lighting designer.

ANGLE, ANGLE, ANGLE
Lighting vis-à-vis fabric is nowhere more critical then when dealing with sharkstooth scrim (or simply "scrim" as some refer to it). Lit correctly, a  sharkstooth scrim provides one of the most magical effects: the bleed-through. If the scrim is lit correctly, it can appear completely opaque; as the lighting is changed, the scrim will “dissolve,” allowing the scene behind it to “bleed through” the scrim or the scenery painted on the scrim. Continue the change, and the scrim will disappear completely, as if by magic. But what is the “correct” way More...

Welcome! For those who don't know us, we're probably the largest provider of fabrics, custom sewn creations and production supplies to theater, event, house of worship and education organizations. As such, we have a vast storehouse of knowledge about our industry that we'd love to share. We thought a blog would be the perfect vehicle for that purpose. The objectives of our blog are to inform, educate and entertain those who are members, or followers, of our industry. We'll be posting "how to" information, design & production tips, amusing project stories and news items.

We invite you to comment on our postings and hope that we can all engage in lively discussion that will serve the objectives described above. If you'd like to post a comment to the blog, all we'll need is your username, email address and, of course, your comment. Please note that comments will be moderated and most likely appear within 24 hours of submission. It's our intent that our blog becomes both a go-to resource for production insight and a virtual gathering place for our industry. We invite you to subscribe to our RSS feed and come back often so that you can:

- LEARN

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- and ENJOY!

Sincerely,
George Jacobstein, President
www.RoseBrand.com