Recommended Backgrounds

K

kat.hayes

Active member
I would like to purchase some backgrounds for doing interviews. Can anyone recommend some good color/textures to go with? There are so many to choose from and I am not sure what makes a good/poor background. I would like to choose cloth and a good quality one.

Thanks!!!!
 
I have both a black and a royal blue muslin. I use the black far more often. Doesn't hurt to have a chroma key seamless either.
 
I have a Reflecmedia setup. AMAZING!

I'd also recommend a diffuser backdrop cloth. It really brings out subjects in an interview that is brightly lit>

I'm with Jim on the black musln. It really depends on your style of filming. So what kind of interviews?
 
Hi kat:

As someone who shots a LOT of interviews, I have to say that I hate seeing cloth BGs for interviews. It looks so "corporate". I guess if you are in a hurry or just have plain fugly locations or studio, sometimes they are a necessity but Muslin BGs look so early 90s to me. I like shooting with black Duvetine BGs better, it is very minimalist and really shows if you can light the subject well. As you know, with the small CCD cameras that most of use, it's almost impossible to blur a BG unless you have a lot of room between the subject and the BG so that too contributes to that cheap corporate look of seeing a subject in front of a Muslin with every wrinkle on the Muslin visible.

Most of my clients much prefer to see the interviewees environment whether it's a home, office or studio, but of course, it takes a lot longer to light a real environment than to throw up a 300 on a Muslin. That said, Denny Manufacturing and Calumet both have really nice ones at reasonable costs.

I shot all of the interviews for my docs on the Howard Hawks Rio Bravo DVD with the Reflecmedia system as well as a lot of other stuff and it is a great system. Except for when you shoot people with glasses. Joseph, how do you deal with the green reflections from the ringlight in the glasses?

Dan
 
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I just searched BH for reflecmedia

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/con...lSearch=yes&O=RootPage.jsp&A=search&Q=*&bhs=t

1.) and it appears that there are lots of options. Which one do you use? Would you 1 recommend another?

The interviews I will be shooting will be education based. So interviews with instructors and even mini lectures.

2.) What about skin tone? I would imagine that the black muslin will only work well with people who are not dark skinned?

Thanks guys!
 
puredrifting said:
Hi kat:

As someone who shots a LOT of interviews, I have to say that I hate seeing cloth BGs for interviews. It looks so "corporate". I guess if you are in a hurry or just have plain fugly locations or studio, sometimes they are a necessity but Muslin BGs look so early 90s to me. I like shooting with black Duvetine BGs better, it is very minimalist and really shows if you can light the subject well. As you know, with the small CCD cameras that most of use, it's almost impossible to blur a BG unless you have a lot of room between the subject and the BG so that too contributes to that cheap corporate look of seeing a subject in front of a Muslin with every wrinkle on the Muslin visible.

Most of my clients much prefer to see the interviewees environment whether it's a home, office or studio, but of course, it takes a lot longer to light a real environment than to throw up a 300 on a Muslin. That said, Denny Manufacturing and Calumet both have really nice ones at reasonable costs.

I shot all of the interviews for my docs on the Howard Hawks Rio Bravo DVD with the Reflecmedia system as well as a lot of other stuff and it is a great system. Except for when you shoot people with glasses. Joseph, how do you deal with the green reflections from the ringlight in the glasses?

Dan
Click to expand...

Totally agree. I only use a muslin when I have to, and I much prefer a natural background. Usually when I use the black one I put a table or something else off to the side and light that, leaving the muslin unlit.

I LOVE Howard Hawks. They don't make directors like that anymore.
 
Some of the video I will be shooting will be compressed at a small windows size for streaming web video. I'm thinking that the less detail behind a person during an interview might be better, since it will be such a small size and it could be distracting being able to see something, but not make out the detail at such a small size. What do you think?
 
Well.... look at the Apple's most recent commercials. The black seems to work for the iPhone. The white seems to work for everything else. So yeah they're not talking heads... but still. I suggested the diffuser screen because it fades some of your background while still allowing you to capture the environment.

Reflecmedia? I have a 16' x 9' backdrop for my studio and then the 50" by 50" folding screen for mobile applications.

They're right in here though! Muslin is pretty out of date. It reminds me of high school pictures (oh wait... I took one earlier this year). Reflecmedia is expensive but worth it! However compared to a black backdrop... well you can see what I mean price wise.
 
jstunzi said:
Reflecmedia? I have a 16' x 9' backdrop for my studio and then the 50" by 50" folding screen for mobile applications.
Click to expand...

Hi Joseph:

You must have a trust fund or patron? ;-) I have used the 8'x8' folder and that folding background with the ringlite runs about $2,500.00 so I can only imagine what the 16' x 9' must run!!

Have you had to deal with talent with glasses yet with the Reflecmedia? I have numerous times and it's always a PITA to fix in compositing. That's the only real drawback of the Reflecmedia. Oh yeah, and it doesn't work with teleprompters at all.

Dan
 
Dan,
Touché on the teleprompter remark. I was fixing to get my hands on an Autoscript (do you own one?). Both autoscript and autocue are supposed to have configs that work with the ringlite!

Let me say that it's amazing! No glasses yet, but i'll watch out for that. I just feel in love with the product after all the hype. I had to get my hands on it. Now with my most recent application, a youth MTV-style science show, the whole chroma aspect is going to be somewhat necessary for some of the shots. The idea is to work with a virtual set! It's going to be interesting to say the least.

Are you going to NAB? We should have lunch if you are!

Joseph
 
Hi Joseph:

No, I have to go to NATPE in January to pitch so going back to Vegas again doesn't appeal to me. I am one of the few Americans who hate Vegas, I don't gamble, drink or smoke so there's not much for me to do there during off hours.

I have interviewed Peter Bogdanovich several times using the Reflecmedia system. Peter wears these "bug eye" glasses that are huge, curved and have very reflective glass lenses. So in post, I always end up with the green ring light reflection dancing around in his glasses. If you just composite, you get whatever is in your BG layer keying through them which looks like holes in his head. So we have to mask and isolate a layer and key in off-white/gray and then it looks like a Chimera light reflection dancing around on his glasses, less objectionable.

I would be very curious about how a prompter system can work with the Ringlite, all of the ones we have tried have not worked at all, the glass plate blocks the light transmission of the ringlight. No ringlite, no greenscreen.

Dan
 
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