Cyclorama Lamps

[Matt Davis]

I want to find a better yet more compact solution to lighting an interview/demo green screen than a couple of Lowel Totas with brollies. Yes, Totas are compact, but once set up, spill is getting me down.

Way, way back in the times of yore, I remember Cyc lamps. Mostly a long strip, but sometimes single units. Had a special reflector that threw a tighter portion of the beam towards the top of the cyc and less at the bottom, so you could tuck it quite close to the cyc and not get stung by ISL. That was the magic of it. That wonderous reflector shape. Kind of like a section of conch shell, narrow lip near bottom, sweeping up and out so its flat and further from the bubble at the horizontal point.

A bit of googling brings up various options for throwing interesting colours and shapes onto backgrounds, but none of the robust little cans I remember.

Anyone tried them for chromakey? Anyone know of brands or suitable nomenclature to find them these days?

[Bill Davis]

Originally Posted by Matt Daviss

I want to find a better yet more compact solution to lighting an interview/demo green screen than a couple of Lowel Totas with brollies. Yes, Totas are compact, but once set up, spill is getting me down.

Way, way back in the times of yore, I remember Cyc lamps. Mostly a long strip, but sometimes single units. Had a special reflector that threw a tighter portion of the beam towards the top of the cyc and less at the bottom, so you could tuck it quite close to the cyc and not get stung by ISL. That was the magic of it. That wonderous reflector shape. Kind of like a section of conch shell, narrow lip near bottom, sweeping up and out so its flat and further from the bubble at the horizontal point.

A bit of googling brings up various options for throwing interesting colours and shapes onto backgrounds, but none of the robust little cans I remember.

Anyone tried them for chromakey? Anyone know of brands or suitable nomenclature to find them these days?

I use Tota's a lot for cyc work, but I NEVER use them with umbrellas. Just aim them DIRECTLY at the cyc, with the bottom reflector wing wide open and the top wing angled at about 45 degrees so that the top edge is toward the top of the cyc.
The mottled silver of the upper wing reflects a little extra punch on the farthest part of the cyc wall which will counteract some of the fall off over distance.

If you bounce a Tota off an umbrella, you get a smooth field, yes - but one that I'd expect to fall off sharply before the light gets half way across the cyc - not to mention all the general umbrella spill all over the place.

Placed carefully, you can light a full figure cyc with just two Totas.

Yeah, it's not as "perfect" as using broad soft lights like Kino's, but there's little that's as portable that does as good a job.

My 2 cents would be to lose the umbrellas and play around with the bare Totas and see if you can get them to do what you need.

Good luck.

[Steve Oakley]

some black wrap could help... or some flags n nets