Scaling

One of the most striking uses of a backscreen is to create the illusion of being in a different place/space. Correct scaling is essential – it needs to look like the image is part or a continuation of the stage. Fading to black at the edges of the image will help it to appear more as if it’s real – filling the entire screen at full intensity makes it obvious [that it’s – well – just a screen]. Even though cognitively people understand that they are just looking at an image, a well-done image/stage/lighting matchup will cause people to suspend disbelief and get “transported” to the environment that you are trying to create. One of the best examples that we ever used was an image of a backstage area – it looked like we had simply removed are screen and that people were able to see behind it. Hmmm, I’ll have to dig through the archives and see if I can find a photo of that in the days to come…

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