Our Mission
We make LED modules and lighting control systems for chroma key ("green/blue screen") studios. Our systems are custom-designed to meet the special needs of film-makers. They can use the lighting in virtual sets to light the live action on a real stage. LED lighting is more energy efficient than traditional technologies so it generates less heat. It keeps your studio cooler and your live actors more comfortable during a shoot. That means fewer "calls for makeup". LEDs are dimmable and come in a variety of colors. Our systems are designed to mimic the complex behavior of natural outdoor lighting. They can emulate intense mid-day sky light, the warm hues of dusk, the soft blues of an overcast day or the ghostly green glow of impending stormy weather. Our systems are programmable and can immitate changing lights such as lightning and clouds gently rolling overhead. The more you can do on set in front of a camera, the simpler the process will be "in post" to add these effects to your productions. The kinds of 3D lighting effects that can be easily acheived with our systems can be very complicated and expensive to create if done in post-production, requiring special software and the skills of highly trained CG artists. Our own studio is used to shoot movies on a regular basis. It serves as an excellent platform for testing the products we develop. Stage space is at a premium in a chroma key studio where cameras, light stands, mic stands and actors all compete for the same space. We find that floor stand lights tend to interfere with the business of making a film so we have developed a lighting system that mounts most of the lights overhead. This keeps them out of the way so that more of the stage area is available for the action.
Back Story
In modern day film-making, computer animation and visual effects are becoming more important in the production process to create appealing content for a wide audience. Studios equipped with green screens are "placing" live actors in "locations" that are difficult to reach, expensive to use or don't even exist in the real world. These virtual sets only exist in a computer's memory and can make it possible to visually tell a story in ways not possible only a few years ago. This kind of methodology in film-making was used extensively in the making of the movie Avatar.
Studio Lighting
We divide studio lighting into at least four categories. These are: Chroma Key Light , Stage Sky Light , Direct Sunlight and Special-Purpose Light. The Chroma Key Backdrop (i.e. Green or Blue Screen) should have its own dedicated lighting which should be constant and even. This is important for obtaining a good mask to separate the live action from the backdrop. The other three categoris of lighting are for lighting the live action.LED Efficiency
There are many advantages of LED lighting over traditional technologies. It is more efficient than both incandescent and fluorescent and lends itself better to dimming and color control.
LED Strips
There are many sources of LED strips that come rolled up onto a reel. Many of these are only practical for use in decorating because they don't provide enough light for lighting studios. The inexpensive LED strips have little quality control and LEDs of different color temperatures are often present on the same strip. Even the higher quality LED strips only provide you with one color temperature so you have to combine two strips of different color temperatures in order to have color control. Since most strips come in 5m or more lengths you must cut them to the desired lengths. Cuts can only be repaired by adding special connectors that make them unweildy. If you want to use LED strips of this type we recommend high quality ones. You will need two different color temperatures if you want to have color control. Use one warm and one cool. By balancing the intensities between the two color temperatures you can acheive any color in between. If you would like to drive some of these with our controller then select strips that use 12V. We do not recommend using the LED strips in our green screen and main stage lighting systems because they are not compatible with our fasteners and mirrors which provide precise mechanical orientation and stability.
Our LED Modules
Each of our LED modules has at least two color channels which is necessary to support both brightness and color control. They plug together end to end so they are both easy to use and reusable. They are all 1 ft. in length making it a cinch to figure out how many you need for a rail. Our modules come in low and high densities and can be intermixed in the same series to give you more flexibility in your designs.
Our Studio
We have a whole floor dedicated to film-making. This includes a large bathroom/dressing room, a control room and adjacent chroma key stage and a motion capture stage/lounge room.
Production
Making movies requires a lot of people and can be a lot of work. If all of this technology seems overwhelming to you and you would rather have someone do your production for you, let us know. We and our partners may have access to all of the resources, technology and talent that your production needs.