large green screen lighting
 

Hello

Im trying to figure out how to light a large green screen. The screen is 12feet wide, 8 feet tall and 10 feet on the floor. Some scenes need to have the whole actor standing on the screen and keyed out. I making a starwars fan film and need to match the lighting to the earlier films, like the cool lighting on the death star.

I don’t have any lights yet and maybe you guys can recommend a kit.

Unfortunately I only have a GL2 to film with but I’ve been getting decent results with AE keylight so far.

Thanks
Jason

Budget? Fluorescent is pretty efficient for lighting the screen. Use daylight tubes in 4 foot fixtures from Home Depot with electronic ballasts. As for lighting the actor, that could take some experimentation to match whatever look you're going for.

Yes, some idea of budget will make sure you get suggestions that will work for you. This is not a huge area to light, so you have lots of options. By "whole actor standing on the screen", I'm assuming you mean that the shot will include their feet.

I have about $500 to spend on lighting for this project. Should I try some softboxes?

Yes the whole actor needs to be keyed, from head to toe.

Thanks for the help
Jason

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=89380
You might want to read this thread about softboxes (if you haven't already)

I use softboxes a lot and in standard form there is a lot of spill so flags are necessary. I think you might be better off with some Totas OR Lowel Focus lights-you can go up to 1000W (IIRC) with them. Barndoors and a little toughspun will allow you to guide the lighting on the subject and a few 500w homedepot work lights should light the greenscreen butmake sure its even all the way across-watch for shadows around the talents feet.

Don

Do you have the keylight plugin for AE? It is much more efficient than the built-in AE keying filter. I'm pretty sure it ships with AE pro, but it's not the standard keyer in AE. I'm a total dummy with AE, but I know from a friend that keylight is able to do much better keying than you'd expect, so green screen lighting isn't that much of a problem anymore

*edit* sorry, I should read more closely before posting... you are already using keylight...

But then, I don't think you need softboxes to light your greenscreen, just use two decent open face lamps (600-800W each should be enough). From what I've seen, Keylight seems to be a pretty good keyer, comparable to high-end hardware vision mixers.

If you're limited to 500$, then two worklights (500W) should be good enough to light your green screen. You'll run into more problems lighting your talent with that budget... (you'll need at least 3 open face lamps plus a bunch of gels to come anywhere close to "match the lighting to the earlier films"). But maybe you can do it with worklights, E27 halogen bulbs and a lot of black wrap.

Thanks for the advise.

I got some fluorescents from homedepot with 6500k bulbs, a double fixture on each side of the screen. I was thinking of using a lowel prolight with a full CTB for the back light on the actors. Do you think a prolight would be enough?


I'll probably look into getting a couple of lowel totas or omni lights for lighting the actors.

Conventional fluorescents are what I would use for screen lighting on a budget - quite possible that your 6500k will work out fine. You do want electronic ballasts.

A lowel pro makes a fine backlight in general. CTB is not optimal, if you are looking to blast out any green spill you should be working with Magenta (minus-green). I've had good experience with lots of backlight for screen shots, sometimes using 2 backlights, or two backlights on shoulders/arms plus a hair light.

Totas are useless for lighting people unless in a softbox, behind diffusion, or reflected, in my opinion. The are a big badass light with almost no control.

Omnis, totas, behind diffusion...

6500K should be just fine. Color temperature on the screen is not so important as even lighting and just making sure its a good uniform GREEN. Personally I prefer any daylight in the range of 5000K to 5600K but 6500K still qualifies as daylight. Some keying software doesn't need the magenta backlight thanks to the green spill control features.

Jason, I am glad to hear that there are more starwars fans here on dvinfo.net! Would you mind to post a pic of the end result? I am planning on doing a full blue/green screen fan film for the DVC 8, and I am trying to find what I should do for lighting. How much did you spend on those lights at home depot?

Best of luck and thanks!
~Gabriel

Gabriel
I got the 2 of the Redsteel Worklights from homedepot. They hold 2 4-foot T8 bulbs and have electronic ballasts. They cost about $22 each and $7 for a pair of bulbs.

I will definitely post more on my progress. I still need to get the stormtrooper, jedi customes and lightsabers made. I also need to figure out AE, lighting and 3DS max.


Jason

" I only have a GL2 to film with but I’ve been getting decent results with AE keylight so far"

was that with subject/person head to toe ?

Thanks Jason, I will be sure to keep up with your progress.

Have you ever been to TheForce.net? Its an awesome site for SW info.

How do you plan on getting the Storm-Trooper outfit if you do not mind me asking?

Gl2 is a good camera I think... I use a Canon Elura 100, and it is nice, but it only cost 300 bucks.

~Gabriel

Gabriel
I'll check out theforce.net, thanks. Im not sure where I'll get the stormtrooper costume, still working on it. Maybe some in my area has one.


Jason

:D They have alot of Tutorials for Filmmaking. You can see them here.

One of my favorites is this one.

Me and my brother made a fanfilm once and we did a huge lightsaber scene. It was a blast!

We made our lightsabers out of PVC pipe. But you have to make sure you use schedule 40, otherwise they break! At least, I think it was Schedule 40... I don't know now. lol. But I do know that you have to get the thick ones, 'because we used a thin one, and it broke in one hit. :(

Best of luck! And may the Force be with you (that sounds really dumb I bet... maybe I should not have said that...)!
~Gabriel