Kristy Tully

In my experience all green screen fabric have crease problems until we stretch it taunt and/ or steam it. This product says it only has gromets along one 10ft side, which will make it hard to stretch it. ( You can spring clip it to a frame, but annoying to execute, timely and you'll need a lot of spring clips). If it's for a permanent hang it's probably not a big deal. If it's to use now and again and you'll have to set it up over and over again, it's probably too much work. Look for one with gromets along all sides, and has a frame. kristy

I have used large greenscreens outside and found that by hanging the greenscreen so that the sun is behind it,(and the screen is in shadow) the screen is completely even and we can light the people infront of it without having to compete with direct sunlight. As for how to light the subject, I usually look at the plate, or if the plate isn't shot yet, I go to where it will be shot and come up with a plan to light them so it will look real when it is added to the plate. I usually make sure the subject is at least a little brighter than the greenscreen, but also lit with light that will match the plate. ( It might mean making one side brighter than the other side, or having them fall through pools of light as you suggested.) If I ever have questions about what will make it easy or hard to pull the mat, I call the person who will be pulling the mat and ask how I can make it easier for them. I have found that I get different answers depending on the person and the tools they have available to them. It varies from having the screen at exposure, to having the screen 1 stop below exposure, to having the screen 20% below exposure. Some will tell you a little green spill on shiny shoes is ok, some will say no way. It will give you an idea of how much to sweat on set if time is becoming a problem. ( I always try to make it perfect, but when time becomes a problem it's nice to know what you can get away with).

Hey grant- You are right. doouble the light, get one more stop. Take away half the light, loose one stop. You can so this with distance, (moving the unit) , or adding/ suntracting units . Of course there may be some fluctuation, but in general, I wanted you to know you were right, simple as that. A great resource is Harry Box's Book, set electrician's handbook. It has tables in the back of most lights and their footcandles at varying distances, at flood and spot. Very handy. kristy

Sounds good. Your challenge will be making your subject stand out from the white walls. Pretty tight quarters for white walls. Kinos aren't so easy to cut. But, the 2' 4bank should allow you to make sure the subject is lit and doesn't just get lost compared to the white walls. As long as you keep using your spot meter to keep the ratio between the white walls and your subject in range you should be in good shape. I like 7217.

yes, the kino 4ft tubes will work in standard commerical / industrial 4ft units.

4ft length X 4ft width X 7ft height?

Hey Demetrius, 1. I would use the kino29 or kino32 to replace the flos. You can supplement that with your tungsten heads without having to add green gel (tungsten head are cheaper to rent than hmis) If you are also dealing with daylight coming in windows in the basement I'd use kino55 and hmis. 2.I use 1/2 or 3/4 plus green, although your meter will tell you to use full. (1/2 if I'm in a hurry and don't want an extra layer of gel and thus more light loss) 3.That is my prefered method- replacing tubes You'll get more output from the kino flos, you won't have to use green and CTB if the flos are cool whites, and you won't loose stop with gels and filters. good luck

Hi Katrina- Quality Light Metric CO. 323.467.2265 Fast and reliable. If you google them you hear great reviews.

yes it's a two part process. Minus green removes the green- I use 1/2 minus green instead of full. I've found it looks better on film and takes less light away. Then you need CTO to take 4300 down to 3200. I's use 1/2 again. Sounds like warm deluxe bulbs. So to match to HMI's you'd need as already said, CTB and minus green. I personally under correct fluorescents a bit. So in this case I'd use 1/4 CTB and 1/2 minus green. Partly because I always find it looks better later, and also gives you a little more light on set.

Hey Marc, Yes I understand. Often production companies push me for a list before the scout and before I've had a good chance to talk out all the creative with the director. They are usually doing this to either put together a budget, or start talks with the rental house so they don't get raped at the last minute. I used to be a pain in the ass and tell them I can't do it until I know more, mostly because I used to be a gaffer and that's what I'd say before the scout as a gaffer. ( It's not so surprising for them to have a pain in the ass gaffer, but not so fruitfull to be a pain in the ass DP). But, now I try to give them a ballpark so they can ballpark a number. I am, of course, careful to say as many times as I can that this is just speculation and I'm sure it will all change after the creative and after the scout. And, like promised it always does. It's helpful though to let them know if you think you need 18Ks or just 1200 pars. Or just a medum tungsten package. I try to think of what might cost them money: arms, big HMIs, any HMIs, dollys, big frames of muslin or ultra bounce- anything I think the rental house may have to sub rent. Then I just say things like, ....and a small hmi package and a medium grip package. This seems to forfill there needs for their budget or preliminary talks with the rental house. Of course after the scout I'll be more specific. Or if the gaffer and key grip were on the scout they have written down everything I think we need and supplement from there. I only get involved if the order needs to be cut significantly. If they are not on the scout, I'll talk to them on the phone and tell them the heads and the specific grip gear I forsee needing and let them add everything I forgot you need to make it all work. However, if it's a freebee, I usually just do all the ordering, and sometimes email the list to the gaffer and key grip just for them to take a quick glance. They'll remind me of anything I forgot or something they think will really help, but I try to really keep their time protected. I feel comfortable doing the ordering though because I was a gaffer for many years and did all the ordering. If I hadn't been a gaffer, I'd have to rely, and should rely on the gaffer to help. Even on freebees. There's nothing worse than coming to set and not having the one peice of gear that will save a lot of work. As a gaffer I would always rather spent time on a day off making an order than have to deal with the consequences of a poorly put together order.

Hi Pawel, My first light meter in film school was the sekonic light meter. It is easy to use, and probably really cheap on ebay. Ideally with blue or green screen you use a spot meter, but I've shot them with just an incident meter before. Shooting at 96fps you will need to compensate your lens by 2 full stops from 24 fps. So you will need to light your greenscreen for that. Seems like you'd be smart to have at least one other light in your arsenal so you can use your 2 500w light s to cross light your blue screen. That way you can have your objects far enough away from the screen that you won't have to worry about the blue reflecting onto you objects in the darker parts....and you can have your 500w lights close enough to give you enough stops, being careful that you dont put them so close that you get hot spts. The 3000k light will be fine for 7218. I'd make sure my key light (the additional light you should get to light your subject) is also in that range and shoot a color chart or grey scale. Even if you just get a one light and not a supervised session that will give the timer a reference to balance the light correctly. I personnally wouldn't use any gels for fear of taking away more stop away. You're probably on the low side of the light scale as is. Good luck

I just shot some spots for IMF, an international music channel in February, on the nyc subway, on video. You sound like you already know the deal. I shot without anything, just a camera, a sound person who would hook into my camera at the last second, an actor and director. We were low profile. Had the camera in a napsack, shot on the Q going to brooklyn. We had tried to get a permit, and wasn't able to because of a movie already that was shooting that day doen there. We had shot in Grand Central Station earlier in the day, with a permit of course, and decided to take our chances with the subway. The lights on the train were fine. There wasn't contrast of course, but I was able to crunch the blacks a bit later. I wouldn't bring anything to supplement or create negitive fill with you. I shot a music video on the subway the year before. Just me and the director with PD150s. We were stopped by the police and were just told that we couldn't continue. ( It helped that Robbin Tuney was in our video and they wanted her autograph). So, we moved it above ground, but got a lot of great shots first.

The 2ft and 4ft swith on the older ballasts have mostly been replaced with hi output and low output. The manual may caution you against it, but I have to say in my experience,I have never noticed more green in the light or the dailies. I was a gaffer for many years before I started shooting, and have always used the switch to get a little more light out of the unit.

Can you imagine being a fourth electrician, just starting out and having to remember the 1K light actually needs 1.4K power, and will blow a circuit it it's with the 650w light (that really needs 1.2K power). It was hard enough for me on my first juicing job to not blow circuits with the obvious names. Let the more experienced members of the team, the gaffer and the DP, understand how much light each unit gives off under different circumstances. There are some older 1200 hmi electronic ballasts that need 20amps of power. There was a time when I was a gaffer in NY and they'd always show up on location jobs where there wasn't 20amp circuits. Just 15amps, that would blow. That was fun to explain to the DP, who had ordered them to be able to plug into the wall.

Hi Lucita, I assume you are trying to balance the fluorescents to daylight outside. So you are dealing with 3 different color temperatures, daylight, florescents, and your tota lights. Most Fluorescents used commercially are cool whites, but some are warm deluxe, or some variation there of. Both kinds will have a lot of green in them and they will vary in warmth. The cool whites will match with daylite, spare the extra green I mentioned. The warm deluxes (and variations) will be slightly warmer, maybe in the 1/2 CTO range form daylight. As mentioned, if you or a friend owns a color temperature meter you could match your colors exactly. If you were going to use tungsten light and match to outside and your florecnts, I'd probably add 1/2- full CTB, although full blue will take a lot of light away. That still doesn't handle the green. Adding minus green would probably take away too much light from the already dim commercial fluors. If there is not a lot of daylite in coming in you could add 1/2 green to your tota light to bring the green levels into balnce so your tota light doesn't seem too pink, or the fluors too green. If you were to read your meter it would tell you to add full green or full minus green, but I've always found that even though the metes says it, it just is too much. I always use 1/2 of either when the meter calls for full. There are a couple of other ways to handle this also. The simplist way,( although it sounds more time consuming, it's not after you figure in not having to move around lights all day) is to replace the existing bulbs with Kino Flo55 tubes. They are brighter than household and commercial fluorescents and have no unwanted green to deal with. Sometimes while I'm swaping them out I'll remove the diffuser as well, allowing more light to hit the scene. They will also match the daylight color temp without the need for light-robbing gel. But, to be realistic, you won't be able to match the sun level outside with either 2 totas or kino flo tubes. (Unless, the building you see outside are in shade when you see out the window). If you are looking to just bring it up a little, but have the outside still a little blown, this may work. But, to match it perfectly, you really have to either gel the windows will heavy ND, or use bigger HMIs. If I were just going to use the tota light described, I'd probably end up using 1/2 CTB. The green is another issue. If enough daylite was coming in to mix, I might not add green to the tota to match the flors and hope that enough daylite in mixing in. When I white balanced, I'd try to get a little bit of all three light sources on the white card. Then I watch the monitor closely. If you shot further away from the windows you would start to notice more green because of the amount of green in fluorescents. I guess the nice thing about video is you can just re-white balance and hope you don't have a shot that goes from deep in the store to closer to the windows where you'd get a color shift.