For big, crisp, lively pictures of network quality you need a cyclorama. Here's how to get one.

The chance that a cyclorama was planned for in a facility only three years old is unlikely at best, and whether you are convinced of your need now is probably doubtful. Much of this doubt can be dispelled with a clearer inderstanding of what a cyclorama can do for you in production. How you should plan for it, and what is involved, are no secondary considerations either. Helping you decide on the material, color, size and length for the cyclorama and, most important, how to light it, are the aims of this article.

Needed: one cyclorama

What if the local baseball team wins the state championship and the program director decides it would be a great idea to have the whole team on the news. Where do you put 20 teenagers? The best place is in front of a cyclorama. If you land the local auto dealer to sponsor your late night movie, you may be called on to do on-the-air or taped commercials of his cars in your studio. You need a stretched cyclorama for this and it should be lighted evenly. You wish to accent the car and not clutter the picture. This will make the car stand out, and if the car is properly lighted, it will shimmer and shine.

A cyclorama for every budget

There are as many different materials used for cycloramas as there are studios with small production budgets. The choice of material can be based on economics, taste or, more realistically, availability. The type of cloth used is extremely important. The effect desired depends as much on the material as on how you light it.

The best colors for your drapery are white, cream, or buff. This allows you to light the drapery in different colors and create two, three or more draperies from one. By playing different colors or combinations of colors on your neutral-colored cyclorama, you are able to create several backdrops from the same cloth.

Cycloramas fall into two basic categories: stretched and draped. Stretched materials are usually of a cotton base. Muslin heads the list of most-often used fabric. It is inexpensive, and it is usually unbleached - it will shrink unless a sizing is added. Generally, you will not find widths of over 45 inches available in local shops. Widths up to 120 inches are available but harder to acquire, because a special loom is needed. The most likely place to buy this is a theatrical supply house.

Always seam the material in a horizontal direction on stretched cycloramas. The trick is to seam the material as straight as possible, because when it is stretched, poor seaming will pucker.

Muslin is a light-weight material (3.8 oz. per square yard). Because of this, it is best to weight the bottom of the cloth with pipe or chain so that normal air movement, or someone walking behind the cyclorama, won't cause the drape to ripple.

There are advantages to leaving the muslin colored off-white or buff, but it can be dyed cheaply if desired. Muslin can also serve as a poor man's scrim [A true scrim material, when lit from behind only, will almost disappear. A problem is that stray light from the front will tend to cancel the backlight, so be careful when doing your area lighting] or semi transparent (41 percent) cloth that, when lighted from behind will appear to be a haze. This effect is useful in creating a mysterious or dreamlike quality for the setting.

If a stretched cyclorama is used, it can be tilted toward the lighting fixture to permit more even illumination (see Fig.3). A stretched cyclorama is used for large area coverage. Used correctly, it can give a feeling of infinite distance. Lighting it evenly in one color will liven the picture and provide an inexpensive backdrop for a dance group or choir. Just change colors, and you will have a new backdrop. Several colors can be played on the cloth to create a collage effect. Choosing the correct color can turn the cyclorama into a chroma-key background.

The heavy velour so common in theatre should be draped only. It will absorb about 60% of the light shown on it. This is handy to keep unwanted shadows out of sight, as it absorbs 80% of ambient light. It approaches a true non-reflecting surface. The cost, again, is high, and unless you can get a good buy on secondhand goods, it may not be practical. It is an extremely durable cloth and offers a long life and the look of quality and elegance. It is questionable whether elegance is a quality that can be seen on camera, and it is therefore probably not justified. Elegance can be created by proper lighting and correct selection of color. Using the material hung in folds can create a rich interior for a dramatic show or an early-morning talk show.

Practically speaking, the family of materials made of cotton is best for draperies. These materials are readily available and priced within most budgets. Some cotton materials are: duvetyne, repp, monks cloth, velveteen.

Silks and satins can also be used to create "wispy" effects but are shiny and reflect light, which can cause lighting problems. A combination of stretched and drapery materials is usually kept on hand. Several small pieces of drapery come in handy to meet the requirement of a quick backdrop for a speech or an in-studio interview.

You might want to consider several other materials: indoor-outdoor carpeting and plaster. The carpeting idea, which offers sound proofing and durability, has yet to be applied to any great extent, but there is a studio under construction which will use carpeting for both the walls and the floor. By curving the bottom of the wall, the station hopes to create a true unseen horizon. The color chosen is a buff. A primary color would not allow for any major color change through lighting change. The buff or cream colors are best.

One of the big advantages of carpeting is that it can be cleaned, and if a portion is ruined or worn, it can be cut out and replaced without leaving any sign. Another excellent characteristic is sound-proofing.

Building a plaster cyclorama is very tricky and an expert is needed. Seams or uneven application will result in a picture with lines on the background. Marks made by bumping into it will show and are difficult to remove. If the plaster is formed into a four-foot radius curve at the bottom, it will appear as an infinite background, which gives the illusion of a larger studio than you really have. If you use a curve, reinforce the structure so people can walk on it.

How big?

No matter what material is used, the questions of length and height are important. The size of the room is a determining factor, but not as important as what lens is used on the camera. If, on the farthest pullback, you can show 10 feet of black wall, then a cyclorama should be 12 feet, or 2 feet higher. Generally, a cyclorama should not be shorter than the grid height. This rule is not appliable to movable-pipe systems. If the coverage of the lens is 18 feet across, then obviously the drape should be that long. The drape should be longer to accomodate two or more settings of a pan shot. As a rule of thumb, half of the studio walls should be draped. This allows for the placement of sets when a shot will pan 180 degrees from one set to another. This is a technique used on many shows.

To light this big peice of cloth, you need lighting fixtures designed specifically for this important job. The basic need to light the background separately from the subject is universally accepted. It gives depth and a feeling of space between the subject and the background.

Before you plan the lighting you must first decide whether you are going to use a plaster, stretched cyclorama, velour, or cotton. These materials dictate the mounting position of the lighting to be used on the cyclorama.

The high intensity type of fixtures are best suited for today's production requirements. They normally use 1000-W lamps and have reflectors designed to give an even light distribution to the drape when mounted above or below. Properly positioned, they can achieve a light distribution of less than 1/4 of an f-stop variation from top to bottom of the cyclorama. All such fixtures are not the same, however, and a great deal of difference can be observed from manufacturer to manufacturer.

High intensity cyclorama lighting strips come in combinations of one to four circuits. With multiple circuits several different colors can be mounted in the fixture. One color can be used in one scene, and the next act gets a new background simply by changing circuits - or two or more circuits combined.

Generally, two circuits are used in television, but three can be useful. Three- or four-circuit strips tend to bring in other problems, though. With only every third or fourth light on, vertical evenness of light can become a problem. Secondly, it is extremely difficult to light around a corner, especially a tight corner. Great care must be taken in positioning and tilting the fixture to get even lighting distribution. Usually, mounting distances are increased for three- and four-circuit units.

Use color fixtures

The choice of colors used should be limited to the primaries, blue being predominant, but red, amber and green are useful. Combining the three primary colors will give, theoretically, any color you want. Practically speaking, the color of the background should not be the same as the dominant color used in the set or dress of the actors. White is quite useful at times, as is a black background. But color television demands color, and what better way to use it than to frame your talent against a pleasing, shocking, restful, wild or fun background.

Before the development of the new, high intensity fixtures, scoops were used quite universally. There are many studios which still use scoops. They are impractical from the standpoints of efficiency, even distribution of light, and the physical space they take up. If you are working with a low grid, you can't afford to have these fixtures hanging down.

Strip or x-ray lighting fixtures do not all produce an even wash of light. Those using PAR and R type lamps are extremely inefficient and are not recommended. This type of fixture does not produce enough light intensity for televised or film work.

A cyclorama that is 12 to 14 feet high can be lit by a single row of high intensity cyclorama strip fixtures. If the drapery is to be higher, 14 feet to 25 feet, two rows are required, one at the top and one on the bottom. The distances given below reflect generally sound standards, but the user must be ready to do some adjusting after the drapery and fixtures are positioned. The reflectance of the cloth and height of the cyclorama are the important factors here.

Generally, four feet from a 12-foot cyclorama for most draped or stretched materials of a buff or cream color will be suitable. A 16-foot cyclorama of the same materials will usually require a spacing of 4.5 to 5 feet. A curved plastic cyclorama of 12 feet can be lit 4.5 feet away, to allow for the curve. At 16 feet, the same cyclorama requires that the fixtures be placed 6 feet away. If the cyclorama is only high enough to require one row of strips, it is best placed above the cloth, Fig. 1.
Placement on the floor offers ease of re-gelling, but it is a permanent obstruction and will be bumped and moved until the relation of the cyclorama to the lighting fixture no longer resembles the original placement.