Victoria Police Academy

What Was Required

To convert an old carpeted room into a green screen studio, designed for professional training and instructional videos as well as corporate and promotional videos.

 

The Solution

A turnkey L-Shaped green screen cyclorama studio with Lightpro Studio LED lighting on a Pantograph Ceiling Track System and wireless remote control.

 

Company Studios and Victoria Police Academy

At Dragon Image, whenever we consult with a company or organisation about a studio build, it’s always important to know exactly what they intend on using it for. It’s even more important knowing whether the people using it mainly are experienced practitioners or first timers (it’s often the latter in corporate environments), and so it then becomes a discussion of whether or not they want a studio that gives them the flexibility to have creative control, or if they need a space that they can flick a switch and everything is ready to go. In the case of Victoria Police Academy, they needed a space where everything was able to be remote controlled and wirelessly connected, giving them the ability to control all their lights at once.

 

Obstacles of Converting an Old Room

Often when turning an older room into a studio, the room itself needs a makeover before anything can actually be installed. This often requires either removing current flooring, installing additional powerpoints, or building artificial walls. Victoria Police Academy was no different, as we had to convert an old, unused room into a fully-functioning studio, however the process just shows that almost any space can be transformed into a studio, and this is where Dragon Image are the experts.

The main obstacle that was first faced was that the walls in the space were old brick and had powerpoints sticking out of it, making it inadequate for installing a cyclorama wall. That’s why we installed a floating gyprock wall to allow for smooth and even coats of paint to be applied. This is extremely important because a green screen needs to be lit perfectly and evenly, and any inconsistencies in the green (ie. rough walls, patchy coats etc.) will result in a poor-quality chroma key and plenty of work for your editor in post-production. It also provides a surface that is much easier and cleaner for the cyclorama curves to be plastered on to.

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The next major obstacle was the flooring of the room being carpet. You would be pretty silly to paint carpet green, and so to get a seamless infinity wall look onto the floor, the carpet needed to be completely removed. Not only that, but all the excess glue, dirt and other debris needed to be completely cleaned and treated to ensure the floor was smooth and clean, making it easier to paint on. Once this step was achieved then the cyclorama curves were able to be installed and the painting could commence.

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The lighting installed in the space was a mix of different LED panels, including the Lightpro DF-2000XL, DF-720XL and Ultrasoft DF-66R. All these lights create an extremely soft, wide output of light that eliminates harsh shadows, making them the perfect studio LED lights for green screen.

The next step was working out how to mount the lights. The room has a 3 metre high ceiling, making it the perfect height for a pantograph ceiling track system. Similar to our recent studio build for William Clarke College, the Lightpro Pantograph Ceiling Track System gives you the full use of the floor as it keeps everything off the ground, and it also gives you full flexibility over where you position your lights. Additionally, with power in the ceiling, the academy are able to take full advantage of the cable carriages, creating a clean workspace both on the floor and on the ceiling!

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Result and Testimonial

By the end of the studio build, a lot had to be done to transform the room into a fully-functioning green screen studio, but the makeover was successfully achieved! Now the Victoria Police Academy have a beautiful space to create high quality content.

“Special thanks to Dominic who moved Heaven and Earth to get the installation done whilst dealing with so many challenging obstacles.” - Garth Muffitt, Victoria Police Academy