Green screen and Redrock M2 Question.

[delpadre]

Hey everyone, I have a question. I will be doing a green screen shoot with our HVX200 and we just received our M2 adapter with a Nikon mount so I was wondering if we should use the adaptor on the shoot or not. Would using the adapter make keying harder as I would assume that we would want as sharp as an image as possible. We have the following lenses: 28mm F/2.8, 50mm F/1.2, 85mm F/1.4 and 105mm F/1.8 It will be a wide shot of two actors standing next to each other talking. Would the stock HVX lens serve a better purpose to get the sharpest image?

Also, what are your opinions on shooting HD opposed to DVCPRO50 for keying? The end result will be shown SD and web video.

Thanks in advance for any help!

[Cynic821]

How much time do you have before the shoot? Do you have a follow focus? DO you have an external monitor to adjust focus? Just questions that may help the more knowledged help you :/

In my experience with the m2 so far, i still need some practice with it for focusing.

edit*

and btw, thats one of the baddest assestses websites ive seen in a LOOOONG time!! its got me making up words is so sickening awesomenissitastic!

kinda like the snicker banners! Nugetocity!

[delpadre]

The shoot is in three weeks. Yes I have the Redrock Follow Focus and will be getting a Marshall monitor by then. Thanks for the quick reply.




How much time do you have before the shoot? Do you have a follow focus? DO you have an external monitor to adjust focus? Just questions that may help the more knowledged help you :/

In my experience with the m2 so far, i still need some practice with it for focusing.

[delpadre]

awesomenissitastic! I like that! Thanks man!



and btw, thats one of the baddest assestses websites ive seen in a LOOOONG time!! its got me making up words is so sickening awesomenissitastic!

kinda like the snicker banners! Nugetocity!

[R Gale]

I was wondering if we should use the adaptor on the shoot or not. Would using the adapter make keying harder as I would assume that we would want as sharp as an image as possible....
I think you're better off going without the M2. I have an M2, redrock FF, Marshall, etc... and the M2 definitely softens things a bit...
I think you should try to get as clean (and hi-res) a shot as possible for your key.

Plus, when you're greenscreening things, you can alter the look of your DOF by adding as much blur (in post) as you want to the various b.g. and foreground elements.

If you can, try shooting some tests in both 1080 and DVCPRO50. It would be interesting to see if one keys better than the other...

...I agree, your website is inspiring!!!

[rgdfilms]

I just shot a music video w/o the m2 - For one of the shots I slapped my 50mm lens on, now I am dealing with chroma key issues whenever it goes soft - better off shooting w/o m2 in my opinion

[Shoot24p]

I don't have any experience with the M2 yet, but I would have to second the notion of going without it for the green screen, so you can get the cleanest image possible.

HD vs. DVCPRO50? I have recently shot both on green screen cause I wanted to know the answer to that very question. I don't have a definitive answer yet, but I will tell you this:

When we shot HD (1080/30p) we had the actor in a 3-point lighting setup, only about 2-3 feet away from the screen with the green screen receiving residual light from 3-point setup. Terrible way to shoot green screen, I know, but it worked surprisingly well. The stock settings in Motion keyed it out almost perfectly, and with a little bit of tweaking, it looked great.

When we shot DVCPro50, we had the same 3-point setup, but this time we had the screen about 8-10 feet away from the talent and the green screen had its own light source. Much better conditions. However, it didn't key as well as the HD footage. There was a little bit of bleed around the edges of the talent that took some extra tweaking to get rid of. Granted, the color space is the same (4:2:2) but the extra rez of the HD seemed to help out immensely. Although, I have experience with green screen on MiniDV, and I can tell you that DVCPro50 is way better.

So my suggestion would be that if you have experience in keying or have a good piece of software, you could get away with shooting DVCPro50. But if are new to pulling a key, I would say shoot HD, cause you are more likely to get a good result.

[Cynic821]

great advice guys!

[AshG]

No adapter, you dont gain anything at all but lose sharpness...



ash =o)

[delpadre]

Thanks a lot guys.

[Lenilenapi]

why would you want one on a green screen shoot?

[Jack Daniel Stanley]

why would you want to use it ... seeing how you will have complete control over the focus of the background and foreground in post as they will be completely seperate elements and you can fake the SDOF if that's what you want. Ony reason to use it would be if you are going crazy SDOF like the subject's eyes are in focus but their nose and ears are not ... even if that's the case that would still be easy to fake in post once you get that close with the backhground a seperate element.

Don't use it.

It can only create problems far greater than any look it might add, which as I mentioned , under the circumstances, you'll have control over that in post anyway due to the fact you are shooting green screen.

[delpadre]

Thanks this is exactly what I thought, my partner though otherwise so I wanted to get another opinion. Thanks for all your input. Im not going to use it.

Thanks again!

[Jack Daniel Stanley]

In fact I used the anamorphic adaptor for my greenscreen shots in ODD Squad for the added resolution since we were ultimately goubg widescreen with the project.

I didn't have it one day for one element and it was tougher to pull a good key with the lower resolution of the letterboxed image vs. the anamorphic adaptor image.

[Daniel Cohen]

Just to reiterate what everybody else said....DO NOT USE the adapter when shooting green screen. I have shot dozens of hours of green screen with my HVX200, and you want to take advantage of the HD and the sharpness of the lens. You don't need to worry about your background/depth of field as you will be adjusting that in post anyway.

I've been shooting a lot of tight interviews, basically neck up shots, and using After Effects or Shake to do the composite. I ad a nice gaussian blur to the background shot, and it looks like I shot it with a 35mm adapter. I've been very happy with the results, and so are my clients.

-Daniel Cohen