Doughty pulls back the curtains at London Film Studios
London Film Studios is one of the newest studios available for hire in the London area. Based in Enfield, the facility has four stages available for productions to use. When Scenic Supplies Plus were contracted to provide the blackout curtains for all the studios, they turned to Doughty Engineering for curtain track.
Richard McKitty, sales director of Scenic Supplies Plus commented: “We knew immediately, based on the spec of the job, that Doughty was the right company to manufacture the track we needed. We needed to kit out all the studios–the smallest being just over 2000sq ft and the largest over 5000sq ft so it was quite a task.
Work started in Studio B as studio A was already in constant use. This is a dedicated green screen studio so Scenic Supplies Plus was tasked with installing a U-shaped track to feature 2 sets of curtains–one side black and 1 side chroma key Green. For ease of use when changing from black to green, metal snap hooks were used for speed. Studio C a slightly larger studio, required another U shape track; here blackout curtains were installed to help with noise reduction and privacy–essential when shooting in studios.
Richard continued: “We used all Doughty track items–master runners, twin hooks, SixTrack, straights, curves and end stops. We also used SixTrack adjustable support brackets, track fixing kits, master runners and Doughty’s universal clamps. We were fortunate that for this project, all items were off-the-shelf rather than bespoke which made things slightly easier.”
We always use Doughty because we know we are guaranteed quality and consistency. We also know the support is second to none. If we have any questions, we can call up and hopefully get them answered. And of course, we always have very happy customers.”
Sales Director, Scenic Supplies Plus
Noise reduction
Richard admits that Scenic Supplies Plus was thrown a curve ball by the team at London Film Studios. Because they made great use of their space, they wanted to provide their clients with minimal disruption, so Scenic Supplies Plus was asked to come up with a solution for noise reduction in their gangway which leads to all studios. We installed more Doughty track and curtains from Gerriets specifically designed to reduce noise.
The Studio
Studio A was the last to be kitted out, and the largest, standing at a whopping 4988sq ft and 30 ft height to the grid. Here, Scenic Supplies Plus installed and supplied a complete360-degreeblackout solution with over 82m width of Gerriets Duvetyne hung off Doughty track. Due to the size of the studio, this was the most challenging aspect of the project. “We used two pickers and extra staff to complete this space, but the result is a stunning looking end product for London Film Studios and their clients to use,” said Richard.
He continued: “SixTrack is a quality product–you know what you’re getting and importantly exactly what weight it is going to take–particularly on this job where the curtains were extremely heavy. Weighing in at 325g per m2, that’s a total of 225kg of curtain hanging in the biggest studio. We are also confident that Doughty track can withstand lots of wear and tear–when curtains in a venue like this are constantly being pulled in all directions, this is absolutely vital.”
Six Track Straight Sections
A range of steel straight curtain track sections are available in lengths from 0.25m – 3.0m as standard. The Six Track is a modular medium duty curtain track that is ideal for use in theatres, arts centres, colleges and schools.
A bolt-on end plate (T63765) and an adaptor plate (T63766) are available, enabling the track to be cut to exact lengths without the need for onsite welding. Custom sizes can be made to order.
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