Even if you’ve never heard of modular cyclorama wall kits, you’ve absolutely seen one before. Modular cyclorama wall kits are used by amateur and professional photographers and videographers and small-to-large television and movie studios to provide the illusion of an infinitely large and curving space. With a cyclorama wall kit, what you see is pretty much exactly what you get—a large, white wall that curves toward the top or bottom, providing a smooth and seamless white background.
The cyc wall, or “infinity background,” is set up toward the back of a stage or in a studio. The photo or video shoot subject or talent stands a few feet in front of the wall, and the cameras are trained and focused on them to provide that all-important sense of endless space. Sound familiar? If not, be assured that if you’ve ever watched a newscast, music video, political talk show, convention show, business presentation, or superhero film in the past few decades, you’ve seen a cyclorama wall. Or rather, if it was performing the job it was made for, you saw it without seeing it.
That’s the gist of what cyclorama wall kits are and how they work. But what is their ultimate purpose, especially after the film is shot, and the video is in the final stages of being put together? Here’s a breakdown of the role cyc walls play in post-production.
Cyclorama Walls Are Fantastic for Adding Special Effects
If a production calls for special effects, branding, explanatory graphics, or the like, cyclorama wall kits make it easier to promote a willing suspension of disbelief in your viewers. As mentioned, when combined with properly placed cameras, a cyclorama wall can make a shoot seem as big as all outdoors. And if you combine a cyc wall with green screen paint and employ chroma key technology in the cameras and editing software, the producer can make the shoot look like all outdoors, or space, or the ocean floor, or wherever they want to set the shoot. The smoothness and curves of cyclorama walls makes it even easier for a postproduction team to grab a good key and add background imagery, graphics, and the like than a flat screen or painted green screen wall ever could.
They Help With Proper Lighting
The brightness and shape of cyclorama walls can help ensure lighting is properly dispersed and distributed across the set. It can also provide a blank and radiant background that puts the subject or talent in the forefront of the shot. Following all that, a properly trained crew, knowing the quality and quantity of light reflected by the cyc wall, can adjust the lights and camera functions as needed for brighter or darker shoots. Having a wall inside your studio also eliminates the need to adjust for changes in sunlight brought about by shooting outside. In fact, with a cyc wall and a green screen, you can shoot an outdoor scene in the middle of the night, if need be.
Set-Ups and Teardowns Aren’t Part of Production
With a modular cyclorama wall kit, you don’t need to build and take down large wood, paper, or cloth sets during time that could be spent editing film or video. Even without a green screen, your set retains a clean and basic look that can be easily modified with a few simple costumes, furnishings, and props rather than investing, creating, then tossing out or storing physical backdrops. Cut your costs (and those of your clients) and use that money to create better special effects in post-production. Investing in a permanent set can very well be an expense that quickly pays for itself. For example, modular cyc walls also make it easier for reshoots if issues are discovered in post-production. If you do shoot outside and discover something awry with the footage, consider using a cyc wall green screen to run B-roll background footage gathered during your shoot behind the subjects during the reshoot.
Cyc Walls Are Versatile
As we’ve already mentioned, cyclorama walls aren’t just for video shoots; they’re useful in photography sessions as well. Modular cyc walls allow the photographer to take close-ups or long shots of their subjects with no visual interference in the background. This has become an industry-standard, especially for online shopping sites and marketplaces such as Amazon. Items need to be presented against isolated backgrounds for better presentation on websites. Modular cyc walls are perfect for shooting and filming 360-spin images to provide a “3D” look so customers can review a product up close and personal. Cyc walls are also great for virtual reality shoots—their seamless and brilliant backgrounds provide an unbroken “canvas” for your production. You’ll spend less time in post-production making assorted adjustments and corrections to your footage, providing an even more realistic “reality” for your users’ virtual reality purposes.
Cyclorama Walls Are a Source of Inspiration
Cyc walls are, in a way, a combination of an empty stage, a lump of clay, an empty sheet of paper, and an easel with a blank canvas and a palette of paints. You can create literally and figuratively anything with them, from big blockbuster productions, to more modest, low-budget presentations. Be inspired by their blankness and set it as a challenge for you and your crew’s imaginations!
Questions?
That, in a nutshell, is the role cyc walls play in post-production and ways you can use them to spice up your photographs and videos. If you have any further questions about modular cyclorama wall kits, green screens, portable green screens, green screen paints, green screen flooring, or the installation and function of any of these products, contact ProCyc here for a quick consultation or quote on your next project.
