A weblog about theatrical drapery and stage curtains for Production Managers, Set Designers, Custom Drapery Resellers, and local/school/church Productions
For a versatile and affordable projection screen option, Cambio! is a great alternative to traditional projection screen material. With its slight sheen, it lights beautifully and is suitable for both front and rear projection.
As the fabric is 10 feet wide, a seamless screen can be made up to 10′ x 10′, and larger screens can be made with minimal seams (that typically disappear when projected on). Webbing on all four sides minimizes “hourglassing”, and the addition of grommets and ties allows the screen to be hung from the top and, if desired, tied to fixed uprights on the sides. Screen too large to tie off to uprights, or no room on the stage for uprights? Strategically placing a sandbag on each bottom corner will keep the screen taut.
A Cambio! projection screen can also be complimented by coordinating stretch shapes, also made of Cambio! Stretch shapes are available in a variety of shapes, from triangles to stars to batwings, and in sizes up to 24′ x 40′.
This summer and fall, we worked with Faith Bible Church of The Woodlands, Texas, on just such a project. We created a 19′ h x 32′ w Projection Screen in Cambio!, accompanied by three Triangle Shapes, 18′ x 18′, also in Cambio! The pieces worked great for the church, and we were so pleased to be mentioned in the church’s blog. Want to see a Cambio! Projection Screen in action? Check out their blog.
Austrian drapes tend to reflect the light in the most unbelievable way, creating unique and dramatic effects on the drape based just on the placement, color and intensity of the light against the beautiful swags in the Austrian drape. Anything that has any sort of translucence will want to have a strong front AND back light in order to utilize the best look of the drape, whereas those with no translucence will still have a very powerful effect with strategic front lighting only. This specific lighting can be especially effective on glossy, shimmery, and iridescent materials. Drapes of this style can be made from all different types of materials and in all different shades. However, the most popular materials tend to be silks, satins, synthetic velours, silky charmeuse, irridescent, super vel, and anything with a gorgeous, polished finish which will really help capture the light very dramatically. Used in combination with some of our gorgeous giant swag drapes can completely finish the look! These photos show clearly how different lighting completely changes the look and “feel” of the exact same drape based on their intensity and colors.
One of Rent What?’s most popular Austrian drape styles is definitely from our Silver Satin series. These have been so popular because they are the ultimate in diversity when it comes to creating new and exciting looks for our client’s stages, tv shows, concerts, and productions. As you can see, with a slight change in the angle of the lights, lighting color, and stage design, we can help create a unique and exciting look for any event. Some of our satisfied clients have been the Jennifer Hudson/Robin Thicke Tour, Maxwell, Foo Fighters, the Glee Live Tour, and an Amfar Benefit starring Lady Gaga, the queen of fresh and innovative style herself. Each Austrian Drape has such a wonderfully rich and special look to them, that you can use them for practically any event you can think of where you may need to add a little touch of “wow-factor”.
All in all, we are very proud to be able to offer a wide variety of Austrian Drapes for our clients, and we know that adding one to your special event will make it that much more memorable.
The Austrian Drape has had a very special history with production houses around the world for many years, in which Austrians are used to shape and add unique drapery outlines to staging areas in a very dramatic and effective way. This beautiful style of “front curtain” was originally created centuries ago to help production houses keep the gorgeous and elegant look of a grand drape when their space didn’t have the width to travel the drapes off to the left and right of the stage, called “wing space”. Another great thing about the Austrian Drape is that in situations where there might not be space in the rafters to “fly the drape out”, then the motor in the lift system can raise this drape up and basically just fold it onto itself, making it a very compact system that will still hide the drape when opened, but also won’t take up any additional fly space, either.
One of the main reasons Austrian Drape rentals are so popular for Rent What? is that our expertise in this field has allowed our clients to obtain a designer look for their special event or production, which is now an affordable possibility for them. Because of the massive amounts of man-hours it takes to build, and the vast amounts of material it takes to make one of these gorgeous drapes, they can be expensive to purchase. Ever since we’ve started offering them for rent through Rent What?, they have been extremely popular items for everything from concerts to cabarets, as well as stage productions that want to add a real touch of class to the overall feel to their show.
We started out with a few Silver Satin Austrians, and have expanded to fit our ever-growing clientele’s requests. So now we have Silver, Red, Ivory, Gold, and White in satin and silk varieties, and because of its popularity and demand, our rental base is growing all the time!
Recently Rent What? was able to add a gorgeous, shiny, beautifully created drape to its Rock ‘n Red and Timeless and Traditional Series. It is an unbelievable 30′ high by 60′ wide Red Satin Austrian Drape, with close to 50% horizontal and 25% vertical fullness in its beautifully sculpted folds.
Our client needed something spectacular for a special edition of an internationally famous play here at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles. Utilizing our fabulous and easy to assemble rental Drapery Lift System (more on the different types of drapery automation to come in a future blog), this refined yet exotic Austrian Drape was able to be lifted and dropped with complete control from our client.
With the help of our sister company Sew What? and the brilliance of their representative Gwen Winter, we were able to have them make this luscious drape merely from an simple idea in our client’s vision, and actually create it completely from scratch.
With the incredibly hard work of an amazing sewing staff, she was instrumental in helping organize its development and creation in just two days– unheard of in the drapery design industry. A drape of this size takes more than 240 yards of material to construct, which is more than 720 feet, or 8640 inches, or 22,000 centimeters of material! And each panel is painstakingly sewn one at a time, with the lift line sewn right through the back of the seams. The seamstress has to gather all of this material on the vertical seams in order to create the iconic “smiles”, or soft swags, that an Austrian drape is known for. The greater the horizonal fullness, the longer and deeper these swags will become. Because it’s being lifted and lowered by a lift mechanism and not human hands, the lift lines have to be stragetically and evenly placed exactly right. The drape’s extremely elaborate construction takes a HUGE amount of man hours to sew and create, so that when the lift mechanism is activated, this beautiful drape will ride up and down smoothly and flawlessly so the audience will be completely blown away.
You can see now why it is so impressive that our sewing masters were able to cut, sew, and design this gorgeous 30×60 foot Red Satin Austrian drape in just two days!
Now that we have added this amazingly versatile and gorgeous drape to our Rent What? collection, we know it will be a huge hit for all sorts of events– from holiday parties, rock concerts, stage productions, television shows, and everything in between. We can’t wait to see what else our clients will come up with next for us to help design for them!
We’re so very excited to be in the midst of our fourth year of business here at Rent What?, and are even MORE excited at how great the company is doing! Getting to provide drape rentals for major tours and concerts, and helping our clients conceive their visions for these events, is something we have always enjoyed. But lately, we are providing a LOT more than “just drapes” for many different types of events. We are able to help create the overall feel of almost any event that crosses our path. We aren’t just all about Rock and Roll anymore!
Rent What? has expanded our inventory to not just include, but to now also specialize in, everything from our wide variety of Flame Retardant Drapery, Kabuki Drops/Solenoid Systems, Traveller Track, Drapery Lift Systems, Pop-Up Portable Dressing Rooms, Pipe and Drape, and Shadowboxes. This incredible diversity has grabbed the attention of those outside the rock and roll touring industry that has been our “bread and butter” so far. With our expanding inventory, our clientele has also expanded, to include churches, schools (high school and universities), conventions, casinos, trade shows, community theatre, major television shows, and everything in between.
What I think sets us apart from our competition is having such a close relationship with our sister company Sew What?, who can help create any custom-made draping that our clients might have envisioned. With the combination of our ever-growing rental inventory, along with the custom-made soft goods that Sew What? can also create, our clients are able to get exactly what they dreamed for their event, at very competitive pricing.
This is an incredibly exciting time to be a part of the Rent What? team, and we know that with our continued “Extreme Service”, we will always continue to expand and grow to fit our growing clientele’s needs, too.
With the end of summer coming fast upon us, it’s a great time to start thinking about the holidays that are quickly approaching, and ways to make your special event even more memorable. I recently came across some incredible photos of the amazing LED Stardrop Drape rentals that Rent What? has.
We offer these gorgeous drapes for every type of occasion you might want to add a “little sparkle” to! With a rich black background, you can choose from either beautiful and inspiring white twinkly lights, or really breathtaking “chameleon” changing-colored lights. For these drapes you also have a dmx controller so you can decide how fast you want the lights to blink, in what succession, what colors it changes through, etc. Rent What also offers a very unique Low Tech LED drape, which is a sheer white voile with the beautiful static white lights running through it!
We’ve had some very happy customers use these drapes for their special events. Everyone from Mary J Blige to the Jonas Brothers, ballet and church performances, trade shows, bridal fairs, unforgettable stage productions, and everything in between! These drapes are so versatile, and can help create some really amazing showcases. With some colorful lighting, you can literally create the most dramatic vision on your stage imaginable. Try layering them with other drapes (especially our Silver Satin Series) to create some very spectacular scenes that will not soon be forgotten!
Take a look at our LED Stardrop Rental Drapes on our website, and get ready to be completely wow’ed like I was!
I have posted about the wide variety of specialty drapery collections that Rent What? has available for rent, from “Rockin’ Red” to “Industrial Textures” to “Delightfully White” and beyond. At Rent What? we have tried to think “outside the box” to continually re-imagine soft goods and stage decor to create interesting and beautiful new drapery options for our clients.
Today, I want to give you a sneak preview of our newest specialty collection, the “Swanky Collection.” We have just added the first piece in the collection, and it is definitely something different. Rather than a traditional custom stage curtain made of fabric, instead this piece is actually a series of individual linear pieces composed of mirrored plates suspended on invisible threads.
Each thread of mirrored plates is separate and distinct – different heights, different placement of mirrored plates – allowing a completely customizable dazzling linear mobile. By attaching each thread to a different location on the stage truss, you can create a unique mobile “drape” for every show.
I am so excited about this new piece. I hope you like it as much as I do. Stand by as we add more “Swanky” pieces to the collection – I’ll keep you posted.
I have posted in the past about the various stage curtains that Sew What? and Rent What? have provided to Glee, both the television show and the touring show. It is such a fun and innovative show (recently nominated for 12 Primetime Emmy® Awards, including “Outstanding Comedy Series”) that it is exciting to be selected to provide custom stage curtains to the franchise.
Recently, Rent What? provided a gorgeous 30′ h x 60′ w Gold Satin Austrian Curtain to the show, which was used as a backdrop to numerous musical numbers in the show’s Season Two finale. This beautiful drape, along with a portable lift system (also provided by Rent What?) then “went on the road” with the Glee Live tour. Also on the tour were several other rental drapes, including a Red Contour Drape and a White Silk Austrian.
Whether you are staging a rock tour, designing a theatre, or planning a special event, custom stage drapes, wide format digital backdrops, and other soft goods can play an intregal part in bringing your vision to life. But what if your vision is tenuous? You have a general idea of the mood you’d like to create, but you are unsure of how to use drapery to help achieve that mood. How about checking out the Sew What and Rent What portfolio pages? We’ve got photos of many different projects that we’ve worked on in the past – I’m sure that you’ll see something that strikes a cord!
Maybe the Katy Perry parachute inspires you towards a red, white and blue patriotic theme, or Chris Cornell’s Metal Mesh drape gets you think of a cool industrial look. Remember, these looks aren’t just for Rock ‘N’ Roll – similar looks would work for a special event.
Maybe the gorgeous swags used by Jennifer Hudson inspire you, or the Austrian used by John Mayer at the Nokia fits the bill. Traditional and dramatic theatrical drapery such as swags and Austrians aren’t just for traditional theatres – they look beautiful in any venue, whether it is a concert or a special event.
Whether you choose a large scale backdrop with elaborate scenes, a step and repeat banner, or a geometric pattern, digital printing can be one of the most “custom” ways to achieve your vision. Check out the terrific images we printed for Kenny Chesney, Sheryl Crow, and many more.
Continuing with my series of hardware systems available for rent at Rent What? (including kabuki solenoid systems, traveler track, and pop up! dressing rooms), today I thought I’d tell you about our rental lift systems. When you are touring with an Austrian, a Braille, or any curtain that you want to lift, this system does the job.
Rental Hardware Collection – Lift Systems
Specifics
60 foot wide life system with 16 lines 4′ on center
Lifts an Austrian or Braille drape up to 40 feet high
Proven Reliability
Fixed speed / Up, Down & Stop
Operates on Single Phase 220v power.
A La Carte or Turn-key System
Compatible with any curtain which has lift lines on 4 foot centers. 16 fully connected lines spanning 60 continuous running feet. Single Controller for Up, Down and Stop commands. Centralized Motor. Ships in one crate with (optional) drape attached.
Why We Love It:
A motorized drape reveal with an exotic detailed drapery does not have to be a designer fantasy. This system is compact, user friendly and affordable . Take your show or event to the next level………whatever you plan to reveal – make it special
Famous Friends:
Our Ivory Austrian on this lift system is a tough act to follow…. Luckily the act was Lady Gaga! One of the most (in)famous artists in the industry, she wowed audiences with her performance “in between” our spectacular curtain moves.
