How to Make a Homemade Rear Projection Screen
Rear projection has been giving filmmakers a unique tool of unreality for over a century. Rear projection can take a couple from a dim studio to a sunny California highway or place a man on the moon using nothing but good old movie magic. You can make your own rear projection screen out of affordable materials for use in your own film or video productions.
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Things You'll Need
- Opaque fabric or plastic
- Four 2-inch PVC pipes or four wooden two-by-fours
- Screws or 90-degree PVC joints
- Tape, glue, or string
Instructions
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How to Make a Homemade Rear Projection Screen
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Decide what you intend to use this rear projection screen for. Are you shooting a close-up of a man driving a car or a wide shot of a spaceman bouncing across the moon? Answering this question will help you decide how large your screen must be and how much material you will need to construct it.
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Build the frame. Construct a square frame out of your PVC or lumber. Measure it to fit the size of the image you intend to project onto it and make sure it fits in your set. Use 90-degree PVC couplers or screws to create a sturdy and secure joint between each piece.
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3
Measure and cut your screen to fit the frame you have constructed. Make sure that it is opaque enough for an image to stand out when projected from the other side. Thin white sheets or white plastic from your local hardware store works excellently.
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Glue, tie, staple, or tape the screen to the frame. Make sure it is taut with no ripples, folds, or creases in the screen. Any imperfection will appear in your projected image and ruin the effect of a realistic background.
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5
Try it out. Project an image onto the rear of the screen and make sure that it can be seen on the other side. Have your actors stand in, make sure it looks the way you want, then shoot the scene!
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Tips & Warnings
The brighter your projected image, the better. More light on the image means a brighter exposure and more detail, so make sure you use the strongest projector you can get a hold of. Also, use a low-key light for the rest of the scene to make sure the image being projected really stands out from the background.
Construction is dangerous. Make sure you know what you're doing and use proper safety techniques every time you're building anything. Never look directly into the projector.
References
- Photo Credit http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Man_working_with_a_projector_in_a_movie_theater_1958.jpg
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Comments
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SeeMyProfile
Aug 10, 2010
This is a lousy E-How solution. "Make sure [your screen material] is opaque enough for an image to stand out when projected from the other side. Thin white sheets or white plastic from your local hardware store works excellently. The secret to building a GOOD rear-projection screen is the material it's made of. "thin white sheets or white plastic" my fanny. These things make a trashy rear projection screen. This E-how is nothing but a bad example of how to build a frame for the screen. Where's the pictures? Geeeeze. A 5 year old could have done a better job.
