Wall of lights...

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DVX100Shooter

Veteran
Anybody know how to create those walls of lights often seen in Music Videos. At first I thought they were green screened but I saw on an episode of MTV's Making the Video where there were actually a large wall that was constructed with a bunch of light bulbs in it.

The next question would be if you had those lights in the background then placed the talent maybe 6 or more feet in front of the wall then had some Kino Flo's or other soft light hitting the artist, wouldn't that produce some sort of lens glare shooting into those background lights? I am sure you can put those on a dimmer so they wouldn't be as intensive.
 
DVX100Shooter said:
Anybody know how to create those walls of lights often seen in Music Videos. At first I thought they were green screened but I saw on an episode of MTV's Making the Video where there were actually a large wall that was constructed with a bunch of light bulbs in it.

The next question would be if you had those lights in the background then placed the talent maybe 6 or more feet in front of the wall then had some Kino Flo's or other soft light hitting the artist, wouldn't that produce some sort of lens glare shooting into those background lights? I am sure you can put those on a dimmer so they wouldn't be as intensive.
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You actually don't need too much wattage behind a screen to make it look bright. Its a question of playing with the iris settings. But you definitely don't want to much front light spilling on the screen or it washes it out. Also, depending on what the screen is made of you may need to put a coat of something like Krylon dulling or matte spray to take the shine off a bit but not take away any of the translucent qualities of your screen (or whatever it is you're using for the "wall of light"). I used a 4 foot x 6 foot piece of translucent white acrylic for a set I built once and lit it from behind with 4 30 watt fluorescent bulbs in worklight scoops. Each scoop had a different colored gel in front of it to make it more interesting.
 
I'd be inclined to make a flat with holes in it, then tape either LeeLux diffusion gel or a diffusion cloth over the back of each hole.
Then backlight the panel to your desired brilliance.
If you want to change the colour of individual dots, you can tape further pieces of coloured gel over them.
To colour of the whole lot, gel the light.

Alternatively you could get a slide projector, (or a goboed light) and reverse project your pattern on diffusion cloth stretched over a frame. This wouldn't be as good as a perforated board though, as you could easilly wash the projection out.

EDIT:
The lee type numbers are:
LeeLux: 400
Quiet grid cloth: 460
Quiet Light grid cloth: 462

I would recommend getting a filter swatch book - most theatrical lighting supliers supply them free or for a nominal price.
If you have a choice, get the Lee "Designer's Edition", as it has a listing in the front.
 
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I contacted a company one time about a projection for a video, and they also specialized in wall lights like that, those went up to $70,000 just to rent!!!
 
Music Video Director Hype WIlliams using those light walls all the time in his videos. WOW $70,000!!! Hmmmm time to do a DIY on this one then! LOL!
 
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