I have a client who wants to make a video in which people appear inside glass jars. The idea is a line of Ball jars each with a person living inside it.

One's first thought is "green screen" but shooting a glass jar against against a screen for compositing presents a considerable challenge due to reflection of color in the glass etc.

How would you go about producing such an effect. Is it practical for DV?

for such effect it is not the glass jar you need to green screen, it is the people.

Probably with furniture (e.g., a kitchen table or something), too...be kinda boring just to have a person standing around inside a jar...

ciao,
Matt

Yes of course the people have to be green screened as well. The trick is to composite the people and the jar against the background.

And yes, since the people are going to living in the jars there may be small bits of furniture like chair and side table etc.

What about a paited matte, to put over the people instead of green screening the glass. This way you could paint an overlay, a background and your background, all different layers. If you do this in after effects, you'll have all of your photoshop controls on hand. Much more control than keying a glass

I'd be tempted to make the glass jars in a 3D package as opposed to using real photos. I assume you want reflections and refractions which imply that the people are behind glass, as well as partial reflections etc that would be coming off the back of the bottles.

Try shooting your jars against a black background and then using a difference matte to eliminate the black. Should give you a real jar with real highlights that would be layered in front of your people, and then both of those layers in front of your background.

Just a thought...