background muslin color?

[John Fishback]

Explain a bit more about the effect you desire. Is it a plain solid background that drops away, a mottled or crinkled look or something else.

John

Dual 2.5 G5 4 gigs RAM OS 10.4.8 QT7.1.3
Dual Cinema 23 Radeon 9800
FCP Studio 5 (FCP5.1.2, DVDSP4.1.1, Comp2.3, STP1.1, Motion 2.1.2)
Huge U-320R 1TB Raid 3 firmware ENG15.BIN
ATTO UL4D driver 3.50
AJA IO driver 2.1 firmware v23-28
Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neuman U87s, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[Ty Ford]

Hi John,

Haven’t bought it yet, but I’m thinking painted muslin. Something dappled or lightly patterened. Crinkled would be OK to a certain degree.

Regards,

Ty Ford

Want better production audio?: https://home.comcast.net/~tyreeford/AudioBootcamp.html
Watch Ty play guitar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RZJ9MptZmU

[John Fishback]

Ty,

We go with muslin painted randomly with dark and lighter grey. Grey will pick up the color of light hitting it so you can have different colors for different needs. We crinkle it to a degree to create areas of light and shadow. That way you can hit the backdrop with light from the sides and create a lot of texture. You have decent separation if you can have the talent 12 feet in front of the backdrop. You want to have a set of lights for the backdrop and another set for the talent. Dimmers are really helpful to create a balanced look. If you don’t have time to test all this out yourself, you might look into hiring a gaffer to help with the lighting. There are a lot of good ones in your area.

John

Dual 2.5 G5 4 gigs RAM OS 10.4.8 QT7.1.3
Dual Cinema 23 Radeon 9800
FCP Studio 5 (FCP5.1.2, DVDSP4.1.1, Comp2.3, STP1.1, Motion 2.1.2)
Huge U-320R 1TB Raid 3 firmware ENG15.BIN
ATTO UL4D driver 3.50
AJA IO driver 2.1 firmware v23-28
Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neuman U87s, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[Dan Brockett]

I second the grey, it’s by far the most versatile color to have because with the mere addition of some colored gels, you can make it into anything you want. I turned ours into a nice Army Green for the interviews I did for the MASH DVD box set. In looking at the monitor, even I was amazed at how green just blending a couple gels made the grey.

We used to also have a deep blue/purple one and it was never as useful.

Good luck,

Dan

Providing value added material to all of your favorite DVDs

[Craig Alan]

I use

Westcott Westcott Masterpiece Washable Muslin Background – 10×24′ – Pearl hanging from a drop-ceiling grid.

It is grey/beige tone and has worked out very well.

It too changes color very easily both during production and in post. It’s natural color is very pleasing. I find it easy to light.

That said, the same b.g. gets boring.

I like using a black b.g. as well.

Try to get the talent away from the b.g. to avoid distracting shadows falling on the background and softer focus on the b.g.

The loop in the cloth is designed to hang vertically from a pole, but I ignore that and use tarp clamps and drop ceiling hangers to hang it, using 24’ as the width.

OSX 10.4.11; Quicksilver Dual 1 gig; G5 dual 2.5 gig; FCP 4.5, 3.0.4; Sony camcorder vx2000/pd170;Canon xl2; Pana consumer cams; write professionally for a variety of media;teach video production in L.A.