Thread: Anyone made outdoor scenes with scrims?

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I'm looking to hang scrims in my yard haunt:
- to guide folks around the way I want the foot traffic to flow
- to add depth to the haunt and hide elements (like our brick bungalow in the background)

I was contemplating using something like mosquito netting, airbrushing some basic cemetery scenes on them and mounting them on uprights to stage them. Then splashing some light obliquely across them to get the masking effect. I might even have a FCG behind one at night showing through.

I'm worried about weather and wind since in Chicago Oct 31 can be anything...so they need to be lightweight and porous so the wind can go through without much effect.

Has anyone done anything like this before? Any helpful ideas?

Freshly Doug

I too would like to know!!

In my haunt, I use chain link fence for my walls. Then I put vision block material on on side. My haunt is an outdoor haunt. The vision block material is great for outdoors, the wind will pass thru it. I bought mine used from a fence company that rents it for construction sites. New, it is not cheap. But used it is around a dollar a foot and 6 ft tall. used may have holes in it, but who cares. Best of all, 2 years ago my fire marshall approved it for use in my haunt.

I have thought about using scrim as well, but don't know enough about it to give it a try.

I know that you can paint pictures on it and light it from the front and the picture shows, then turn the front lighting off and light the prop or scene in the back of it and that will show through.

I googled it and it seemed somewhat expensive when i first looked at it, I haven't looked at it in a year or so.

I am also not a very good artist, so the scene painting turns me off a bit.

I'm wondering if you could make silhouette cutouts; paint them black and then back them for a shadowed effect. I've performed in the pit orchestra for many musicals and the scrims I've seen have been made of semi-sheer fabric and they back light the scene. One idea might be to talk to a local drama teacher at a community college, high school, or community acting group to get ideas. If you do that, let us know what you find out.

What I mean to try and build is some outdoor 'scene setters' that will hide other elements and my thoughts are that scrim or scrim like material will not be so affected by the wind since it should basically blow straight through but with side/splash lighting will look solid enough. I want to mount these free-standing in spots to be the back drop for the cemetery and in other cases be a cemetery wall.

If I choose a heavier and less porous fabric my thought is that it will catch so much wind load as to be impractical.

I also want to erect them quickly and not build semi-permanent or rigid walls in the spots these are going. I don't have existing fences or structures, for the most part, so nothing for these to attach to but my planned uprights and crossbar so, again, these must be light.

So, if no known experiments then I will make some attempts and document for anyone interested....

Freshly Doug

Yes i am interested in this as well as i am looking for ideas similar to this and figuring out my options

I've got to say, these forums certainly teach a person a lot. I actually had to do a little research, as I had never heard the term 'scrim' before. In particular was a site that specializes, among other things, their own unique theatrical scrims. They even provide some suggestions as to how they could be used... Explanation of theatrical scrim effects, special effects achieved by use of scrim effects for photography, theater, props, film and video.

I have used scrim, but only in wind-less areas. I used mosquito netting that performs just as well and was muuuuuch cheaper.

I had a 'fake' end of the hallway with a door painted on it glow paint. When activated, a light would shine on my blucky and scream, also lighting the real door to the right. Pretty cool, actually. The hardest part was The fact it needs to be pulled tight to work properly, which means a giant wooden frame. (not hard to build, just a pain in the butt storage wise)

I had looked at mosquito netting but thought it might be too porous for a background. Regular scrim is too expensive. What I am going to try first is called 'shade material' it comes in various percentages of coverage. I've ordered 1 section at 80% weave and 1 at 73 % weave. I'm hoping porous enough to not have too much wind load, but closed enough to use as backdrop. These materials are made to be UV resistant but are also some sort of plastic so we'll see how well my acrylics airbrush onto them. They look to price out about $.20 to $.80 / square foot at the cheaper places. The material is usually black to begin with so it's perfect for my needs. Many office buildings (such as mine) use this as interior shades.

I plan to build two uprights of conduit with a top cross bar made with an adjustable aluminum pole similar to that used by painters and drywalling folks to reach with. I'll wrap this material around them and possibly rivet the material to the conduit. I'll paint the scenes on them and then set the bottom ends into holes in 4X4 lumber and those into quickposts to get them to free stand. I estimate about $100 in materials total to have up to a 10 X 20 free standing backdrop. If it works out, I'll make a few of them.

Even if I can't airbrush onto them effectively I can still use them as a dark background for exterior sets. For storage I should be able to roll the material up around the poles and store laying flat in off season or up int he garage rafters with other long wood and material.

I'll take some pictures and share the results.

If anyone has used materials like this or has used mosquito netting please share pictures if you can....

Freshly Doug