greenscreen for the 100b what shooting mode is best

M

mcll

Member
I know this it tricky and has been discussed before but I can't seem to find a post that answers this particular question. Is it best to shoot green sreen at 24p, 30p, or 60i
also is it better to have alot of depth of field f16 or is it better to shoot more open
f4/5.6
 
frame rate - progressive shots are easier since you're dealign with true frames but the real question is what is the rest of the film? What are your backgrounds? That what will determien the fps.

f-stop - Once again how were the backgrounds shot? if you shoot a closeup wide open but have (or need) a sharp background it's not going to work visually. Likewise if it's supposed to look like a brightly lit outdoor shot but you have minimal depth of field it will appear odd (although with the small video chips you usually get reasonable depth of field)
 
The key to doing any greenscreen with a Mini DV format is to make sure you have enough light. Light, especialy backlight is essential.
 
I concur about the backlight.... very important to kick the subject out from the green. I'm going through this right now with footgage and my DVX
 
keep your subject away from your green screen - as far as possible.

Light you green screen and use your zebra to check the green is evenly lit. Lighting the green screen is perhaps one of the most important factors. You want an easy spread because your DV camera needs as much help with seperating colours as possible.

Get your focus on your subject really spot on - use a monitor if possible. This is crucial.

Light your subject as normal - but pay attention not to let your lights affect the green screen colour too much esp. if you using coloured lights different frm the green screen lighting.

You must treat the green screen and your subject as two seperate entities -really. Think of them as two clients who have different needs.Totally.

Then shoot it!

Just remember this is going to be the hardest way to learn because your threshold for error is small with DV. It has about 8 times less colour info. than the HVX.

For frame rate - go 30P but do not discount the possibility that 60i could be an option if you are prepared to de-interlace. That said I have a tendency to steer clear of any "fields" which will blur in post and make the keying harder.

As important as all this is - your keying software/hardware is also vital.
FCP is weak unless you have the ultimatte plugin. You could pull a key in Shake with some patience.

Good Luck!!

David
 
thanks for the feedback - I forgot about mentioning Adobe After Effects - as you say it is also very powerful and would probably be a better option if you are new to keying - (compared to shake)
 
what would good scene file settings be? for example, the detail setting? I'm thinking about using +2 on a GS project this weekend, should i lower it down? I kind of want to keep it sharp, I will be projecting it at our school's film festival.
 
Ideally, you want your subject in focus and the background blurred a bit. It will help even out the key and will make small imperfections less important.
 
One other thing, that I don't think has been mentioned, is that you want little or no spill over of the the green onto the subject. Look carefully at the main subject and make sure there's no green being reflected onto it (thus the earlier suggestion of moving your subject as far away from the screen as possible.

Good luck.
 
This veers a little bit... but I did a shoot once for a local t.v. station and made it very evident we were going to be keying.

What happened? The actress showed up in a bright green sweater.

What a pain! =) Needless to say, we ditched the green screen because we had a limited schedule.

Great posts, here! very useful!
-kyle
 
My scene file settings:
Detail:+2
V. Detail:+2
Detail Coring:+7
Chroma lvl:+4
Chroma Phase:0
Color Temp:0
Master Ped:-7
A. Iris:0
Gamma: Cine-like
Knee:Auto
Matrix:Norm
Skin Dtl: Off
V Detail Freq:Thin

Do ya'll think I need to bring the detail maybe down to 0 and drop the Chroma level maybe to +2 for greenscreen use? or should I use some other settings?

I will be projecting this at our school's film fest, so I want to keep it as sharp as possible, Plus I am using an anamorphic adapter for 16:9.
 
the best advice I think anyone here can give you is - go and try it out for yourself - tun some tests if possible.
There are so many variables on each set that no solution we come up with here is going to 100% for you.
If you have to get this out and you know what sort of look you want then it is time to get green on your hands.

Of course I expect you may come back with some questions - but it is going to be easier to steer you through the next hoop once you have set up and done some work with your equipment.

What lighting do you have ?
Is it a girl with long wavy blonde hair? (this would be near impossible on DV)
You are going to need to get the focus spot on or risk running into serious trouble in post

IF your lights need to be mounted differently - that is ok - just keep looking out for green spill and watching to give the screen a nice even zebra.

Ummmm....... go wrestle the hulk now - alone.
 
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Ok, yesterday we filmed the greenscreen scenes, I decided to drop the detail and V. Detail settings to 0 and the chroma lvl to +2, everything else was unchanged. For the focus, I used a tape measure and the charts in the back of Barry's DVX book for both focus and apeture settings.

I'm going to capture later today or early tomorrow, I'll post some screen caps when I get a chance.
 
Ok, sorry for the delay, here are a couple of grabs;
(shot with the anamorphic adapter)

1163778721.jpg


1163778826.jpg
 
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