How We Built Our Cloud Set!
- Dana Story
- Jul 21, 2021
- 2 min read
Updated: Jul 4, 2023
The concept for our cloud room was created one day when artist Devin Dygert had a vision for his upcoming music video. He wanted to portray the fact that he was in a dream world. He had recently helped a friend create a cloud feature on the ceiling in their recording studio and we thought that this type of installation could be built out into a more immersive environment.
Having A Vision
We wanted to be able to create a few different cloud environments so we decided to build separate panels that could be used as walls or on the ground. In order to get started we needed some standard set flats. These are simple to build and definitely helpful for any studio set that you are building.
Once we had the flats, we needed to create the cloud feature.
SUPPLIES WE NEEDED
Click on each items to view specifics
Step 1: Protect The Set Flats
Set flats can be useful for almost any studio project so we wanted to protect the walls making them easily reusable after our clouds were done. To do this we simply stapled white poster board to the walls. This also provided a nice white background to build on.
Step 2: Add The Lights
The key to the cloud walls is the lights. It is important to select lights that are app based and have a lot of settings beyond just color changes. We needed lights that could be grouped and controlled together allowing for smooth transitions during any shoot. We chose the Govee WiFi enabled strips and have been very pleased with them.
For each wall, we used 64 ft (416ft strings) of lights. Our goal with the light placement was to allow the light to move around the wall to create a somewhat natural impact. It was also important that each wall had a similar yet unique look as well. If it was too uniform it would lessen the illusion.
Here is an example of how the lights were placed:
Step 3: Add the Cloud Effect
The cloud effect is achieved by placing cotton like stuffing over the lights. We used fluffy polyester fiberfill stuffing and stuck it to the walls with spray adhesive. We layered the stuffing on in a way that was also not uniform and allowed for a lot of texture to be created through the difference in depth.
Luckily we had lots of hands to get this task done.
Step 4: Create The Set
Our last step was to place the boards so that we made a shootable area. In order to be able to easily change the look of the cloud walls, we grouped the strings of light together within the app - Govee allows for up to 6 strings to be part of any group. This provided us the control we needed to be able to easily change the mood.
We added in a floor by placing strings of light under the polyfiber fill.
Here is a link to the music video
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