I'd like to shoot some interviews with completly solid white and black backgrounds.

If you've seen Queer Eye then you've seen the white example.

VH1 does a lot of interviews with complete black.

But it's not just like a black or white backdrop, it looks totally black.

How can I do this? If I put up a black backdrop, it catches some of the light and doesn't look right.

It almost looks like they were shot on a blue screen and keyed. But I don't know.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Thanks.

To make your background blacker, get as much separation between your subject and the background as possible. Additionally, there is a black fabric called duvetyne that will suck up a lot of the ambient light and help give you a very black background. If you were to measure the amount of light hitting the background, it should be at least 1 stop less than your key light, and more like two stops, to give you a good black.

Finally, in post you can pull down your black levels even further quite easily. Unfortunately, in this country you have to pay attention to the 7.5 limit for blacks for broadcast, but this is not an issue unless you are going to broadcast.

You need good backlighting, or kickers, to give separation between the black background and your subjects, less dark hair or clothing melds into the background. For some examples, check the portrait shots at http://www.digitalprods.com/LSmontage

For white backgrounds, a good tip is to overexpose them by about two stops from your subject. Similar to burning out a window.

Wayne Orr, SOC

Thanks Wayne!

Lot of great info there.

Make sure your white background is evenly lit. One light won't do. Use two, where the left light is pointing to the right of the background and the right light is pointing to the left of the background (they cross over to avoid hotspot in the middle). Don't overdo the background light either, to avoid flare across the subject. Two stops is just dandy. Make sure there are no creases in the sheet if you use a home made solution, they will show up (fatal!, we say in Spain).

im doing work on Queer Eye For The Straight Guy UK at the moment. For the white background interviews they are shot on green/ blue screen and altered to white in the edit.

Matthew

Why on earth would one do it that roundabout way? Unless you have the green/blue background and no white.

It's probably so they have choices later on.

Murph

If you've got good chroma keying software, you can get a pure white background easier that way than lighting it. When I've done white backgrounds, though, I do it with a white cyc. As mentioned above, it must be evenly lighted, and I let it go about a full stop hotter than the foreground subject. For solid black, I aways use that fuzzy material called commando cloth they sell at theatrical supply houses. Get it far enough away and gobo off all your subject lights and it will be very black. As Wayne said, a good backlight on your subject is important when doing a black background. If you have a wall that you can paint, use flat black paint. I just use the commando cloth because I have some different sizes that I had sewn with grommets and all for hanging, and that's easier than painting the wall black.

Originally posted by Matthew Laskey
im doing work on Queer Eye For The Straight Guy UK at the moment. For the white background interviews they are shot on green/ blue screen and altered to white in the edit.
This is what I suspected.

Thanks for the info Matthew and I'd love to hear any production stories you've got from QE. Is it the same cast as the US or do you have your own local folks?

If you're shooting with cheapish DV cameras, will there be problems with the fringes on highlights? On cheap cameras, 2 of the 3 primary colors will blow out. This causes the colors to go all weird.

$700 cheapish or $3k cheapish?

Even $3k "cheapish" cameras seem to have a problem with highlights.

Look at the footage at http://www.lafcpug.org/review_dvx_pd150.html
Notice in the flourescent light in the background, the fringes are cyan/magenta on the DVX100 and cyan on the PD150.