Friend Considering Purchase - Anyone doing green screen?

[Tom Chaney]

Hi Gang,

I have a friend considering the purchase of our beloved camera.

He is a Visual Effects Supervisor and would like something that he can use on lower end projects for some element work.

Does anyone have any green screen work that they could share here for his review?

He's considering the HVX as well.

Anything would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Tom

www.tomchaney.com

[Joel Aaron]

Originally Posted by Tom Chaney

Hi Gang,
He is a Visual Effects Supervisor and would like something that he can use on lower end projects for some element work.

Have him check this page out.

http://www.dv.com/print_me.jhtml?articleId=189500064

There's a still from each camera on greenscreen. Those are jpegs, so they'll be crappier than they could be, but he should be able to comp these fairly easily and see the results. It's a nicely chosen example though.

If you've got a HD-100 shoot some stuff for him next time he's on a GS set. Find an HVX and get it there too. A good compositer can probably work with any of these cameras. A bad compositer can't even work with F950 plates.

[Tom Chaney]

Thanks Joel,

I sent him the link.

Tom

[Paolo Ciccone]

Originally Posted by Tom Chaney

Does anyone have any green screen work that they could share here for his review?

Hi Tom.

I make a Vodcast all shot in GS with Virtual Sets. Keep in mind that I do it all by myself and so the lighting leaves a lot to b desired since: a) I just started doing this b) I can't see what I'm doing c) I shoot this in my living room and d) I'm not a talent or actor :).

Neverthless, Serious Magic was showing it at CineGear as an example of what you can do with Utra and their Master Set Libraries.
Just click on the link in my signature for "CruiserCast". You'll need an H.264-capable player, if you have iTunes then you're all set. The best example of GS work is in episode 1

[Tom Chaney]

Hi Paolo,

Thanks for your input, I will forward this information to him.

Tom

[Joel Aaron]

Originally Posted by Paolo Ciccone

Hi Tom.

I make a Vodcast all shot in GS with Virtual Sets. Keep in mind that I do it all by myself and so the lighting leaves a lot to b desired since: a) I just started doing this b) I can't see what I'm doing c) I shoot this in my living room and d) I'm not a talent or actor :).

Neverthless, Serious Magic was showing it at CineGear as an example of what you can do with Utra and their Master Set Libraries.

I can see why - GREAT JOB Paolo. I've never been much of a Serious Magic fan, but boy you really used it well. Nice production!! Cool titles, cuts and camera moves.

If you could drop a shadowing on the editing console at 3:47 it would be pretty cool. That might have to be an after effects things though.

Anyway - great job at keeping the show moving with cuts, camera moves titles - man you really put some work into this thing. At this resolution even your hair keyed great. Way to go!

Those are all virtual camera moves right?

(btw: I just threw out my Playboy calendar)

[Paolo Ciccone]

Thank you Aaron, vey much appreciated.
That was my very first work on green screen so I got a little overwhelmed and I might have missed some shadowing. As for the cuts, you just do what is possible when you can't operate the camera :) I had a light-stand asmy stand-in for focus and then I pressed "Rec", moved the light stand and start talking. In that situation, cutting often and changing sets, are the few things that you can do to keep the interest alive :)
Yes, the moves are virtual, I zoomed and panned via software when possible. In one instance I actually shot one scene with two cameras, the second being a DV cam tilted 90 degrees to get 720i resolution. It lasts only 5 seconds but I'll give an extra star to whoever spots it :)
And about the calendar, you are supposed to move it inside the house, not throw it away ;)

Thanks again.

[Joel Aaron]

Originally Posted by Paolo Ciccone

I got a little overwhelmed and I might have missed some shadowing

Oh, that was a total nitick - I just happened to notice it. All I know is you either worked your butt off or you're really fast because there's a lot going on there. All the picture in picture video, the graphics, the score, the audio mixing etc. for 15 minutes of that is a lot of work.

Plus it sure looked like you matched the colorspaces really well. That really helps sells whole thing. So 5 years ago you didn't even know how to photograph your bikes that well and now you're putting together your own TV show.

The audio is really good too. Is it ADR'd? Or just good mic with good EQ?

[Jonathan Ames]

Paolo is right and I can tell you that we used 4 100HDs to shoot 2nd Unit's chroma shots to tape; that's not 4:2:2 but directly to tape for broadcast and they came out fantasticly. If you want me to post a couple of them quickly to 2nd Unit, let me know and I'll do it from home today.

[Joel Aaron]

Originally Posted by Jonathan Ames

Paolo is right and I can tell you that we used 4 100HDs to shoot 2nd Unit's chroma shots to tape; that's not 4:2:2 but directly to tape for broadcast and they came out fantasticly. If you want me to post a couple of them quickly to 2nd Unit, let me know and I'll do it from home today.

You should post a little footage before and after it was keyed at full size. Then people can try their own hand at keying your footage. You might find yourself another skillful compositer.

[Warren Shultz]

Yes, Paolo, let's see your GS set up in the living room. That's some of the best keying I think I've seen out of the Ultra package. Nice job. Was that all in one pass? I've used Ultra before and had to split my key into two areas to get the results I wanted.

Not being a biker, I wouldn't have thought to keep the bike in the livingroom next to the calendar.

[Paolo Ciccone]

Originally Posted by Joel Aaron

All I know is you either worked your butt off or you're really fast because there's a lot going on there.

Thanks. I tend to be obsessive about what I do so my work days tend to be quite long, in other words, I stop when I can't stay asleep anymore :) But this is hardly special, it seems to be the characteristic of many people working in this field :)

All the picture in picture video, the graphics, the score, the audio mixing etc. for 15 minutes of that is a lot of work.

Yes it is but you know what? The most frustrating part is not being able to work the camera. I much rather be behind than in front of the camera.

The audio is really good too. Is it ADR'd? Or just good mic with good EQ?

I used my Rode NTG1 for the voice, I didn't do any ADR, I can't synch for the life of me :) I tried because I wanted to fix a couple of dialogues but I couldn't manage to deliver the lines anywhere close to the original performance. My hat off to the actors who can do it. It is very tough and it requires amazing amount of skill and patience. I sweetened the audio in Soundtrack Pro, basically adding compression, EQ and limiter. Audio was also carefully checked piece by piece with the headphones in order to remove pops and cliks, lip noises etc.

I really appreciate your feedback, it makes it all worthwhile :)

Cheers.

[Jonathan Ames]

OK. Let me eat dinner here in California and I'll cut and post the two pieces in a couple of hours. The pieces are from Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association's World Championships in Las Vegas last year. The site's announcers booth set up was horrible, rather like the usual location of the NFR and PBR and, well, any rodeo action. So instead of shooting the color team live, we shot them on a soundstage 2 days after the event and a week before it was to air. It'll appear live but the team is actually watching and commenting on the already rough-cut 90-minute show on the in-booth HD monitors. The green screen was lit by Michael Pellagatti and the insert image was courstesy of Steve Jennings from the hills of Las Vegas in the area to maintain the validity of the location.

[Paolo Ciccone]

Originally Posted by Warren Shultz

Yes, Paolo, let's see your GS set up in the living room. That's some of the best keying I think I've seen out of the Ultra package. Nice job. Was that all in one pass? I've used Ultra before and had to split my key into two areas to get the results I wanted.

Thanks. I'll try do dig out some "production photos" :) but I can give you a couple of details right now. I used a piece of green felt bought at the fabric store for about $35.00. I lit it with two 1000 watt work lights, from my motorcycle shop, those are hot son of bitches! I cooked under those lights. No more!
I used a couple of "Mariachi lights", the ACME lights with photofloods, described by Robert Rodriguez in his 10 minute film school about his first movie.
I bought a real light kit (the one described by Walter Graff) since then, and episode 2 was much easier to light.
The keys were pulled in one pass by not listening what SM says in the instructions :) Instead of using a frame with only the background I cropped the scene where only the minimum amount of green was needed. For this I used the input sliders and also "painted" the matte around the subject as closely as possible. I then used multiple points to set the color points.

Not being a biker, I wouldn't have thought to keep the bike in the livingroom next to the calendar.

Hard to believe but I actually have done that, sans the calendar ;)
Thanks again. I'll post the pictures later, I'm re-editing "2nd Unit - Episode 1" and there's still a lot to do :)

Cheers.

[Jonathan Ames]

And he's using Adobe Premiere I might add!!!