Black material the absorbs practically all light?

JoshuaNitschke

JoshuaNitschke

Well-known member
Firstly, I should be getting my DVX by the end of the month. :evil: I'm so excited, I just had to say something. I started my first job (I just turned 18) so I could buy it since I'm just a poor boy from a poor family. ;)

Anyways, I'm getting things ready for the first short I'm filming, so without further adieu:

I want the main character in a room where there is nothing around him....just black. Of course, he has to be lighted. I need a black that practically absorbs all light, I don't want any shadows showing or anything. Think that scene in the Matrix when Morpheus plugs the freed Neo in for the first time. Imagine that bright white all black. That's what I want.

Seeing as the DVX isn't an HD camera, greenscreen isn't a good solution, so any ideas?
 
Unless you're in a tiny room, you don't have to have a black background to get that effect. You just need to control the light so that it doesn't hit the background.
 
HorseFilms said:
Unless you're in a tiny room, you don't have to have a black background to get that effect. You just need to control the light so that it doesn't hit the background.
Click to expand...

Hmmmmm, that's a thought. However, I'm not sure if I'd have access to a building that my church uses at night. It's a fairly decent sized room, but it's got lots of windows in it, so it'd be hard to keep out the light if I filmed in the day. Blinds don't keep out a lot of light.

How would you go about "controlling" the light so it woulnd't cast shadows on the background? I'm guessing the use of a light that shines more or less above and to the side, so that if any shadow was cast it'd be out of frame, and then a fill light shining more up on the actors' face?

I'm a lighting newbie, so bear with me. ::laugh:
 
In that case, I'd use Duvetyne (or a similar black cloth) as the background. Check it out here:
http://store.yahoo.com/cinemasupplies/duv54rolx50y.html

If it's too much for your budget, I'd just go to a fabric store and find a black cloth.

What kind of lighting kit do you have access to? If your lights have barndoors, they will help you control the light. Otherwise, you can use pieces of foamcore board (available at most arts and craft stores) to help block the light from hitting the background.
 
HorseFilms said:
In that case, I'd use Duvetyne (or a similar black cloth) as the background. Check it out here:
http://store.yahoo.com/cinemasupplies/duv54rolx50y.html
Click to expand...

Awesome! Sounds exactly what I'm looking for.

If it's too much for your budget, I'd just go to a fabric store and find a black cloth.
Click to expand...

In your opinion, is there a noticable difference between fabric store cloth and the Devetyne?

What kind of lighting kit do you have access to? If your lights have barndoors, they will help you control the light. Otherwise, you can use pieces of foamcore board (available at most arts and craft stores) to help block the light from hitting the background.
Click to expand...

*snort* Currently, all I have is this..

However, I plan on constructing three lights with barndoors according to this tutorial.
 
I think regular black cloth will work just fine. Just experiment a little before you shoot and I think you'll be able to get the look you want.
 
Virum said:
In your opinion, is there a noticable difference between fabric store cloth and the Devetyne?
Click to expand...

One likely difference between fabric store cloth and Duvetyne (AKA commando cloth) is the latter is flame retardant. I don't know if it's all fire retardant but everything I looked at was.

I bought some 118" wide from here:

http://www.rosebrand.com/search/results.cfm?search=commando

If you buy from a fabric store you can have the material treated to become fire retardant. With shooting in a church you not only have to think about the hot lights that might come into contact with your fabric, but also the off chance of someone lighting a candle and... :shocked:

http://www.rosebrand.com/A_Com/showdetl.cfm?&DID=6&Product_ID=396&CatID=9&ObjectGroup_ID=77
 
Duvetyne is also probably much heavier than anything you'll find at a fabric store.
Most cloth with let some light through if it isn't heavy enough, Duvetyne doesn't allow any light through it.
 
All the Duve I've ever seen was flame-retardant. That's part of the reason it cost so much.
Most black fabric will bleed light through it. Duve is thicker and will not show most lights through it.

edit: damn it Luis....!
 
I am converting my basement of my house into a home theater and I have 2 small windows down there now and I have some duvetyne covering the windows as a makeshift curtain and it helps make the room completey dark on a bright sunny day in the middle of the afternoon! I only have it up there for now until I get some nice looking light blocking curtains.
 
Duvetyne

Duvetyne

Duvetyne is excellent and used for the purposes you are asking for. The problem with it is that it is fairly heavy and you will have to think about how to suspend it. That is usually where other grip equipment is used. That's the Hollywood way, and it works of course. But it costs money to do it right.

The cheapest solution would be to find a big space, turn off all lights--use lights with tight beams and barndoors so that you hit only the subject in the foreground. Dedolights are hard to beat--a four light kit for one day is around $75-100. It would be money well spent to test out a real lighting lit. Check out woodennickellighting.com and beg for a student rate.

There is also a background kit that Westcott makes that includes two stands, a crossbar, and black textile. It is useful, but not really cheap. The upside is that you might use it in the future for interview backgrounds--that is what it really useful for.

You're young and all footage you shoot is going to be a learning process, probably to be discarded as your skills improve. I think the best thing to do would be to figure out how to solve this problem without spending much money. That will give you the best training possible for all kinds of production.

Unsolicited advice: Solve problems now without money. Save your money until you learn enough to know what you actually need (i.e. what you can actually make more money with).
 
Thanks 24p. :) I think I can get my church to let me use a large empty room they have, which should work well. I've got several lights I think I could make work (work lights, and the small lighting equipment I was given).

We'll see how it looks early January if all goes well!
 
I am primarily a still photographer but in my side of the business black velvet produces a dead balck even when things are placed directly on top of it. I have a large background of several peices sewn together ( they did it for me at the fabric store when I bought it at.
 
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