Building a Big Set on a Small Budget

Most of your videos may be shot in real-world settings or on a simple solid-color wall, but you can give special projects a big boost in production quality if you take the time to build a custom set. I recently had the task of creating such a set and in this entry I'll tell you how I did it. Yes, it takes some rudimentary carpentry skills and some Macgyver magic, but with little bit of creativity you can build amazing sets for your videos with just a few simple tools (this set was built using a saw, a drill, some scissors and a staple gun). The best news is that you don't have to spend a lot of money to create a really cool set that makes a massive impact. This set only cost about $200 in materials. Here's a step-by-step overview of how I designed and built my big ol' backlit set, so you can build one like it.  

The Task
I wasn't given a lot to go on in terms of direction. I knew the production we were working on called for a single-talent stand-up presentation, and the colors for the client were orange & blue. I also knew it needed to be a large set; big enough to shoot our host head-to-toe without showing the edges of the set. Fortunately, we had access to my buddy Todd's gymnasium-sized studio space with plenty of height and width to work with. The only instruction I was given was that and it needed to convey a "high-impact entertainment show look."  -- Okay... where do you even start?

The image of this trade show booth served
as inspiration for my big backlit set build.

Step 1 - Find Inspiration
I like to begin my new projects by searching the web for images to provide inspiration and ideas. I decided to Google some images of keynote speeches and trade show booths. I created a folder on my desktop and filled it with reference images that showed the general direction I wanted to head. The image on the right it the actual image that I used as inspiration for this set. It happened to be in the color scheme of my client, but that was coincidence more than anything. It was the combination of backlighting & modular-panel construction that I found inspiring. I found two that were both very close to what I needed to build. I looked into the cost of simply buying or renting a similar pre-constructed background. Yikes. Let’s just say, they were “cost prohibitive.” There was another problem too. Although they had the right look, none of the prefab backdrops I found was anywhere near large enough to shoot our host head-to-toe. Nope. We would have to build something ourselves. So, with a clear concept in mind, I jumped to Excel to create a blueprint of the set we would actually build. 

Step 2 - Sketches and Scale

The next step was to make some drawings to help determine the size of the set. I use spreadsheets for just about every aspect of production, including set design. Spreadsheets are like virtual graph paper, so they’re a great tool for visualizing a set like this, and they provide a good scale drawing that makes it easy to estimate the materials you’ll need to buy. 

Spreadsheets are a great tool for pre-visualizing your sets.

This is my original “spreadsheet blueprint” for this set. By the time we finished, the blue center sections would be widened, but this sketch was key in developing the original plan. I eventually spec’d a series of 8′x2′ panels divided into 2′x2′ squares by adding three cross members.

Step 3 - Choosing Materials

Next up was a field trip to Lowe’s to look for materials for the build out. The structure would need to be solid enough to support a colored skin, but thin enough to not dominate the design. It would also need to stand up on it’s own without collapsing. The cool thing about building sets is that anything that works, works. It needs to look good on camera, but apart from that there is a lot of room for creativity in how you build it. Once I had my idea and sketches, my next step was to wander through the aisles at Lowe's to look for building materials that might work. My first thought was to build the frame out of PVC lengths and joints. While PVC could certainly work for a similar design, it wasn't practical for a grid that would be 12-feet high. PVC is also pretty pricey, so it would have cost a pretty penny to build anything as large as this set. Fortunately, I discovered cheap bundles of 8-foot 1"×2″ boards in the back of the store behind the lumber. A lot of them were warped & crooked, so it took awhile to find enough straight boards, but after a little searching, I left the store with a big box of drywall screws and all the wood I needed for just over a dollar per board. 

A test proved the concept, but wasn't quite right.

I wanted my set to “light up” like my inspiration images. I decided to do this by skinning the wall with some kind of material that would allow light to pass through from behind. I quickly eliminated plastics & plexiglass, and landed on fabric. An expedition to Hobby Lobby yielded three varieties of material that I thought might work. I brought samples back to the studio for small scale light tests. — My first choice of fabric was a tarp quality material (test shot shown here). While it proved that my backlighting concept would work, it was too thick to pass much light & it didn’t diffuse it evenly enough. I ultimately settled on a thinner nylon fabric (in turquoise & orange) that I got for around $5/yd. Not too shabby.



Step 4 - Construction
Construction of the frame took three of us most of a day. We built a series of 8′x2′ panels, using (2) 8′ boards as our outside edges, and (5) lengths of board cut into 2′ sections to create our “ladder rungs” that spanned the outer boards at 2-foot intervals. We laid them out on the floor, then screwed them together with inch-and-a-half drywall screws, and stapled our fabric to each section. Next we screwed the panels together to create bigger sections. 

Step 5 - Suspension
Because of the tall height & flimsy nature of the panels, I decided to hang them from the ceiling, rather than try to prop them up as a free-standing structure. A few lengths of dog

chain and a handful of eye hooks (again from Lowe’s) did the trick, and soon we had the large center portion of the set up and hanging in place. With the center section secured, we added our two outrigger sections. I decided to not attach these to the center section, but to set them forward so our talent could walk out from between the panels. After adding our outrigger panels, the unlit wall looked like this - The final dimensions: 32′(w)x12′(h).

Step 6 - Lighting

As with most video, the big payoff comes in the lighting phase. The trick here was to light our set and our talent independently, keeping spill from our talent light completely off the background. We lit the main part of the large set wall from behind with (4) 500 watt scoops, and the outrigger panels with stand-mounted 250s. This required leaving enough space behind the set for our lights. With the backlighting turned on, I quickly noticed that white light was spilling through small gaps between the panels we had screwed together. The solution was to tape the gaps with black gaffer's tape. I did the same thing to prevent light from spilling out underneath the panels onto the floor. 

Step 7 - Discovery
Sometimes we all benefit from happy accidents, and I had several of them on this project. As we were lighting the wall, we inadvertently discovered that the cement floor took the gelled light beautifully. I commissioned a fresh coat of floor wax, added a few par cans with matching gels to add color, and the floor became an outstanding extension to the set. Since I had some time between the set build and the shoot, I decided to have a custom gobo made from the client's logo. We added the gobo to an un-gelled white light to blast the logo onto the floor as a finishing touch.

As we tested footage of the lit-up wall, My editor discovered that we could chromakey out the orange and blue sections, turning what was originally intended to be a practical set into a virtual video wall. This allowed us to insert video and graphics behind our talent, and to easily change the color & texture of the entire set, while retaining it’s luminosity. As a result, this set that we built for one client became at versatile workhorse that we were able to repurpose for several productions with very different looks, and it stands as a semi-permanent part of Todd's studio to this day. 

I hope this entry helps inspire you to get creative with your own set designs and maybe try out your own backlit fabric set. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to create awesome environments for your productions. Below I have included links to three videos shot using this set so you can see it in action. It looks far better in motion than it does in these stills. Three projects, three looks all from this one set. Check them out and let me know what you think.

Jenifer Fox Strong Planet Promo
http://youtu.be/GGDV71owXd4

Paul Wittwer, One Degree Promo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mApdj4AEBxM

CMConnect Promo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwalY5uqmlQ