Read the previous post - making the backdrop - here.

Behind the scenes of the city, a lot has to go on. I spent four hours, for instance, getting the veins to work. Why? Because the whole system had to be leak-proof!

The bottom ends of the tubes are attached to a small bottle (hidden between the floors and base plate gap, at the back of the city). This bottle collects the dye once it goes through the tubes; the tube being inserted into a hole at the top of the bottle lid. I say ‘dye’, but really all I’m using is some red cordial and blue Gatorade (nobody sells blue cordial!); both cheap alternatives to dye, and won’t stain hands, clothes or the city.

At the top of the backdrop, behind, there is a ledge attached. There rests two more bottles (handily, they are travel bottles, designed not to leak), each of which have their nozzles glued to the ends of the tubes. In order to prevent leaking, I covered the ledge with some plastic, and inserted each bottle into a small plastic sandwich bag, gluing the top of the bag around the top of the bottle lid. For good measure, I double-bagged each bottle, securing the top with some gaffa tape.

The bottom bottles are also encased in a plastic bag each for good measure… By squeezing the bottles at the top, the dye runs through the tubes, and down into the bottom bottles. This means that every time we rehearsed/performed, I would have to reset the dye, but it was worth it, just to have pumping veins.

The track in the backdrop for the moon was fairly visible, so I got some black material and glued the top of it just above the track. You stick your hand underneath it to operate the moon.

In terms of the lights, I had used the wire method to attach it to the buildings, as well as tying it off underneath the floors, in order to keep everything stable and in place.

Now this is where that 10cm extra on the base plate becomes important. Using this margin, the backdrop sits quite snuggly on the base plate. But it also allowed me to add some additional stability - what happens if a rod gets knocked during performance? Or in transport? No worries. Gluing some small pieces of the black core flute near the rods, and cutting a small circular hole into the centre of it, allowed me to slot my rods into the hole. The loving couple has these additions, but it means that during transport they must sit in the front-yard. I’ve driven the city around in the car, over speed-bumps, knocked it getting it out of the house, etc, and not once has anything come loose.

Read the next post - making the finishing touches - here.