DIY Butterfly

I cant say enough good things about amvona.com I purchased three long gobo arms and 3 c stands all for under $150. They usually auction off one a day with no reserves. I used esnipe.com and with patience won bids for my c-stands at an average of $15. I can't say much about shipping because I live in the New York Area.. I had amova hold all my items at the warehouse and paid my Boston friend $50 gas money to pick up the winning items and drive them down over easter & passover weekend.
 
I've spent the better part of a decade fooling around with scrim fabrics...

When flammability isn't an issue (and to get big, soft light, hot lights should be a bit away from your scrims) there are plenty of white fabrics at the fabric store with the right transparency. (Take a bolt into the sun with a light meter if you want to know specifics).

"Standard 1-stop white scrim fabric" is a bit of a knee-jerkey choice; it's handy, but white netting of various densities (or a gauzey or cheese-cloth-ey fabric) will knock down highlights, soften things up, open the shadows, but still looks natural; it's a more subtle softening and doesn't jack up the f-stop level. try it in the sun, it can be pretty as hell.

Black netting will knock light levels down but keep the light hard; good for toning down a hot background, etc.

Fabric stores usually have a binder full of "little old ladies" phone numbers for sewing. (You may need several pieces sewn together for a big scrim). I had a nice granny make me a 12' x 30' blackout curtain for $20 (I supplied the fabric)

If you've made a big frame (or own a matthews butterfly), have someone make you a big, black velour panel with one long strip of white, top to bottom, maybe 10" wide. A soft strip light is a killer thing to have for dramatic lighting.

Hot air balloon fabric can get RIGHT up to your tungsten lights (eats 2 or 3 stops though!)

And, a solid black panel can be handy when you need a BIG flag...
 
I think your "how to" came from dvcreators.net. They also have several free videos there including how to make a cool backdrop cloth for interviews, etc.
 
hardware stores often sell these white meshy free standing canopies, frame included, but outdoor events. anyone ever tried one?
 
What if you glued only half the joints and drilled a 1/4" or 3/8" inch hole for the other half (that's one joint glued and one joint with a hole through it) and placed a bolt with a nut through the hole for easy break down or even change the fabric on the fly?
 
I'm going gonzo on all this. I purchased 60 yds of white .65oz ripstop nylon (60" wide) from an online kite store. I want to make a 30x30. At .65oz it should only drop 1/4 stop as it's fairly translucent. I'm going to cut 6 10yd strips and tape or sew them together. Then try to figure out how to build support that can be broken down to easy carry size. First have to find someone who can sew something this big.

Amazingly, the entire bolt weighs less than 10lbs.

Joe C.
 
Here is a butterfly I made. It is made of conduit and conduit corners. I found the silk and reflector material at a place that sales surplus goods from hotel/casino remodels. The cloth cost me five dollars for the silk and five for the reflector. I use super clamps to mount it to C-stands. I hope this helps.
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It is not as heavy as the Matthews round overhead stock. Just make sure you get the thin wall electric conduit.

Paul
 
Noah,

This is another shot of the butterfly. Here you can see it is not to heavy to fly overhead.

Paul

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That is very good. I was thinking of doing the same think with the electrical conduit. I was just unsre of its ability to stand up to any gusty winds. I will look into this much further now. I just hope I can find the fabric as cheap as five bucks but I won't bank on it. The fabric store is probably going to be my best bet.
 
These things can be had on eBay for probably less money. We picked up a couple that sort of coil around into a small circle and other than a pain in the waazoo to roll back up, they are super and I think we paid maybe 20 bux ??
 
>sort of coil around into a small circle

OK for a one-man-band shoot, but they can't be used as and overhead, and won't hold up in the wind.

The DIY w/ Conduit works ok for smaller butterflies (6'). Look in the fence section, you can get right angle fence toprail connectors for a couple bucks each. Those should be good for up to 10'. At flea markets you can also find toprail connectors that use and eyebolt, those go for like $5 ea.

The biggest problem with these solutions is the round metal has a tendency to twist, deforming the net or scrim and possibly causing it to fail.

Nothing works as good as the Matthews square tubing and connectors.
 
Why not save up and get the REAL stuff.

Bigger than 4x4 with PVC or Bigger than 6x6 with Conduit is just a joke, An accident waiting to happen.

Some things you just gotta pay for. It's not how much it costs, It's price per use. Over 10 years the Real Stuff is pretty cheap.

Someone gets hurt or you damage something, cause you got some wimpy set-up going?

I make allot of my own rigging, And I'm all for the DIY thing. But DIY to me, means to make it as good or better than what's out there. Sometimes I'll make something and it will cost me more to make it than buy the commercial one, cause our design is better or it's stronger.

frisco
 
A really great materila for the diffusion are the paper/plastic painters drop cloth. They are super cheap, $4 and they are 9x12 in size. perfect for a difusser and then you can use it for a painting afterwards....

Another material that I like is the screen porch material they sell at lowe's. Reallly good to skrim down the light and it's cheap and even comes with rivets and all that too tie it down...
 
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