Diy scrims?, ? About screen material.

[David G. Smith]

Ok, before we start... I know, I know, I know... if you buy pro, you only cry once, when you buy it... and so on. The thing is, I am trying to put together a small, versatile location lighting and grip kit for low budget fictional narrative work and I just can't swing paying for full pro lighting control gear. What I need to put together is a DIY solution for a useful scrim set and I don't know anything about what is available at the big box hardware stores in regards to this. Does anyone have any advice on what kind of screen material I can find locally to use as scrim material? I use mostly tungsten lighting so I would probably want to use metal screening. Is the density of readily available screen material quantified and if so, what should I look for in selecting some for use as a light control device? Any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[j]

Metal bug screen attached via c47s but OUCH those little metal wires can poke...

Another option might be splatter guards:
http://www.kaboodle.com/reviews/set-...platter-guards
I've seen them cheap at dollar stores.

Side note of no relevance - while searching for the splatter guard picture I also found this:
http://www.dowereallyneedthat.com/wp...o0-226x300.jpg

[David W. Jones]

Single scrims on eBay are like $8.

Not really all that much considering the time and material investment for DIY project.

[David G. Smith]

Single scrims on eBay are like $8.

Not really all that much considering the time and material investment for DIY project.

From where? The cheapest I have seen were in the $30-$40 a piece range.

EDIT: and I am looking for scrims in square frames and not necessarily the small single fixture scrims.

[gonzo_entertainment]

From where? The cheapest I have seen were in the $30-$40 a piece range.

EDIT: and I am looking for scrims in square frames and not necessarily the small single fixture scrims.

Oh, you mean flags. I have seen them done DIY. The big issue is probably bending the metal (that is strong enough to not flop around) into a nice even shape. The screen becomes less of an issue because generally they are much further from the light than a scrim.

[David W. Jones]

So you are talking about single & double black nets rather than drop-in scrims?

[RyanT]

Black Bobbinet is what you should get from a fabric store. A double is usually just a single doubled up.

[gonzo_entertainment]

A used place (that I will not name because I'm going to buy some of these on Friday) has a pair of 24" X 36" doubles for $45 right now. If you look around for used at $20 to $30 each hardly seems worth the effort to make them.

[RyanT]

If you have a friend that has ripped and old nets, you can send them to the rag place in LA and have them recover them for you. They only charge you half price or so if you have the metal frame and they return them brand new. Might be a little hassle with the shipping, but if you have a source for broken ones it could be the thing to do.

[David G. Smith]

Black Bobbinet is what you should get from a fabric store. A double is usually just a single doubled up.

Ok, I will look for that.

A used place (that I will not name because I'm going to buy some of these on Friday) has a pair of 24" X 36" doubles for $45 right now. If you look around for used at $20 to $30 each hardly seems worth the effort to make them.

Yeah, I know exactly what you are talking about... I saw those. The thing is that I need to get a basic grip kit together like yesterday and the $$ I have set aside needs to go for some more grip heads, C-Stands, arms, real flags (And I will DIY some of those with foam core also) and some other hardware. I just don't have the extra cash for real nets. I also want to have some material I can cut and shape for attachment to little magic arms so I can use them to help shape augmented practical lights and such. So, I need to go DIY at this time. I just did a shoot where I did a classic Film Noir lighting wall slash and I ended up having to scrim down on end of it. I used doubled up black lace material (Stolen from wardrobe) hung off of an extension arm. It worked great, but I need some more material that I can work with... and with the cash I have now.

If you have a friend that has ripped and old nets, you can send them to the rag place in LA and have them recover them for you. They only charge you half price or so if you have the metal frame and they return them brand new. Might be a little hassle with the shipping, but if you have a source for broken ones it could be the thing to do.

I had forgotten about The Rag Place. I have their site bookmarked and really liked what I saw from them. Thanks for the reminder.