How We Built Hello Social’s New Studio!
With over 20 years of studio building experience, we at Dragon Image have encountered many different challenges with a whole range of different types of studio projects. With all this experience, we’ve pretty much gotten studio builds down to a science. This means we can ensure the process from the original design to the final installation can be done as quickly as possible. Take the recently-built studio we did for Hello Social in Sydney - this entire process started and finished within one month! Here is a brief rundown of what happened to get this simple studio space with mounted backdrops and sound treatment.
Design
The design of this studio was to allow for maximum flexibility in such a tight space. The room itself is only about 4m long and wide, meaning a lighting rig is needed for sufficient lights to be installed in the space. This would allow for one larger key light to be on a stand on the floor alongside the camera, with all the other lights providing background and fill lighting to studio and subject. Additionally, a 3-Hook Expan Background System is mounted to allow the flexibility of multiple coloured backdrops, meaning the space can be used for Chroma-Key video with the green screen as well as high-key video or photography with the white backdrop, or low-key video or photography with a black backdrop. It is also the perfect space for product photography, by allowing the backdrop to sit on a table for products to be placed on. We provided 3D mockup designs to show them what exactly this would look like, as seen below.
Installation
The installation for this sort of studio is pretty straightforward and was able to be completed within 48 hours. First, the lighting grid made of aluminium tube was installed in the ceiling and attached via booker rods, allowing for clean and secure mounting, with the lights mounted to the grid. The lighting mounted on the grid included two Lightpro Ultrasoft DF-60S LED panels lighting the background with soft, even light, two Godox VL150 COB lights being used as hairlights for the subject, and a Lightpro DF-200WB LED Panel being used as the fill light for the subject. The main key light is the Lightpro Ultrasoft DF-1000C Panel, mounted on a heavy-duty roller stand on the floor.
The 3-Hook Expan System was then installed onto one wall, with Arctic White, Jet Black and Stinger Green paper rolls mounted on them. As mentioned, this allows for the flexibility of having multiple coloured backdrops for different kinds of shoots, and the chain system allows for easy storage when they are not in use. Paper weights were also attached to the bottom of the paper rolls to ensure they don’t get tangled and rolled up in each other, as well keep the paper nice and straight at the bottom.
Finally, the room was treated with acoustic foam to deaden the acoustics of the space and improve the audio quality. This is extremely beneficial when recording audio as with proper sound treatment, sound can reverberate around a space and your recordings won’t be as crisp, which requires a fair bit of fixing in post-production to get right. The acoustic foam, while not providing a completely soundproof solution, will go a long way to improving the quality of audio that can be recorded in the studio space.
Given it was a fairly straightforward studio space to install, this was an extremely quick process that all took place within the span of a month. Budget permitting on larger projects, we can also get bigger or more complicated studio spaces designed, quoted and installed in similar time frames, but it will always come down to certain factors like stock availability, your own budget constraints and builder availability. That said, we will always approach any studio build with the intention of getting it finished for you as soon as possible, so please contact your local store if you have any questions!