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Topic: Patching a damaged screen
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Stu Jamieson
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 524
From: Buccan, Qld, Australia
Registered: Jan 2008
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posted 03-15-2008 11:51 AM
Carey,
All good advice above but they left out one critical procedure. Here's what you do: you need to find the bolt that our friend put through the screen. Once you've located it, head to your local hardware store and purchase 11 more just like it, giving you a dozen all up. Now put these aside for the moment, we'll need these a little later on. Now get a largish piece of your patch material (about 2 foot square should be sufficient) and coat one side of it with some polyurethane adhesive. Don't be shy with the urethane, you want it on nice and thick, you don't want your patch to come off too easily. Urethane is actually available in lots of colours these days so, by all means, knock yourself out; I'd recommend a nice bright green. Now, locate the tool who threw the bolt and glue the patch to his fucking head; urethane side down, if you please. (Note: you may need a couple of staples to hold it in place while the urethane sets). Now this is where the bolts come in; screaming at the top of your lungs, declare to him: "this is what happens to fucksticks who ruin one of our screens", punctuating each word with a sharp pitch of a bolt to his head. Of course, you could buy more bolts but you'd have to think of another snappy witticism to punctuate them with; you couldn't reuse the above line, that would be unprofessional.
I recommend applying this remedy in a very public place, a food court at the local shopping mall would be appropriate, preferably when the dude is hanging with his homies.
Happy hunting,
Stu.
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Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 03-15-2008 01:02 PM
Gordon is right -- a NEW patch of screen applied to an aged screen, depending on how long the screen has been sitting out in the room environment, will indeed look very different in reflectivity and will stand out like a sore thumb. Which always led me to wonder why installers just don't attach a large patch of screen material to, say, the back top corner of the screen so it can "age" along with the screen. Even though it might not get exactly the same exposure as the front of the screen, it certainly will be a lot closer to the screen's properties years down the road than a brand new piece of patch material.
Once I had to patch our non-perf screen and luckily the screen hadn't aged but two years. The new patch, which we applied as a rectangle just big enough to cover the tear, was glued to the face of the screen, not the back, the idea being that the straight lines of the rectangle wouldn't look quite as bad as the jagged, uneven edges of the tear. Whether right or wrong, it worked very well. A few feet from the screen and you didn't see it.
Trick was to keep constant pressure on the patch while the glue set. That meant two stagehands had to push against the patch with pieces of plywood on both the front and back of the screen until the glue set. Luckily the tear was near the botton of the screen, not higher so we didn't need ladders.
The big issue is you have to be absolutely sure that the glue is applied in such a way so it will not ooz out beyond the patch when you press on it. Any glue seeping out will be readily seen because its reflective properties are totally different than the screen's. If you don't judge that correctly (apply a VERY thin coat of cement, especially near the edges of the patch) and glue oozes out, whatever you do, resist the impulse to wipe it, or worse, use any kind of solvent, no matter how little, because, well, you'll need to have enough money in the budget for a new screen if you do.
As for stitching it, Louis, that might work well on perfed screens, but I would guess it might be a bitch on a solid screen.
[ 03-16-2008, 08:08 AM: Message edited by: Frank Angel ]
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Mike Blakesley
Film God
Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 03-17-2008 04:12 PM
In 1998, right before our booking of "Titanic" was to commence, somebody threw a huge wad of gum at our screen. It stuck and left a dark green blotch when I pulled it off. I had never dealt with screen damage before and didn't know what I was doing....I got hold of some kind of cleaner and scrubbed the gum off. Well you know the rest, the coating of the screen came off with it and we were left with a brilliant white "dot" right in the middle of the screen.
I was telling a friend about the situation and mentioned that I'd rubbed the "pearlescent" coating off the screen. Well, his wife was a nail tech at the time (she decorates fingernails) and suggested using some "pearl" nailpolish to fix it. I thought, 'no way will this work' but was willing to try anything. She brought in an airbrush and sprayed the stuff on the spot, and damned if it didn't work like a charm. Instead of looking like a beacon of light in the middle of the screen, it now looked like a smudged spot, but far less noticable than before. She saved our Titanic showings, for sure.
We replaced the screen anyway, but the quick fix got us through the waiting period.
I know this isn't relevant to the problem in this thread but maybe this story will help someone else with this type of problem.
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Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 03-18-2008 05:53 AM
Carey, if Torus supplied you with the patch material and it has adhesive on it, then it seems more than likely it's supposed to be applied to the suface of the screen. And if it came from Torus, you should contact them to see if they have instructions to go along with their patch material. The fact that it has adhesive already on it is good news -- it eliminates all the problems of applying it yourself and making sure it doesn't sneak out around the edges.
I doubt the patch was intended to be applied to the back of the screen given that most tears result in a gap, i.e., the edges of the tear cannot be brought together due to the tension on the screen pulling taut from the perimeter outward. If you could get the edges of the tear close enough that they meet with no gaps, then you could use any gaffer's tape on the rear of the screen to hold it together. You wouldn't need special patch material as this stuff from Torus is.
And no, you wouldn't need any additional glue to add to the patch. But my considered guess would be that patch is intended to be applied to the surface of the screen, not the rear. If it were applied to the back, then any gap in the tear would expose the adhesive surface, not the proper matching reflective surface of the screen. But as I said, that's a guess. Best to contact Torus ASAP and get the 411 on that patch material.
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