Installation of Decorations and Props. Rope Access in Film and TV Industry

In recent years, industrial rope access services have become highly demanded in production of films, video ads, TV commercials and shows as well as during musical and theatrical events, and exhibitions. Such high demand is caused by the fact that most of such events require a lot of light and sound fixtures as well as special effects props to be safely and securely fixed to the supporting beams of pavilions, studios, etc.

Alp Star rope access technicians are ready to quickly and safely perform the following types of works:

• Fixing of lifting mechanisms and pulley hoists;
• Setup of sound and lighting equipment following the Customer’s Terms of Reference;
• Production and installation of movie props;
• Erection of stages and scaffold towers for cameramen;
• Installation of backgrounds (scrims) and covering walls with textiles;
• Continuous rigging support of the production process (shifts);
• Installation of fall protection and fall prevention systems for actors.

Our professional rope access installation services have been engaged by such well-known Clients as:

• STB, Novyi Kanal and ICTV TV channels
• event agencies
• National Palace of Arts “Ukraina”, Palats Sportu (Palace of Sports), Expocenter of Ukraine (formerly known as VDNG (Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy)) (Kyiv).

Alp Star would be happy to help you on a round-the-clock basis to quickly offer a tailored approach to manage your tasks effectively by engaging various multi-skilled specialists. Our experienced industrial abseilers are here to become a part of your team and ready to meet tight deadlines. We can render decisions and come up with creative ideas in non-standard situations.

To get more detailed information about our services, please contact us from 9.00 a.m. till 9.00 p.m. at +380 67 258 2999 or by e-mail: alpstar.kiev@gmail.com

As our real time rigging experience shows, working with film production companies and event agencies means to work frequently in a chaotic work environment and continuously changing conditions, when a lot of key decisions concerning setup of sound equipment, lights and props are taken on the fly. In such cases, it is of high importance to get the following questions answered by the Customer (or its representative):

• What should be installed? Weight of decorations, size of props, materials.
• Where? (location)
• How many? (quantity)
• When? (deadlines)
• With what services (contractors) should we communicate?

Only having these questions fully answered, we will be able to estimate the cost of works to set up props and decorations.

For a better understanding of our position, we will give you a stark example: Customer engaged us to cover walls and ceiling with textiles in a concert hall. At the first stage of negotiations, Customer communicated an area of 450 sq.m and a two-day deadline. During the work process, it turned out that producers changed the props layout at the stage, which caused cameramen positions to be also changed, and uncovered wall sections appeared in shot. This resulted in increase of the area up to 650 sq.m without extending deadlines, since all tickets had been sold, and nobody would shift the curtain time. And what is more, during preparation works, a fire safety inspector visited the film set, and it turned out that covering textiles were not properly fireproofed. Producer decided to simultaneously put textiles up and treat it with fire-resistant coating. This resulted that textiles have doubled their weight, and we had to quickly engage four more rope access technicians. As a result of not well planned work, one more moment have turned out: on the stage there is no enough space to rig sound and lighting equipment and to set up props and decorations, which resulted in erection of additional platforms for the equipment and to cover them with vinyl banner. The deadlines remained yet unchanged. When all works have been performed by 95%, audio engineers reported that vinyl banner would distort sound and it should be replaced with special acoustically transparent fabric. So, absence of a clear work performance plan, and uncoordinated actions have resulted in increase of the scope of installation works by 4 times, and our rope access technicians had to work during 48 hours without sleeping. Could you guess what invoice was issued to Customer?

Right you are! The invoice was fair, i.e. four times higher than the initial one.