AN INTERACTIVE LARGE-SCALE BACKDROP

As shoots become faster-moving and more fluid in VFX, lighting and camera, there’s a new opportunity to create subtler, more reactive backdrops.

Years of illuminating painted backdrops have never yielded a solution that can project enough light, in the right color, and without any spill. Workarounds required extra lighting layers. Achieving the desired results took weeks to rig, increased costs, time, materials and excessive studio space.

Therefore we developed SUMOSKY - a quickly riggable, slim, backlit, multicolored, and versatile system that can shift from neutral gray to green, blue, or any other color.

It recreates skylights, night lights, sunsets or sky domes for stages. When paired with harder sources it enables lighting effects for process work in vehicles or fast-paced VFX work.

It's a less expensive, simpler alternative to the full-immersion video wall.
The SUMOSKY also works well with traditional translight backdrops to enhance light or color changes, as well as Rosco Projection Screens and SoftDrops™.

The SUMOSKY can be placed both vertically as a wall and horizontally as a ceiling light and Lightbox.

Razor-sharp focus on innovation.

DIGITAL CANVAS

The SUMOSKY simply rolls out of a compact hard rolling case and can be hung in minutes with an easy setup, allowing you to create your own desired large-scale digital canvas, backdrop, greenscreen or bluescreen.

CASE STUDY.

Chief Lighting Technician,
Julian White, is taking SUMOSKY in new directions.

Julian White, a seasoned lighting designer, has had the opportunity to work with SUMOSKY in both commercial and feature film shoots. To him, it’s an important tool for fulfilling lighting requirements in a time-efficient and - most crucially - creative way.

During the production of George Clooney’s feature “The Boys in the Boat”, lensed by Martin Ruhe, ASC, SUMOSKY proved itself invaluable in overcoming the many challenges faced by the production team.

Julian shared his experiences with us.

“Filming a night exterior shot on open water is no easy feat, especially when attempting close-ups on the principal cast. Having several boats filled with actors and camera cranes posed a real logistical and practical challenge - especially with the wind, weather and so many moving pieces in play. We simply ran out of time and light.”

Production moved to the indoor water tank at Pinewood Studios’ U-Stage for the close-up work, where VFX supervisor Matt Kasmir and cinematographer Martin Ruhe decided to use SUMOSKY.

“We wanted a broad soft light with in-shot colour gradients. A traditional blue or green screen would have caused problems with water reflections and skin tones and, having used SUMOSKY before, I was confident it was the right tool. With the help of its interactive LED backdrop system, we were able to fully recreate the environment.”

Being quick to rig, low profile, backlit and multicoloured, SUMOSKY makes recreating day or night, sunsets or sky domes on-stage much simpler. When combined with harder sources, lighting effects are possible for fast-paced VFX work.

“We made a horseshoe-shaped Rosco rear projection screen from the water tank up to the ceiling, backlit by SUMOSKY. The VFX department created a digital image sourced from original footage and SUMOSKY projected it onto the screen to create a graded wall of colour. Once on camera, we altered the colour values to find our balance. It only took a few minutes.”

SUMOSKY allows production teams greater control over a scene’s overall look and feel.

“We also used SUMOSKY to create edge lighting and as a key light using traditional colour temperatures. You could take one block of any area on the screen and put in a 3-metre square soft light at 5600K. We used additional LED fixtures to create dots of light which were motivated by the tungsten practicals we had originally used on the lake shore.”

“The level of subtlety is really important when you get into close-up work with actors. The trick is to create a believable night skylight dome using colour that you can feel on the actor’s skin and in any reflections you might catch. For this, SUMOSKY worked very well.”

In the world of commercials, efficiency and speed are paramount. When it comes to lighting design, the challenge is to create the desired effect in a limited timeframe, without compromising on quality.

For the new ‘Apple Music Classical’ commercial directed by Rohan Blair-Mangat and lensed by Roman Vasyanov, Julian again used SUMOSKY, this time to create a backlit effect for a large red ‘soft-box’ in the background.

“Production designer Freya Bardell had suspended an iPhone-shaped light box behind an orchestra. Our task was to somehow get a broad-coloured light into a box less than a metre deep. We needed a lighting system that was powerful, modular, versatile, quick to set up and take down and extremely lightweight. SUMOSKY was the only real choice.”

Julian’s experience working with SUMOSKY highlights the system’s effectiveness and the benefits of using SUMOSKY in any lighting design project.

“As always, it was a collaborative effort. We were able to overcome the challenges we faced by using innovative products like the SUMOSKY. I have since used it on other commercials and I would use it as a backdrop for fashion shows, video projections, concerts and events. The possibilities are endless - and I'm looking forward to seeing what’s next.”

Julian worked closely with Simon Evans from SUMOSKY, calculating the number of bars required to achieve the desired light effect within the strict weight limitations.

“We had to be very careful of adding more weight than the building’s existing lighting truss could take. The combination of a steel box and heavy lighting fixtures made it tricky. We used 42 individual SUMOSKY bars, stripped of any mounting equipment to reduce weight, and zip-tied them directly to the box structure. Within an hour of being delivered, the lighting rig was installed and ready to go.”

“SUMOSKY worked incredibly well. Low profile, powerful and modular, quick to put in and take out. It was perfect on all levels!”

article from spring 2023

Quick installation - Saves rigging time and set-up cost
Slim profile - minimal use of studio space
Self-retracting function
Intuitive control via image and video sources
Resolution up to 20 pixels per bar (XR: 40 pixels per bar)
Length 2 m per bar
Up to 25 bars per standard unit
→ 20 x 25 pixels per standard unit
Full spectrum effective 16 bit per channel, 80 bit per pixel
Intuitive & simple controlling.
Pre-set functions and full custom control
Easy user interface
Lap-top or light-desk control
Paint control mode
Image or video as data source possible
Video control via hardware option
Video preset playlist
Moving Lights
Dimming to Zero
Flash and strobingAuto-addressing of all light bars
No need to address every single fixture compared to traditional solutions.
CRI 95+ white light for superior spectrum
Flicker-free
Perfectly homogenous lit surface
No banding – Smooth background for keying
Flexible – Easy changes in post of the scenery.
No green/blue keying necessary for keying, saves time in Post (30% - 100%)
*Instant* dimmable green or blue screen still possible
Brighter
Flexibility in Shoot and Post. Only need color and light with rough spacing.
Faster keying of details through soft background.
Shooting with multiple cameras possible.