12' "Disposable" Circular Projection Screen for Pyrotechnics Display

[skylighter]

The short story

I need to make a 12' circular projection screen for a one-time use. Any ideas?

The longer story

I am entering a pyrotechnics/fireworks competition. The theme of our entry will be a showcase of song's from Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. As part of our show, I would like to project some animation onto a 12' circular screen, mimicking Floyd's famous concert screen known as "Mr. Screen".

The screen will most likely be marred by the pyrotechnics and should be considered disposable. The animations will run about a minute. The audience and judges will be about 300 feet away. I am not trying to create a home theatre quality screen. People will not see it long enough to notice if it has great clarity or imperfections.

My ideas thus far are:

1. Buy a trampoline and paint it with some sort of white paint.

2. Cut the screen out of bright white coroplast and glue it to a wooden structure. Coroplast is corrugated plastic, which is used to make signs.

I am very open to hear other approaches or suggestions on these ideas.

Here are some links that may help describe what I mean:

A picture of the real "Mr. Screen"
http://www.bruder-franziskus.de/pink...nnover9411.jpg

Last years pyromusical entry:
http://www.firework.org

Coroplast website:
http://www.coroplast.com/product.htm

Thanks,
Danny Clark
Glow Inc.
http://www.glowinc.com

[fortean]

Try banner vinyl for the screen. It can be welded to make large screens and can have eyelets fitted for hanging etc. I have used banner vinyl, from a 3100mm wide roll, to replace my screen fabric. You can get it for both front and rear illumination.

[skylighter]

> Try banner vinyl for the screen.

That is a slick idea. Any idea of what to use as a round support structure?

Danny

[fortean]

Originally Posted by skylighter

Any idea of what to use as a round support structure?

I'm still thinking about that one Danny. The trampoline idea is not bad. Our trampoline is disassembled now as I expect a lot of them are. Problem is the frame is only held properly together when the jumping surface is fixed in place; it pulls the whole frame tight.
At the moment all I can think of is plastic pipe or copper pipe. I think the plastic pipe should bend to the required diameter.

[fortean]

You can probably do it with 1.5" pipe as in the diagram. You will need 8 lengths of pipe at a little under 64" long and 8 of the 45 degree bends. Might be a good idea to bond or tape the joints.

[IronGiant]

I believe 1" pipe may be flexible enough to bend into a 12 ft circle with fewer joints or maybe even one if you can get a long enough piece of pipe. I have seen plans for poly tunnels for crop growing that use 1" pipe for their framework.

dave