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Lighting a Green Screen Studio

JustinGD

JustinGD

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I am building a medium sized green screen studio (about 40'X40', 15' high) and I would love some input from everyone here. I am not trying to compete with the big studios, I live about an hour north of Toronto and will be using the space primarily for my own productions. I wouldn't mind renting it out occasionally to help pay the rent as I would be the only studio in the area.

What do you suggest I use as permanent screen lighting? What do you like to see there when you walk into a studio?
Second question is, what other gear, lighting or otherwise, does your favorite studio have available to you?

Thank you in advance, I would be nothing without the people of Reduser.
 
Mole Richardson Space Lights are used a lot:
http://www.mole.com/lighting/overhead/spaces/spaces.html

And Kinoflo
http://www.kinoflo.com/Lighting fix...ank, Double, Single/4bank, Double, Single.htm


In our studio, I went with Kino 4'x4 banks. I liked the idea of being able to change lamps between 3200K and 5600K
but so far we have yet to used the 5600º lamps.
It takes about 6-8 of them to light just the screen of 40'w by 20' high. You'll need more for the stage and/or if you want to
shoot at a higher shutter speeds and f-stops.
The 4x4s do a nice job, are energy efficient and do not produce near the heat of space lights.
Others may disagree.

Are you building a cove?
 
Thanks everyone, I am building a cove. I use Kino's a lot when I'm shooting a small green screen but I have never seen them used as permanent studio lights, you must have a much nicer studio than I'm used to working in. I'm curious Jacques, why have you not used the 5600K bulbs? Wouldn't you want to use that any time you are shooting a scene set outdoors? And don't the cooler lights help with keying due to reduced noise in the blue channel?
A contractor friend of mine has suggested I look at a consumer product. I'm skeptical but may pursue it unless someone here knows why these wouldn't work http://www.energreentechnologies.com/view-category/led-flood-light-30w-150w
 
JustinGD said:
Thanks everyone, I am building a cove. I use Kino's a lot when I'm shooting a small green screen but I have never seen them used as permanent studio lights, you must have a much nicer studio than I'm used to working in. I'm curious Jacques, why have you not used the 5600K bulbs? Wouldn't you want to use that any time you are shooting a scene set outdoors? And don't the cooler lights help with keying due to reduced noise in the blue channel?
A contractor friend of mine has suggested I look at a consumer product. I'm skeptical but may pursue it unless someone here knows why these wouldn't work http://www.energreentechnologies.com/view-category/led-flood-light-30w-150w
Click to expand...

The CRI on those is pretty low - Number one reason I wouldn't use them. Second would be that I've haven't used any 'Cine' or 'Film' L.E.D. fixture that's given off the quality of light available from a tungsten fixture / H.M.I. / or Kino… so I'm skeptical of a consumer L.E.D. setup.

If you are only ever going to use the studio for your own projects - this may get you going at minimal cost, but you'll probably want to change them out as you get more money (no clue what your financial situation is). If you want to rent the studio as 'lit' most producers, directors, D.P.'s wouldn't touch it with that kind of lighting set-up.

G.
 
If you want to do it on the cheap, (like I did:) I put a line of china balls around the perimeter of my wall... works great. I put (2) 85w cfl daylight balanced bulbs in in each china ball. Total about $300
I tried to light the wall only with the china balls and skirted them off to camera and subjects. I use daylight balanced kinos and hmis for subject light.
I used the Alzo cfl bulbs which I know are a bit off on color shift ( a little green) but cant see how that would matter much on a green wall. On your subject is a different story. Works great for me anyway
Good luck
 
Thanks Glen, it took me a while to find that stat sheet but you are absolutely right, probably not a good investment. Jeff, china balls might be the perfect solution to get me started!
I think Kino's are a little too expensive, especially for the size I am trying to build. At a hight of 15 feet, does anyone know how many 1K Mole Cyc lights I would need on a 40' wall? Do I place them every 5 feet? more? less? Thanks again everyone for your advice.
 
40x40 is a large space and the best way would be us use Space lights or china balls. Kinos would be ok to light talent but they would need to be of the large variety.

Z5J1529Sobie-kids.jpg
 
Since this is home based studio, I would go for LEDs or Fluorescent.
Cheaper once will add extra green throw, which in this case can actually be a good thing.
Leds will not change temperature if you dim them, and will not flick; you can also have a small mixer console for fine tuning.
They will also save space, can be soft , directional, thus will not create much spill.
15 feet hight is also consideration, where led or kino setup would be better.
I would not go with tungsten as it'll generate heat , eats electricity and takes more space.
Where exactly do you live, I could swing by next week with my lights and give you a hand.
I am in Missisauga and often need small studio:)
My fav. setup is space light as it gives me nice and even f-stop across the stage.
This studio was about the same size (20 feet high) and we used space lights. In spite of good ventilation it was hot.
 

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Daylight +1,000.

Nothing kills a key like noise and the red is noisy as a petulant 3 year old in the blue channel under tungsten.

Also I don't like digital green. Digital green is quite red in my experience. Maybe it's redcolor but I get excellent green but poor red separation. Otherwise general rules apply: flat as possible, I like it around 70% IRE and have a good way to black out everything out of frame to kill spill. A curtain would be good for that.
 
The reason for using only the 3200º lamps is because we don't have enough kinos to also light the stage (yet - I put in for another 8).
We have lots of tungsten 2Ks and a couple of 5Ks.
For the stage (full body shots) we hang a 20x10 silk and ram about 16K watts (or more) of 2 and 5K fresnels.
Rifa 88s for the down stage sides and Rifa 44s if anyone needs to get real close to the camera (like put their face right in it).
Additional side 2Ks on stands (2 per side) help to sculpt whatever lighting looks is desired for the shot.

Those LEDs may work, but I found that more light is good. Shooting at higher shutter speeds (125 and 250) on our EX3 makes for less motion blur
and/or greater f stop give deeper depth of focus - good for dancers moving up and down stage.
We record uncompressed 10bit out, but even so, I have asked for an EPIC. You can never have too much data when shooting GS imo.
 
I have tried and would avoid 1K cyc lights. They hotspot like crazy even diffused with 250. We have tons of them and if they worked they would be deployed right now.
 
David W. Jones said:
I would start with space lights.
Click to expand...



Agreed. the green screen studio I sometimes shoot in has a permanent setup of space lights in the ceiling, attached to dimmers obviously. this is a very good staring point.
 
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