Apple behind the scenes white background question...
 

In this video: Apple - Pro - Profiles - Andrew Zuckerman - Behind the scenes ... they have the cleanest white background that rolls up. Where do you get that? All I've been able to find are the folded up ones that are always wrinkled... I did see a green screen with a foam backing that was really clean and rolled up but I've had no luck on finding a white one. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Michael

Its also possible they may have just used a roll of photographic background white paper. Thats common and you can just throw it away if its messed up and roll out a bit more fresh paper. Otherwise, steaming or ironing the others will work as well.

Thanks Richard! Yeah, he definitely used photographic paper. I went to Andrew Zuckerman's website and saw his other work. He had links to his other websites like Andrew Zuckerman: Bird and you can go to Films>Aviary or Films>Behind the Scenes, etc. and you can tell its photographic paper. Very clean look. He also has a website Andrew Zuckerman: Wisdom and you can go to the section Making Of>How It Was Made and he talks about how they needed to be mobile and it shows closer shots of their equipment.

Good to know. I'm confronting an issue right now about building a cyc for a test setup I want to do and am trying to decide on the best material so its been on my mind a lot lately too.

Any photo store will carry that or be able to order it. It is known as seamless paper. If it is wide enough for your needs, it is a good way to go and not that expensive. I usually just suspend it between two C-stands

I recently shot a film, most of which took place in a white limbo with five kids. We shot on a stage with a freshly painted white three walled cyc and I exposed the wall so that it was blown out by about a stop over the kids. Perfect for that Apple look. We were joking that if we need some pickup shots, we could do them in the director's living room with a roll of white seamless. We probably could.

Takes some lighting horsepower though and you need to light the BG separately from from the talent. Think soft light. I used three 2k Mightys bounced into beadboard on the kids and three 2k space lights to light the cyc.

Dan

I say definitely light the background layer with separate fixtures for white limbo or green screen for that matter.

I struggled with getting a portable white background and tried a few different things. What finally worked was going to a fabric store, getting a 5 x 10 ft piece of fabric (don't remember the kind, but it was wrinkle-free since it didn't have natural fibers.). Then I set up my 12 foot wide background frame and put tarp clamps on both sides and tops. Then I stretch one side to eliminate the wrinkles and sagging. It works great and is incredibly portable, it weighs about 2 pounds and rolls and folds up. It doesn't go to the floor, but for interviews you don't need that.

Here is a link to a video I did with it:
Billo Communications Single Video Player

I got these rope tensioners to make stretching it fast and easy:
Figure 9™ Rope Tensioners - Lee Valley Tools

I got three sets of these clamps because they are cheap, light, and small
FREE SHIPPING 5 pcs Muslin Backdrop Studio Clamp Clamps - eBay (item 330336637010 end time Jan-05-10 14:12:49 PST)

Re: Apple behind the scenes white background question...
 

Reviving this thread because it's completely relevant to something I'm trying to accomplish. I viewed that video linked above, and they're doing exactly what I need to do. I screen capped several frames of that video to try to emulate their lighting, but I'm wondering if anyone has advice or directions on how to emulate the same lighting on a budget.

Many thanks!

Re: Apple behind the scenes white background question...
 

That apple video was worth watching. Two things I noted:

- They use black curtains on the sides of the subject, presumably to "place shadows". I suspect this is key to getting the texture and interest in the faces; otherwise you just end up with a high key wash of light with no definition.

- They use fill lights below camera, and it looked like they use a ringlight for this purpose. I've recently gotten into noticing catchlights in the talent's eyes, and I'm surprised that more than half the time I will see a low (below-camera) catchlight but no main or high catchlight (probably because key lighting comes from the side or is so diffuse as to not make a catchlight). Anyway, experimenting with having one light below-camera is on my agenda.