Rosco City Backdrop

[Tom Taugher]

Hey everyone,

I am working on a shoot where we are building an apartment set on a stage and there will be 4 windows where we will be putting a ROSCO city backdrop outside the window to create the illusion that this apartment is overlooking NYC.

Here is the backdrop:
http://www.roscodigital.com/rental/details.cfm?backdropID=850

I had a few questions:
When shooting with these, obviously the backdrop doesn't come "bokeh"'d out of focus, so the idea of the city view looking "realistic" and more than 10 ft- 15ft away from the set is difficult.

Do you guys have any tips?
Possibly some sort of curtain / sheer or some sort of method to apply light diffsion to the glass itself?

Thanks again in advance!

 

[David W. Jones]

If you had the budget, rather than using that rosco bg, you could have a stock shot printed up on a duratran just out of focus enough to pull off the effect. Have your backlighting on a dimmer pack.

 

[Satsuki Murashige]

You can use sheers over the windows, Hampshire Frost on the windows, or a Sharkstooth net (grey net) between the translite and the window. If you leave the net unlit, it will just slightly lower the contrast and sharpness of the background. If you backlight the net, you can get an atmospheric haze effect for day scenes.

 

[Satsuki Murashige]

You can also have the art dept dirty up the windows and maybe add some plants on the 'fire escape' outside which may look more natural than adding gel.

 

[Will Turner]

If you have the room and budget you can use mirrors to cheat the distance. I've seen someone make some pretty nice bokeh in a garage by using three mirrors to get about 100' between the light and subject.

It's also pretty cheap to just print your own, about $80 for a 4x6 canvas print out, then just replace any light with a strong gel like 216. That way you can control how soft it is to mimic bokeh.