Might Green Screen Be Cheaper Than Locations?

S

seunosewa

Well-known member
Hello,

Recently I started wondering if it won't be effective to shoot low budget movies using green screen technology for every scene.

Basically, you
1) Go about taking pictures/videos of various locations you fancy, using your storyboard as a guide.

2) Rent a large hall for the entire production period, paint it green, and use it to shoot your entire movie with the clips from (1) as reference.

3) Place your actors digitally in each location you took pictures of.

I feel that the cost of renting the green hall and taking location pictures will be less than the cost of renting all the locations and transporting cast and crew between them and the enormous scheduling challenge that often poses.

Is green screen shooting of entire movies only appropriate for big budget flicks set in exotic locations, or is it useful for us low-budget indies? What's your take?

Thanks!
 
sorry to tell ya bro but greenscreening is most of the time expensive and long hours if you want it to come out good, there is a lot of postproduction time that is going to be spent getting the "perfect key" and God forbid that you didnt shoot it right, its over man, just giving you the heads up brother
 
seunosewa said:
Hello,

Recently I started wondering if it won't be effective to shoot low budget movies using green screen technology for every scene.

Basically, you
1) Go about taking pictures/videos of various locations you fancy, using your storyboard as a guide.

2) Rent a large hall for the entire production period, paint it green, and use it to shoot your entire movie with the clips from (1) as reference.

3) Place your actors digitally in each location you took pictures of.

I feel that the cost of renting the green hall and taking location pictures will be less than the cost of renting all the locations and transporting cast and crew between them and the enormous scheduling challenge that often poses.

Is green screen shooting of entire movies only appropriate for big budget flicks set in exotic locations, or is it useful for us low-budget indies? What's your take?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Don't let the above posters dissuade you. This can be done and very cheaply, and it's not that difficult if you have the proper tools. Also, it is not time consuming to light. Once you light the background correctly, all you have to worry about is lighting the subject. And you barely have to move the camera, you just rearrange the actors relative to the camera. Pros: No locations or permits to get. Very controllable lighting and sound situations. The ability to keep refining your scene until it's perfect.

Cons: A lot of tedious post production and render time, but hey, it's your time, which cost you nothing.

I shot this project for just about nothing.

http://www.theincorporaider.com/

Granted, I was going for a comic booky look, and if you plan on shooting a movie this way I'd take a stylized, hyper real look ala Sin City or 300 rather than trying to make it look completely real, but it can be done. Was shot on Sony FX1 in front of a green piece of cloth hung in a garage. Screen lit with two homemade fluorescent banks. Subject lit with an assortment of halogens. All the post was handled in Final Cut Pro, with a few specially made 3d elements.
 
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Ditto for the most part...(bad idea side of this discussion)

unless,

you go the opposite of "reality" and let go of perspective and sourced lighting and enter the surreal and make it look way... out there...

But if you want real, go with real. Plus real spaces and places inspire me and have texture and architecture you can build on...

good luck,
CC
 
I have to agree with Batutta & Collins. It can be done with a smaller budget... but it all depends on the look you want to create. If you're going for a fantasy type, surreal, sin-city look it may be in your best interest... but trying to create an organic environment like a romantic comedy setting through green screen in top notch dollar... The hardest thing i find about green screen is lighting continuity... your camera is always facing center stage so the light has to be re-positioned and the intensity has to be adjusted with every angle... now that's a pain in the arse. if your DP is not on point your movie will look weirded-out and take away from the over-all pace and feel from the story. It'll leave your audience feeling dumb... like somethings wrong but they just don't know what it is. green screen experienced DPs costs mucho dollores too. Theres no middle ground for green screen... it either has to be obvious or invisible...do what your heart tells you... anythings possible man. good luck.
 
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We had planned to do a good 50-75% of our current film with green screen. The studio handling the visual effects, who suggested green screen in the first place, discouraged more and more effects as time went on- until they finally had us designing sets that covered the entire green screen! Eliminating it entirely! We fired them and ended up shooting 2 driving scenes green screen in a barn and doing the composit ourselves, worked great and the studio said it couldn't be done convincingly, even by them. Everything else was done on location. Then came their $20,000 lawsuit for their "consulting fee"...

Anywho, just one of many related horror stories I'm sure you'll hear. I'd suggest practical for the most part unless there's a very good reason to do it on a stage. What are people going to interact with? You're going to need to set all those props up. Where will you get the props? You'll need some pretty elaborate lighting setups to match locations too. It can very easily become quite expensive on a set. And as the effects studio said:

"The best way to do green screen is shoot it practical."
 
How many people have completed entire projects with green screen? I will like to see what they look like. The DV Rebel's guide strongly advices against the use of green screen techniques unless there is no alternative whatsoever, but I can't ignore the potential savings.

I know it's sometimes hard, but surely getting it right should be much easier than the expensive coordination nightmare that on-location shooting can easily become?
 
Hi seunosewa… I gained a lot of experience with greenscreen on my indie feature I just finished called “Ocatilla Flat”. We shot a much as we could practical, but found some locations/situations either impractical, unsafe or were simply inaccessible. In these instances we leaned on using greeningscreens to great effect. The downside was it took much more effort on the backend and extended our post way beyond what it would have taken otherwise. I would suggest taking a range of scene and shooting a test just to get a taste of working in this manner. Greenscreen is a great tool, but like any technique will not necessarily meet all your needs. For an example of how my experience turned out, check out my film’s trailer at www.152west.com/demos . Cheers!
 
I've personally never seen an independent green screen production that looked convincing. It's always obvious..
 
Batutta said:
Don't let the above posters dissuade you. This can be done and very cheaply, and it's not that difficult if you have the proper tools. Also, it is not time consuming to light. Once you light the background correctly, all you have to worry about is lighting the subject. And you barely have to move the camera, you just rearrange the actors relative to the camera. Pros: No locations or permits to get. Very controllable lighting and sound situations. The ability to keep refining your scene until it's perfect.

Cons: A lot of tedious post production and render time, but hey, it's your time, which cost you nothing.

I shot this project for just about nothing.

http://www.theincorporaider.com/

Granted, I was going for a comic booky look, and if you plan on shooting a movie this way I'd take a stylized, hyper real look ala Sin City or 300 rather than trying to make it look completely real, but it can be done. Was shot on Sony FX1 in front of a green piece of cloth hung in a garage. Screen lit with two homemade fluorescent banks. Subject lit with an assortment of halogens. All the post was handled in Final Cut Pro, with a few specially made 3d elements.
Click to expand...


I working on this short movie, and I wanted to use a similar effect that you used with the paper clip in the movie. I'm talking about the effect where the fat white guy tried to rig the fight by throwing that paper clip at Bruce Leroy, lol, and the camera tracked the paper clip until it hit bruce in the face. Any advice on how to shoot and edit it, presumably done in after effects. Any advice is appreciated other than that good job.

anybody can comment
 
I've seen some good ones, just can't think of one of the top of my head. DV is just bad for green screening in general. It may be cheaper, but to be honest I think that like mentioned above the textures, smells and sights of a place can really be an inspiration in getting a scene down pat.

Let's not forget how much harder it is for a low budget actor to act well with NOTHING around them - big name actors find it hard, why wouldn't actors without much experience?

-Kegan
 
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