"Green Room" lighting setup help please
 

Hello Everyone. I am going to build a 12 x 12 foot "Green Room" (including ceiling and floor, only one wall "open" and that is the entrance and shooting area). I am going to paint the whole thing with ROSCO Chroma Key Paint: Green! This will be a new demension for production projects I intend.

Simple question... How do I light it? and, with what brand/models?

to get the perfect key!

How about... x3 Kini Flo Foto Flow 200s http://www.kinoflo.com/sales_catalog..._ff/ff200.html (one on each back corner and one on the cieling/back aiming down) ?

or, is that overkill? is there a more economical maker/idea? Money of course is an issue but professionalism and a great easy key is most important

There are some previous threads here about lighting a green room. This thread will probably be a rehash of material contained in those threads.

Some quick points:

1- Perhaps the small size of the room may be a problem? Increasing the distance between talent and walls will minimize spill light on the talent.

Depending on your keying system, you may also want to keep the luminance of the walls down so there's less spill. A darker (yet saturated) paint may be desireable if you can't flag lights to keep them from hitting the wall (and shadows) and creating uneven illuminantion.

2- I haven't tried this myself, but a very economical way to light such a room would be to use fluorescent plant lights. Look for the ones with low CRI ratings, they'll probably be very green. A very green light means the plant light doesn't waste as much electricity trying to generate red or blue. Plant lights also happen to be designed for high output, which may be desireable.

Dimming may not be super-convenient unless you have a large number of those lights on switches. Dimming may be an advantage to much more expensive fluorescent systems.

I am a newbie in this, but I was just wondering... Wouldn't you get green spill on your subject from all directions?

Thanks

Carl,

I've been looking into doing greenscreen work as well. Here's a link to how the folks at lowel would light a greenscreen. Since you are doing an entire area, you're set up will probably be different, but you may get at least a point or two from this -

http://www.lowel.com/fluotec/setups/chromaset.html

Why do you need to cover so many surfaces?
Will you be shooting a big camera move around your subject? (Pretty hard in a 12ft cube)

I gotta say, as has been mentioned, you could be in for a world of problems with green reflections off the walls onto your subject. You will need to get your talent at least 6 feet in front of the back wall, and eight to ten feet would be better. Then there is the matter of the side walls, which aren't doing you any good. If you look at "coves" that have been made from multiple walls, you will notice that the corners have been eliminated, because you can't make them disappear with lighting. This is equally true where the back wall meets the floor. Without creating a smooth cove, you will have a hard edged line from left to right, which will screw up your key. I would suggest forget the side walls, and concentrate on the back wall and floor. BTW, how tall is the ceiling?

Next, instead of paint, think about a couple of alternatives. You could hang a drape and smooth it where it meets the floor, or, use cyc paper, which is easier since it makes its own smooth curve coming off the roll. You can find all these materials here: http://store.yahoo.com/cinemasupplies/chromkeyfab.html

Other low budget lighting solutions (besides consumer fluorescents, which are maybe your best option) are using china balls for the background, or, a string of photoflood lights. You will have to hang a "skirt" around half the china ball, or hang a "teaser" to keep the photofloods off the talent. These solutions will put out more heat in your small room, however.

And another point about painting the floor green: it's going to get dirty and require ocassional re-paint. Big pain. With the cyc paper, if you don't need to see a full figure shot, just unroll what you need.

Wayne Orr, SOC

Thanks for the Information Gentlemen
 

I greatly appriciate your knowledge.

Point well taken on the "all sides". I see and understand. Your right, only the floor and back wall.

Derek, nice link to the lighting example / lights. Boy, those lights are ... well, not economical but, if your a pro...

Wayne, "I would suggest forget the side walls, and concentrate on the back wall and floor." Ok! The ceiling is approximately 10-12 feet.

I see your point about paint vrs. cloth but the reason I wanted to use paint was because with cloth laid side by side... isnt the "line" a pain? I will need the whole 10-12 feet convered.

Following up on this subject... but maybe not the right forum...
Say, I am using a PD170 and the room is lighted... not perfect but pretty darn good... would Visual Communicator Studio be able to cut a clean key?

One inexpensive solution for the floor/wall seam I have seen is to go to the local flooring place, by the cheapest Linoleum (vinyl floor covering) you can get and paint the backside of it with your key paint. (BTW - custom mixed paint from the local paint shop works too)

Once the paint drys, hang it on the wall and allow it to curve down on the floor leaving a nice, constant rate curve that is easy to light.

An advantage to this is that Linoleum comes 12' wide. When not used, it can be rolled up (loosely) and stored. Just be sure to unroll it and let it hang out for a few days before your next shoot.

Good luck

You might want to read my recent columns at Dv.com on green screen lighting:

Lighting the Background:
http://www.dv.com/columns/columns_it...leId=168601287

Lighting the Foreground:
http://www.dv.com/columns/columns_it...leId=171100179

hello mike,

you can do that only ones, since your paint will crack

greetings

Latex based paint has pretty good elasticity. The key to keeping it elastic is to make the paint as thin as possible meaning it should be sprayed on as opposed to brushed or rolled. If the linoleum is rolled 'loosely', it should be okay for awhile.

-gb-