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Lighting a back cloth


taylord

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Hi all,

 

Just after some advice on lighting a backcloth with Strand Coda 500/4. It's a city skyline cloth that I want to be able to change between night and day. I have 4 x Strand Coda 500/4 to work with. Is it best to alternate filters on the lights? Also, any recommendations for colours too please?

 

Many thanks in advance.

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The limit for 4 Coda sets is probably about 10m - anything wider is going to look a bit patchy, even using alternate cells for day & night. Being old fashioned I would probably start with Lee 103 or 202 for day & 119 for night. Does the cloth have any transparent bits in the bottom half, to represent windows, etc ? If so, do you have any room behind the cloth to back-light them ?

 

If not, you could try sticking on pieces of glitter to represent windows, & attempt to catch them in tightly-shuttered floor- or stand-mounted cross-lights.

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Other colours worth looking at (all Lee) might be 501 for 502 or a stark daylight or 159 for a slightly warm evening light. 120 for night can also work well - I find 119 a little green and post apocolypse, unless you want that stormy look, in which case 728 can also be good. 711 can give a nice frosty morning look.
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How big is the cloth? Your thinking is right - daylight and evening on alternate cells, but to be even, they have to be a fair way away to blend - do you have the depth too?

 

Hi Paul, the cloth is 40' x 20' and I have about 2m depth. There will be flats in front of the bottom half or the cloth throughout the whole show so It's just the top half I need to light really. The flats will be about 4m away from the cloth.

 

The limit for 4 Coda sets is probably about 10m - anything wider is going to look a bit patchy, even using alternate cells for day & night. Being old fashioned I would probably start with Lee 103 or 202 for day & 119 for night. Does the cloth have any transparent bits in the bottom half, to represent windows, etc ? If so, do you have any room behind the cloth to back-light them ?

 

If not, you could try sticking on pieces of glitter to represent windows, & attempt to catch them in tightly-shuttered floor- or stand-mounted cross-lights.

 

Hi, thanks for the advice on colours. There are no transparent bits and the cloth will be against the back wall of our stage. I like the idea of the glitter though! Although the cloth is hired so not sure I can stick things on.

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