Building the
Bridge 7
Created: June 2,
2010
When selecting construction materials,
we chose the lightweight tempered service board. It was affordable, pliable, and we
thought superior to the more expensive plywood. Unfortunately, as seen in the picture top
left, the seams were visible when taking photos. They would certainly show up in our film,
so it was time to consider our options! We briefly considered molding like we used on the
helm station, but chose instead to try using duct tape and painting over it.
It didn't work.
The duct tape reacted badly to the
paint, and simply fell off. I was disappointed; duct tape had helped my father-in-law's
foundering boat off the coast of Miami, and yet it just couldn't hold on to latext paint
under the high humidity for more than a few hours.
Our second choice was sheet rock mud.
(We tried bondo, but it proved too difficult to work with, possibly due to the rainy
weather we've had for the past week--which may have been our issue with the duct tape.) We
applied sheet rock tape and mudded over it. Then we sanded it to a smooth finish, and
still could see light seeping through the seams. So with Ryan's help, we applied strips of
Gorilla Tape across the sanded features along the seams.
You can see the seems on
both stations.
It was felt that molding
was not an option. It had proved expensive and very difficult when working on our helm
station. Clearly we had to try other options...
BTW, the opening in the
back is the "back door" to the captain's ready room. |
On Friday, I applied the
sheet rock mud over the mud tape on order to seal the seams. |
On Saturday, we saw that
the seams still let light through, so we used Gorilla Tape to further cover the seams.
Ryan (our middle child) held the ends while I carefully unrolled strips long enough.
BTW, the opening to the
left is the mainviewer. You can see we open the tarp up when working during the day. |
The Gorilla Tape worked
quite well over the sanded sheet rock mud. |
On Sunday, I made the
decision to caulk the areas underneath again to prevent any stray outside light from
coming in through the seams. |
Once painted, the results
look pretty good. We applied a second coat on Monday, and may apply a third on Friday.
|
On Tuesday, we painted the
sides of the upper deck, front step and platform in preparation for next week's
installation of the carpeting.
The carpeting will be
industrial gray carpeting that should stand up to our filming conditions for at least
three years. Much to my dismay, it's going to be a lot cheaper to simply glue the
carpeting down. But as long as we don't run into any snags (ha!), it should last us for
some time. |
On Wednesday, we painted
the sides of the station partitions, and stood them where we intend to place them in order
to get some measurements and an idea of how they'll look once installed.
Our engineering consultant
(ahem, my wife) reviewed the plans and made a few corrections before approving them. We
hope to build the dummy lift tomorrow. |
And lest I forget, this was
last Thursday evening's project: the widening of the carport closet door
to allow for us to construct our 'working' turbolift. The doors will open up onto a small
turbolift set constructed in this area. |
The construction schedule for the coming
week:
Thursday: Construction and Installation of Dummy Turbolift and Partition Lighting
Friday: Installation of Set
Lighting (over each station post, we'll be installing a spotlight); Construction and
Installation of Front Partitions and Partition Lighting (along each side of the
viewscreen)
Saturday: Construction and
Installation of Mainviewer
Sunday: Design and
Construction of Captain's Chair's arms and controls
Monday: Construction and
Installation of Working Turbolift Doors, Partitions and Partition Lighting
Tuesday: Installation of
Upper Deck Ballisters, Trim and Trim Lighting
Wednesday: Installation of
Upper Deck Bannister
Assuming all that goes well (and it most
certainly won't, but we can all dream, can't we?), we've got the following:
Installation and Construction of
Captain's Ready Room access (the "back door") and side panels
Installation of Carpeting
Installation of Control Panels
And if we get enough donations:
Installation of Window Unit
Air-Conditioner
Installation of Vinyl Enclosure for Carport
Sadly, funding is actually a major
factor right now for all our plans. We literally could be ready to shoot in two weeks if
we receive enough donations to cover the expenses associated with the set construction.
Every little bit helps, even $5 or $10
with which we can buy lumber and paint. $20 or $30 helps us purchase plywood. $50 or $60
allows us to purchase fixtures like the ballisters and bannisters. $100 can go to the cost
of the carpeting. We estimate if 60 fans gave $25 each, we'd have the remainder of our
construction costs covered and filming could start within the month.
So please keep us in mind. Help us make
the Project: Potemkin film a reality! Click below to make a donation today!
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