I know, I’m the girl who writes about skin care – but it’s not often I write for an audience who can appreciate a story like the one I want to share with you.
I’ve recently started a series of videos around skin care. Even though my acting days are behind me, I’m super grateful for all the time spent in acting workshops, because I’m no stranger to the camera. What I do lack however, is production skills.
Doing the videos mostly on my own, with little know how on the technical and production side has had me doing the best I could with the skills and space I have. Each series of videos I do though, you can see the quality of the videos evolve and improve (thanks to my production savvy friends giving me lots of tips and suggestions along the way!)
I’m just now wrapping up filming my third round of videos and for these I created my very own in home studio. I’m quite fond of it, because it looks decent on camera, but is quite ridiculous behind the scenes. I’m rather proud of this odd ball set. What a girl can come up with on a budget cracks me up!
I’m sharing my MacGyver’d set in case any of you ladies just decide, dammit, I’m doing it all by myself if I have to!
I give you: one way to create a cheap ass studio in your own living room, even if it’s a small one bedroom apartment.
Time to get creative!
Here’s what it looks like on camera.
Here’s what it looks like in my apartment.
The back drop is a piece of canvas, 8 feet wide by 5 feet tall. I got it from Blick Art Supplies. I was ultimately looking for paper, which would have been much cheaper, but the store didn’t have any large enough. I know it exists, but I didn’t want to run all over town, so I splurged. If treated right, the canvas will last me a while though.
It is held in place by the legs of a stand that is meant to hold a 4 ft wide banner. I already had this for when I attend events with my company. Luckily, that stand goes up to 12 feet. So, I extended each leg to the ceiling, and what’s holding them in place is pressure, and $3 plunger heads from Home Depot. (Rather proud of that.)
Once they were securely in place, I stretched the canvas between them and held it in place with spring clips that cost me 99 cents each, also from Home Depot.
To light myself, I used an old mic stand left over from my stand up days and attached a clamp light ($9) with a daylight CFL bulb ($5) on one side.
The other side is an extended painters pole held in place with yet another plunger head. The pole wasn’t long enough to go floor to ceiling, so I made up the difference with a chair, a stool, and a flip flop for traction. Then clipped on another clamp light.
For diffusing the light because it was a bit too harsh, I used dryer sheets held in place with clothes pins. (The CFL bulbs don’t get very hot, so I wasn’t worried about burning the sheets).
To light the back drop, a friend was kind enough to lend me her LED panel lights to hit the canvas from the sides, and I used yet another clamp light combo to hit it dead center.
All in all, thanks to borrowing a few things and using what I had on hand, my in home studio cost me $130, which included a few extra items I didn’t end up needing. The most expensive thing was the canvas. I had to buy a 6 yard roll that set me back $65. Again, paper would be cheaper.
Now I would really love to hear from you guys. What’s the craziest set up you’ve seen or built? I may need more ideas!