Stage Floor

I thought I'd better think about my stage floor before I went any further making the rest of the scenery. Originally I was going to produce my main design using a revolve floor. Since this original idea my main set ideas have developed to include more scenic elements i.e. a campfire, a tribal flag stand and gauze's to at depth to the overall setting of the 'Cacti Forest'. These additional elements made me consider the revolve idea again and once having thought about it I realised the same effect of the Lion's garden behind (well camp in this genre) would still be able to be revealed to the audience just in a slightly different way.


My original idea was to have the Lion's tepee and campfire on the revolve to later be turned around. My decision to change this application to each property being on a separate truck came about when I realised that in reality Native Indians sit around the front of their tepee with their campfires blazing. Therefore if I was to have the campfire hidden from the audience behind the tepee at the start, once the revolve turned around the tepee would have been facing backwards - resulting in the Native Indian scene being depicted entirely wrong. So my final decision was to have each scenic elements on trucks to be spun or brought in accordingly.

So now it was time to set to producing my stage floor...

It is important to think about the appearance of the floor in order for the other scenic elements of the design to fit. Take for example the painted floor of the movable trucks need to translate the same or similar effect to that of the main flooring as in my case the design wouldn't flow other wise - i.e. the floor of the trucks represents the same floor of the main stage. As I am in the Wild Western genre - full of cactus's and tepees I decided the floor should resemble a desert/sandy yet natural grassy earth ground texture.

Main inspiration image for floor design

This research image reflects the natural qualities in the tepee as well as the ground - just like my interpretation within my design.

I was going to produce my floor with texture but since having read up on 'how to translate your design through the scenographic model' I found that the texture is a vital part in the design translation. If I was to use textured materials such as sand grains or grass to create the stage floor, the set constructors and scenic painters would visualise this same texture in reality just larger. Because of this I realised the floor for the actual set needed to be flat in order for the trucks to move successfully across the stage floor. If I wanted a textured, more realistic natural ground to be reproduced I don't feel my truck design mechanism would have worked as well over the uneven ground.

Stage Floor Production

First I experimented on small pieces of black foam board to see which colour and style created the right looking effect. After deciding on the particular finish I started by painting the mount board black as then the colours used would hopefully behave the same as when the scenic artists realise my design on the actual stage floor - hence being a black start floor to start.



For a naturalistic tone I decided on a burnt umber undercoat.



Working alongside research images I was able to grasp my desired effect.


The stage floor was produced on mount board, therefore it can easily be taken in or out by the director in a production meeting.