Lighting with Projectors

[Matt W.]

I'm doing a couple videos inspired by a technique used in this spot:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0gEKlNOOT8

One of them takes place in a space ship in which the windows are replaced with translucent plasma tv screens, in essence, and the villain is watching something a lot like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WvuJwMFPz4

Basically, I have a pretty small, primarily white room like this:

and I need to project images onto it from right next to the camera to get this effect.

So...any advice on shooting video lit by a projector? I'm looking at high end 1080p projectors and lower res presentation projectors, which appear to be brighter. We can only back up about 30 feet in this room to fill a wall that's equally wide so I need to find something with a wide lens. Anyone have any recommendations? Thanks as always!

 

[PatrickFaith]

I'm doing a couple videos inspired by a technique used in this spot:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0gEKlNOOT8

One of them takes place in a space ship in which the windows are replaced with translucent plasma tv screens, in essence, and the villain is watching something a lot like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WvuJwMFPz4

So...any advice on shooting video lit by a projector? I'm looking at high end 1080p projectors and lower res presentation projectors, which appear to be brighter. We can only back up about 30 feet in this room to fill a wall that's equally wide so I need to find something with a wide lens. Anyone have any recommendations? Thanks as always!

Perty Cool ... not sure if you know how kubrik did this, but he would get those back projection screens, then project into them (using a old school project, but a digital projector would do the same thinig). He got some real nice shots in complex environments done this way in 2001 movie. (your shot was reminding me of that) ... always a good idea to take shot approaches from the greats. I have been playing with "front" projecting, with 1080 p projectors, but so far it looks a bit cheesy compared to back projecting.

 

[Matt W.]

For one of these projects, 2001 is an influence. I've seen some really great rear projection material before, but with digital it's just too easy to key or roto.

Mostly what I'm worried about is finding a projector that is bright enough, contrasty enough when projected on flat white, and has a wide enough field of view to project an in focus image across a 30x30 room from 30 feet back. Anyone have any feedback? Presentation projector or 1080p video?

 

[Tony Rudenko]

Check this out...

 

[Matt W.]

That's really cool...works well, too.

But for this first project all I really need is a decently bright high resolution projector that can project an image over a 30 or 40 foot wide area. Most 1080p home projectors seem rather dim and have 300'' screens (or 240'' long which would be twenty feet).

What's the best affordable (to rent) projector that can project 1080p over a large 30 or 40 foot area and without having to back it up really far? Should I go with a high end home cinema projector or rent a corporate one? Thanks.