Black Infinity Cove - London?

Rolfe Klement · December 15, 2007

Does anyone know of any 3 or 4 wall black studios in London area?

Most of the white infinity coves say they will do black but I called up three and they all said no - cause it takes about 15 layers of repaint - to go back from black to white (even with pro undercoat and primer repainting)

I could build the set with black-wrap - it might be cheaper. But i have not seen any black studios except for the new one in the basement of "The Hospital" in Covent Garden but at £2000 /hr it is a bit much.

thanks

Rolfe

Phil Rhodes · December 15, 2007

You could look for theatrical spaces which have black drapes all around and a black floor, but it won't be a perfect black infinity like you'd get with a painted cove.

Phil

Freya Black · December 15, 2007

You could look for theatrical spaces which have black drapes all around and a black floor, but it won't be a perfect black infinity like you'd get with a painted cove.

Phil

What is a painted cove?

:) Hey we are on the same path. My studio space is being painted all black for my next couple of projects!

It seems to me like you could have painted black flats? However I don't know what a painted cove is so I may be missing the point.

love

Freya

Rolfe Klement · December 15, 2007

Thanks Phil

I thought about a theatre space and even went to look at some. They tend to use curtains for blackout and it is bumpy. I was trying to figure out a way of tightening the curtains to get a more uniform blackness and then I thought there must be studios who do this...

Freya - a cove is like a cave - soft edge box. Like the inside of a chamfer box

thanks

Rolfe

Tony Brown · December 16, 2007

Shoot ext night...... plenty of that this time of year in London.

There is a car studio in east london with a grey cove but its pretty small.

What is it you're shooting?

Rolfe Klement · December 16, 2007

Good idea but the piece is a single scantily clad girl doing dance stuff. She has about 9% body fat and she stops doing anything in the cold...

I tried once before but it didn't work with her in the cold.

Shooting 35mm Vivid 160T - this is the girl and the shoot http://www.cinematography.com/forum2004/in...showtopic=27225

thanks

Rolfe

Stephen Williams · December 16, 2007

Good idea but the piece is a single scantily clad girl doing dance stuff. She has about 9% body fat and she stops doing anything in the cold...

I tried once before but it didn't work with her in the cold.

Shooting 35mm Vivid 160T - this is the girl and the shoot http://www.cinematography.com/forum2004/in...showtopic=27225

thanks

Rolfe

Hi Rolfe,

I don't think you will have any problem finding a crew on that one whatever the pay! :lol:

Stephen

Tony Brown · December 16, 2007

Pleant of aircraft hangers around..... let the space create the blackness..... shooting against black seems a little pointless..... (dull?)

Phil Connolly · December 16, 2007

I don't think black infianty cove would be nessary.

I've done a few person against complete black shoots and have always used black floor and black drapes. These have been digial shoots HDCAM and Digibeta - but I'm sure similar results are possible on film. As long as the studio is big enough to give you adquate seperation between the performer and cyc you should be fine. You just need to avoid getting light on the cyc - if its 30 ft or so away from the performer thats quite do-able. Keeping the background out of focus helps as well if there are any marks or creases they won't show with a shallow DOF, but if your not putting any light onto the drape it doens't matter how creased it is.

Crushing the black background in the grade will help - if you couldn't get enough separation. But Distance and carful lighting should get you there, as long as you control the spill off the performer you should be fine.

If space is at a premium you could try using rolls of black paper - I think roscoe makes 8 foot wide rolls. Its quite expensive, but could be hung and layed across the floor in one continuos peace forming a natural infinity cove. I think that would work better than black wrap

Rolfe Klement · December 16, 2007

think I might have found one in Soho.

My Guild directory - GBCT book comes to the rescue AGAIN

Also did a search on google on Phil's Idea "black box space london theatre" and loads of results!

thanks

Rolfe

Freya Black · December 17, 2007

Thanks Phil

I thought about a theatre space and even went to look at some. They tend to use curtains for blackout and it is bumpy. I was trying to figure out a way of tightening the curtains to get a more uniform blackness and then I thought there must be studios who do this...

Freya - a cove is like a cave - soft edge box. Like the inside of a chamfer box

thanks

Rolfe

Ah I thought it sounded something like that, I am guessing this is so it's not easy to make out the parameters of the space? So there are no edges and it seems continuous?

Sorry if my suggestions were too low budget/off base etc.

I didn't realise that it was for the shoot with the photo we saw before.

One of the things I really liked about your photo with the dancer was the texture from the floor and the pools of light in the darkness. Although I'm actually planning to shoot stuff with a black background myself, and am looking forward to it, I love the way that original photo was working. In that she is shot against an ordinary brick wall but you can't see it for the darkness. I think it would be really intresting if you had an urban or industrial setting in which there is darkness but you perhaps get glimpses of things as the dancer moves through the darkness. Perhaps decaying industrial machinery or just intresting architechtural features. Perhaps old window frames or plaster board.

In your black and white photo the flooring really adds something.

I know what I'm suggesting is kind of extra hard as now the lighting is going to have to be able to follow the dancer in a tight beam of light and there would need to be intresting stuff around and it was hard enough to find the cove. Whats more I have no idea what the concept is behined the work, I just really liked that photo. I actually really liked the urban look to it. Perhaps the stuff I am talking about wouldn't fit into the conceptual framework.

I'm looking forward to seeing it whatever you decide to do anyway.

love

Freya

Chris Keth · December 17, 2007

How much space is needed? Could you just find a space with a black floor and then hang duvetyne curtains? Those are plenty black if you're careful to flag light off of them.

Valerio Sacchetto · December 17, 2007

Suddenly this video came to mind

as you can see there is not so much space, still the frame is largely pitch black. Naturally in such cramped space something shows up. What i mean is that you don't necessarily need a HUGE amount of space.