Videocrafts: Get Ready, Get Set

A home decorating fashion becomes a video background.

Running out of interesting places to shoot interview subjects? Maybe what you need is a textured backdrop like television and photography studios use. If you have the extra cash, you might buy one for a couple hundred dollars. But, if you aren't ready, willing or able to make that kind of investment, consider painting this handy backdrop yourself (and put that cash toward a light kit and some colored gels).

A Material World
You'll need to gather a few things before you get started. At the very least you'll need a wide paint brush, a sponge that you can destroy (the thick, bath-style sponges work better than the kitchen sink variety), and two or three shades of gray paint. A subtle range of middle grays will yield the best result. Why gray? Because a background painted blue will always and only be blue. But gray can be altered with colored light. Simply shine a light through a colored gel and your gray backdrop can become virtually any color …

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