Finally got a chance to play with some new toys this week - did a non-paying mini web ad for a friend.

I purchased some cool diffuser lights and setup a simple 3-point lighting studio with green screen background - following most of what I learnt from Vortex "Interview Lighting" DVD. It also gave me a first play with Adobe Ultra CS3 keying software.

I shot green screen because my mates initial idea of shooting live in a noisy, windy car-yard was going to be a nightmare.

Z7 used for all shots - car yard live, and studio talent (if you can call it talent - ha ha).

Was very happy with lighting and keying - even though it's shot interlaced. Background was not lit separately but Ultra CS3 handled it great. Learnt a lot about making matts with vignetting edges and keyframing motion. (see inset during video)

Obviously things I would like to improve (if it was a paying client) are:

- spend more time with talent working on script and doing more takes.
- get some nicer titling software like Mac has - or learn After Effects to spice that side up.

http://www.vimeo.com/1522575

Abusive comments always welcome.

Nice keying John, but was puzzled as to why you filmed Robin bouncing on a trampoline ;-)

Zooming out on a background whilst your talent is static generally doesn't work.


Vincent Oliver

He has a funny accent. "Avon" is mispronounced. The accent should be on the "o". The phone numbers are all garbled. One has too many numbers and the other too few. What in the world is "petrol"?

Okay, poking fun of American/Australian differences aside:

I might not notice the spring in his step so much but I do notice the disparity between the sound and the "room" appearance. You have a fair amount of room reflection in the audio but the spot has an open outdoor background. Next time it would be nice if there was better mic placement and some sound absorbent material to help dampen reflections.

The lighting and the quality of the key was quite good. Look for a recent post by Dean Sensui where he has a completely believable outdoor scene where the speaker was shot on a greenscreen. The static talent and background help sew things together.

You have a fair amount of room reflection in the audio but the spot has an open outdoor background.

Yeah - I weren't too happy with the vocals. Not my specialist subject. I used a Sennheiser K6/ME66 shotgun at about knee level in front of him, pointing upwards. Not a lot of playing around in post apart from volume levels because he started sentences loudly and drifted down to almost nothing. I would have liked to use my Rode NT1-a studio mic, but it has to be close to the mouth and couldn't work out how to get that out of shot. Maybe I should use Sennheiser lapel mic? Suggestions?

The static talent and background help sew things together.

Yeah, I know what you are getting at - and with the comment above about zooming the background... however, I weren't really concerned with making it look like he was standing in the yard itself - was just trying to add background elements to spice it up. Adding layers etc for interest. Figured that some movement would be better than just a boring static shot.... but zoom out - maybe got a point there... perhaps if it was static and had people browsing at cars instead?

Ahh, that explains a lot about why Robin is bouncing, you said you placed a Sennheiser low down - just how low did you go John? :-}

Ahh, that explains a lot about why Robin is bouncing, you said you placed a Sennheiser low down - just how low did you go John? :-}

It was just down around..... ahhhhh...... oh yuk. Anyone want to buy a Sennheiser Shotgun? Average to used condition....

"perhaps if it was static and had people browsing at cars instead?"

I would prefer that to simple zooms and pans of the background. Full-on background graphics with motion, fades, colorization, and titles might work better as it would be obviously synthetic. I think I would rather it be completely fake or look almost real but not in between.

I would think that you could get the mic closer if it was just to the side of the talent and then just use a garbage matte to key it out. As long as the mic never gets between the talent and the camera it shouldn't be a problem to key it out. I'm not a chromakey expert, but that at least seems to make sense. Also, you can move some soft furniture into the room to help absorb reflections. A blanket on the hard wall and some more furniture with cushions should help a bit.