From the course: Video Gear

A budget greenscreen

From the course: Video Gear

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A budget greenscreen

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- What I have here is the X-Drop system from Westcott. It's pretty straight-forward. And, what you get are a couple of poles and a backdrop. Now, this is just like a tripod so if you flip this open, these slide down. And it's really exactly like setting up a tripod. And this is the bottom part of the stand. And then just carefully open this up so you don't get pinched. On the bottom here there is a hook if you need to hang something, like a sandbag, for some support. Now, this is pretty easy. As we get this built out, this is just going to create the backdrop. What's important is you figure out where the front and the back is, and that will become very evident once you put the second set of poles in. Let's take these and put them in, but we're not going to extend them all the way. There we go. And this creates the backdrop. Well, as I look at this, it's pretty clear that this is the opening on the front so I am going to rotate this, putting the third leg to the back, and we've got a nice frame. This is going to allow us to put a backdrop on here and then stretch it out. So, Rob, come on in, let's get that hung up. - And Rich, you shouldn't have, you bought me a Snuggie for Christmas. - Yes, it's nice and warm. So, these attach on the top. - Mhmm. - And we'll put the tension up in a moment and then they actually hook on the bottom too, Rob. - Yup. - Alright, take that up. Careful not to hit anything in the grid. There we go. The center pole up. And we'll put the last little bit of tension on once we get this up all the way. And now, we just need to hook this on the bottom. Alright, let me just fully extend that and from your side, Rob. - Yeah. - Does it look like a green screen? - It more or less does. Now, the only really important thing that you need to pay attention to with a green screen set up like this, because this is cloth, you may get some wrinkles. Now, I was handling this off set kind of in a ball, to be honest with you, and when I looked at it- - So it's Rob's fault. - It is my fault. And when I look at this, there are some wrinkles in there, so doing things like ironing or steaming or whatever care that you can get to get some of those wrinkles out is going to help you later on so you don't have problems with the keying. What I typically do on a setup like this, Rich, is that I'll let it sit out in this kind of setup. - Yeah. - Actually kind of stretched out for a couple of hours before I actually begin my actual shoot. That way, some of those kinks and wrinkles will work themselves out naturally. - And grab that edge there. - Yup. - Notice if we just pull a little bit of tension out to the side that gets rid of a lot of that. - Yeah. - So we could easily take a light stand with a clamp and just clamp that to the light stand. - That's right. - To put a little bit more tension on that. But this is a pretty straightforward system. I really like this as an affordable option because it rolls up into a small tube. - Oh, it's great. - Weighs about three pounds. - I mean, you could bring it on the airplane with you, bring it on the train, wherever, and for those, you know, impromptu interviews where you don't have time to light the background perfectly of a, you know, complicated setup, gel windows, those kind of things, instant green screen.

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