New Indie Film Tech Tip: Green Screen Construction

SPaulovich

SPaulovich

Here's a handyman's guide to constructing a low cost green screen for chroma-key effects.

A little bit of back story

I bought a green screen backdrop at a recent prosumer video show in Boston. I got a good deal on the backdrop itself, without realizing the framing hardware was, in my opinion, outrageously expensive. So I brought the backdrop home and did some brainstorming. Finally 'dawn broke over Marblehead' and I figured out what to do.

Words to live by

PVC is your friend. I can't emphasize that enough. Working with PVC is like playing with Tinker Toys (if you're old like me) or Legos (if you're not that old.) It's marvelous stuff, inexpensive, light weight and versatile.

The whole thing

szCompletePackage.jpg


Aside from the backdrop (the green thing in a bag on the left), all the parts were purchased from a local hardware store (Home Depot.) Here's the parts list:
  • Four (4) 10' sections of Schedule 40 PVC 1" pipe (approximately $20)
  • Eight (8) 1" PVC end caps (approximately $4)
  • Six (6) 1" PVC "T" connectors (approximately $4)
  • Two (2) 1" PVC 90-degree elbows (approximately $1.00)
  • Three (3) 1" PVC connectors (approximately $2.00)
  • Eight (8) hand clamps (approximately $20)
Important notes

I have no clue what Schedule 40 PVC means. It probably has something to do with thickness... but since we're really not using it for plumbing purposes I don't think it matters.

Use the 1" PVC pipe. The 1" measurement is the pipe's diameter. Remember, this structure has to support the backdrop's weight - so using anything smaller than 1" is probably not a good idea.

Pay close attention to the connector sizes. If you're working with 1" pipe, you need to get 1" end caps, 1" T-connectors, 1" elbows and 1" extension connectors. Trust me, it's worth checking the parts twice while you're at the store.

Up next: building the support feet...
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
Great tip. I'm glad others are continuing to share their knowledge. I have to get off my butt and make some new tips.

Scott

P.S. Indie Film Tech Tip is a copyrighted feature of scottspears.net and now you owe me 1.2 million dollar in royalties. ;)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Nice detail on the frame - I'm in the same boat, we bought a nice green screen and have had a hell of a time setting it up. It cost me MANY hours cleaning up the shot. I'm going to forward this tutoral to our props guy, he'll appreciate the simplicy and detail and, more importantly, he'll do the actual work.

For lighting, the best effect I've had is with outdoors - you need a lot of room indoors to light both screen and actors. An even light is hard to get inside so if it's at all possible, use that free giant wattage in the sky.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Hi Guys, Been a while. nice greenscreen idea. I like the pvc piping as a frame to stretch out the creases.

But, If I may make a suggestion. Go to Home Depot and purchase "Foam board" Its a rubbery 8 by 4 sheet of ply sheets that can be nailed or stapled to the wall. use some cauking sealent and then finish it off with a neon color of green.

If you have a good printer, set green to 255 in pain shop or adobe or any other art drawing program and set blue and red to 0.

then print it up and bring it a paint store to match code it or buy premade color charted paints.

The nice thing about the new vegas 5-6 is that they have an additional chroma blur that pretty much kills all hot spots that the older sonic 4 version didnt have.


you can do an entire wall, part of the cieling and the floor all the same.


As for the lighting on this, the sheet looks awesome but the lights have to much hotspots. I only use flouresent for the sides and off a bit.

You should get a tracklight and use the 8 year flouresent bulbs and evenly light the matt. or, you can do what Scott Spears said and use his China Lantern scheme to evenly light the area.

The top on this green screen is way to hot.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top