Ceiling mounted Backdrop/Seamless Holder Advice

[gotglade]

Hi all,

Looking for advice on a what I am thinking of using as a backdrop holder/seamless paper roll holder in my home studio. Basically I want to know if what I've come up with can hold the weight and be safe or if I need something a bit beefier.

The studio space is a formal living/sitting room in my house that we're converting to a studio-when-needed type of thing and so the main aspect of this system is that it needs to be mostly removable when not in use. My clients also will be using the actual room as a set and so I can't have background support stands coming down into my side-on shots.

With that in mind, I've landed on a ceiling mounted system that needs to be capable of holding a 12ft seamless roll of paper, or curtains, or blackout cloth, or green screen paper/cloth depending on the shoot. I also may want to attach small background lights to the ends as well depending on the shoot.

Here are the specs:

1 x 13ft length of speed rail (1.25") to act as as the rod.
2 x 6in Matthellini clamps to hold the pipe.
2x Baby Wall receivers lagged into ceiling joists. The matthellini clamp pins will secure into these plates.

So, what do you guys think? Are these pieces of grip equipment enough to hold the weight of the pipe and a roll of seamless? Also might like to use the excess pipe to attach small background lights, so that's another consideration. Will this do or do I need something beefier, like maybe stepping up to junior fittings? And what might those be?

 

[Greg_E]

The Baby receivers will probably do the job, but the bolt spacing seems wider than a typical 2x4 or 2x6 construction (on short side of the studs). You may need to anchor boards between 2 studs (or more) and then attach the receiver to that board. It starts getting ugly.

For big rolls of material you might need to step up to a larger receiver, but keep the roll length down to reasonable and you should be OK. For things like heavy cyc material, you may be able to add a third receiver in the middle to help share the weight. But even then I doubt you will be in the 50 pounds range with a 12x12 cyc. Our heavy black cyc is probably about 20 pounds when cut down into that size and no chain in the bottom.

 

[gotglade]

Thanks for the reply, Greg!

Yeah, I think I'm gonna have to run a piece of 1x6 or 2x6 across a couple joists and lag into that. I could also run a piece of 4x4 between the joists above the drywall (in the attack) and go into that if I really want to go low profile. I'm also going to be painting whatever I end up with on the ceiling white to match and at least stay mostly hidden.

I figure could go with a Junior Reciever, but then I'm at a loss as to what I put after that. I suppose I could use a Junior Grip Head and then put the matthellini up into the grip part? I like the matthellini because I can rest the pipe on the bottom part of the clamp on both sides before I tighten it, thereby allowing me to hang the pipe on my own.

I own a couple Big Ben Clamps That I could use, but once they're upside down, I can't rest the pipe in them before they're secured. I would need someone to hold the other side up while I secure it.

I definitely would feel better about using a Junior system weight wise. Do you know of anything I could use that would give me the functionality of the Matthellini but would fit the junior celling plate so I could forego the Grip head?