Studio Project

Simon Höfer

Simon Höfer

Veteran
A little background Information about myself:

Since 2001 I study electrical engineering with the subject area of media engineering. Two days ago I came back from a half year internship in Japan. In my hand luggage I brought a brand new HVX200 and a 16gb P2 card. During my stay over there I really decided what I want to do in my future. I think DVXuser had quite a big influence on that.

Full of energy and with so many ideas in my head I started working on my little studio project. I have got one month free time, so I will see what I can do.

I have got a room which is 20' by 13.12' and it has a 6.56' ceiling. It is not the biggest room but I think it should do the job.

On one side will be my desk and sound system and the other side will be for filming.

Following is a list of things I want to buy/build:

Buy:

1. Manfrotto 503/525 kit

2. Rode NTG-2

Build:

1. Lights:
- several lights inspired by CoolLights
- China Laterns
- reflectors
- ...

2. Curtain system:
- Greenscreen
- Black (later)
- White (later)

3. Track Dolly

4. Stabilizer



Here are some pictures of the room.

1188940520.jpg


1188940765.jpg





At the windows are shutters that can completely keep the light outside.

I will make regular updates in this thread when there is some progress. Any input is really welcomed.
 
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03.09.2007

Build:
Today I visited a few shops like Home Depot. I checked out a lot of material. I think I will build the Stabilizer at first. The parts I need for that are the most easiest to find.

The lights are a little bit more complicated. It seems that you cant find those compact fluo lights ar any shop near me. I will probably order them via internet. I could also not find anything that I could use as a C-stand.

I wanna try the IKEA "DITTE" farbic for greenscreen. I will buy a small one first and do some testing and if it works fine I will expand that. The small room might also cause some spill, but I will see that at the first testing.


Buy:
Actually I wanted to buy the tripod and microphone on ebay, but it starts pissing me off. There is like 1 item every two months and at a quite high price. Probably I will buy them new, but I will be a little bit more patient.

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04.09.2007

Ok, today was cleaning day. In the past years my two older brothers lived in this room - both smokers.

First of all we put all things out of the room. Then we had to wash the ceiling and also used a special wet carpet cleaner. That was REALLY necessary. We also changed/fixed some furniture.

Later I went to a DIY superstore and bought some Work Lights. I will optimize them later and put some fluos inside.
 
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I'll post things occasionally as I think of them. One that comes to mind is using chinese lanterns or just CFL trees made with Y sockets and some 5500k 30w or 40w bulbs. Good even lighting of your green screen. Barring that, next best option would be 4 foot tubes but its harder to light 3 or 4 areas (2 walls and floor green for example) evenly with those. Anything with 360 degree spread like a Chinese lantern or a CFL tree is great.

You can use other instruments as necessary but start with flat soft lighting and build from there. You'll have less shadows that way. And it shouldn't cost too much.
 
Ok, today was cleaning day. In the past years my two older brothers lived in this room - both smokers.

First of all we put all things out of the room. Then we had to wash the ceiling and also used a special wet carpet cleaner. That was REALLY necessary. We also changed/fixed some furniture.

Later I went to a DIY superstore and bought some Work Lights. I will optimize them later and put some fluos inside.


Updated the first post as well.
 
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Today I modified one of the worklight lamps. I removed the original lamp and replaced it with a fluo lamp. Took much longer than expected and I was quite disappointed with the amount of light it produces.

Richard, may I ask what kind of light bulbs you use? How much watt?


1189180135.jpg


1189180182.jpg
 
Short Update: Ok, maybe 2 days ago I just finished another worklight. And yesterday I purchased the Manfrotto 503HDV 525PKIT.

Ebay is just insane. On ebay you have to pay about 497€ (690$) for a used 503 525 kit. Just to make it clear, it is the MA 503, not the new HDV version. It has no warranty and even a broken lever.

For the new 503HDV 525Pkit I paid 597€ (828$). It ist just 100€ (138$) more expensive, but I get a brand new kit with full warranty and it is even the newer model. People are crazy. And no word about the general high prices in germany :\

Im getting a little bit frustrated about the light bulb situation here in germany. Why for gods sake dont we have a bigger choice of twisted compact fluo lights? Look at the sweet Sylvanias you can get in other countires:
sylcf1.jpg


They are available up to 40W. I have even seen some twisted fluos with 65W (other company)!

All you can get here is a Philips with shitty 23W. I guess I dont come around an online purchase with high shipping costs.
 
Ok, I already got my Rode NTG-2 Mic incl mic stand and xlr cable.

My tripod is on its way from manfrotto to the shop. so it will probably be here next week :)
 
Short Update:
The tripod is on its way to my place :) Hopefully arrives tommorrow or on monday.

I also started a thread about the stabilizer I am building:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=110415

Apart from that I am quite busy renovating my room. I hope I can finish the stabilizer maybe next week. Next week I will also get the wheels and bearings for next project, my dolly. And after that I have to take care of some more lights.

How about the All Hollows fest? grml...

As you can see, I've got alot to do :D
 
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Make friends with the guys at the biggest rental house in your area and you will save a fortune on lighting.

I am just about to go offline to pick up:
2 2k Juniors
3 1k Babies
1 300 Inky
2 4' 4bank Kino Flos with 18" blades
24 or some odd c-stands (3 types)
8 4'x4' frames with diffusion/hilite
12x12 ultra bounce
4x4 styro bounce
a matthews boom
12x12 green screen on a 12x12 frame
3 2k variacs
1 1K variac
1 magic gadget dimmer sequencer
and a couple carts of sandbags

All of this for a few cases of beer and a few hours of chatting them up.
The smaller rental companies need every penny, the larger ones can write off your rental, and know that because you now LOVE THEM, you will be back for your budgetted gigs. This lighting kit to rent is about 4x the ENTIRE budget of the music video I am shooting tomorrow. In fact 50% of the actual budget is covering the truck rental/gas to move the lighting and grip package.

Last week I was screwed for lighting, this week I'm golden.
 
Looks like things are progressing well. I can tell you one reason why the CFLs in Europe are a bit behind the rest. There are steep rules about "dumping" and import taxes, etc. in Europe for some certain Chinese products like CFLs for instance. So, it just doesn't make sense for importers to bring highly competitive products (which should be priced low) in like these as the end price would be so high it makes them unsellable. It's a pity but thats politics in Europe. I know about this because I've studied all the import issues into Europe and there are many roadblocks that end up keeping your products at a higher price there.

I used 30w N:Vision bulbs from Home Depot which I guess aren't available to you in Germany. It's tough to find the spirals that are a bit wider and therefore not so long, but they are available in places. I found some others online too which were even better than the Home Depots for length.

Overall though, much later, after my video came out, I decided a really cool way to have done the conversion would have been to figure out a way for the E26 / E27 base to swing out on some kind of hinge to make it easier to change the bulb. Just swing out, unscrew old bulb, put in new one, swing it back into place. Then the size becomes a bit less of an issue.
 
Yep, it is progressing. Last week I was a little bit frustrated, but now its going forward again.

Thanks for your input Richard. Next week I will search for some spirals on the internet and maybe order them from another country.

That swinging mechanism sounds good. Its really tight in the worklights. Right now I can change the bulbs without unscrewing the base, but if the bulb would be longer by just a millimeter, it would not be possible.
 
Thanks for the links Richard. I will look through them in detail next week.

I will finish renovating my bedroom and building the stabilizer first.

The tripod will arrive hopefully on monday :\
 
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