The Jon Stokes Blog

The decision is to build the cave into an 8′ x 20′ container on the equipment yard. The whole set goes up in one week.

Charlie plasma-torches support beams across a six foot section of the container.

Peter clears out the space to begin hanging aluminum mesh.  He also does a lot of math to figure out how much weight and pressure the water will exert.

Peter drops in lumber against the welded bars, and begins hanging aluminum to shape the cave.

The aluminum is screwed into the iron container, which Peter reinforces with several tons of concrete and dirt.  Then Peter fits the inside of the cave with a heavy, waterproof liner.

Chuck and Peter spray foaming. It is freezing cold in the mountains at night. We’re working off of Peter’s flashlight.

11pm on Friday night.  Foam party!

These are my hands at my ballroom dance competition the day after spray-foaming. My poor dance partner had to hold these crusty hands.

Lesson learned: gloves.  The only way to get spray foam off your hands is sandpaper.

Production Designer Michael Barton puts in three coats of paint in three tints to texture the cave walls.

Finally, a fiberglass resin layer is added to water-proof the paint. The resin is toxic so Peter and I have to wear a protective suit with an oxygen mask to apply the coat. I wish I had a picture of this - the outfit is post-apocalyptic.

Spray foam, $200.  Waterproof cave, priceless.

Peter fills the cave with 1400 gallons of water off a water truck and fills two 750 gallon water tanks for standby. If you peek inside the container you can see the cave set.