Collapsable Green Screens Any Good For Location Inteviews?

kenackr

kenackr

Well-known member
I'm in the process of developing a website dedicated to US veterans of all conflicts from WW II on. A key part of that will be video interviews with veterans who will tell their stories as part of a living memory history, available on the net 24/7/365.

First off, the entire project is being funded out of my own pocket on a 100% service connected disabled veteran's fixed income. Since I am a disabled vet, and make this work in progress free to all veterans to participate in, they will know that MONEY & GREED is not steering what they can say or how they should say it, or even why they should say it. There is no cost at any time for any thing. I do it all: video, audio, editing, domain registration, domain maintenance, etc. ad nauseum for free. Why? Because they deserve it.

Point is, THIS IS NOT A COMMERCIAL INTEREST. This is a labor of love for all of my brothers & sisters who answered their country's call to arms and sacrificed more in so many ways that John & Jane Doe USA have no comprehension and I want veterans to tell us their stories so we can make available what the price of freedom is in human terms to everyone on the planet with internet access.

Sorry, I'm a full disclosure up front kind of guy.

Down to brass tacks: I have converted a room in my home to a decent size green screen interview studio (for 2 to 4 people) local veteran videos. For those local veterans who are not mobile for any number of reasons, I'd like to be able to provide on site interviews at their domicile be it home, nursing home, veterans home, etc. Due to NOT knowing what conditions may exist at their domicile I'd like to be able to shoot green screen to minimize any concern or trepidation the veteran may have about what others might think about those conditions, etc.

Given all that and the fact that I'll be shooting with my DVX 100B (painfully lacking of DOF capability to get separation between the subject & the green screen), can one of the collapsable screens work well enough to minimize setup time & intrusion on those veterans?

I have the current Red Giant Keying suite.

Since this is all internet bound, I thought shooting 30P would be the correct approach.

Please lend me your thoughts & expertise to do the best job I can for my fellow veterans.
Ken
 
I'm dubious about the benefit of green-screen, unless you have a need to add specific backgrounds to the interview footage. Green-screen's fussy lighting requirements are difficult enough in a studio (as you've no doubt found), let alone when visiting an unknown location. If the underlying issue is just that you need the ability to hide the real background, then I'd have thought taking a few collapsible screens in black and dark neutral colours would achieve that. I've seen plenty of professional interview-style documentaries which simply use black backgrounds throughout - if the viewer focus is on the interviewee, than the background can be just an irrelevant distraction.
 
I used this Green/Blue screen this past weekend from Photogenic. I got it at B&H for a really good price. The hardest thing about using it is folding it back up! Put one end on the floor against a wall and twist. Also take a FOV measurement of how you would typically use it. It is great for CU and MCU but you can't get too wide just due to the size. Otherwise, if you need to be wide enough that you see the edges of the green screen you may have to create a matte in post. It is fine for covering any talking head stuff.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/404389-REG/Photogenic_926594_Chameleon_Collapsible_Reversible_Background.html

I can share screen grabs if you like, but keying off it went much better than I hoped given the constraints in which I lit, a very small studio apt in NYC! I'm talking small.

Having the blue screen is handy if your subject is wearing green. All the best! It sounds like a great project.
 
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clang,

Thanks for the reply, it really helps to get other's thoughts on things.

You make an excellent point, and one I hadn't fully considered.

My original thinking was that if interviews were shot on green screen, that backdrops such as the veteran's own picture or his unit's, etc,etc,etc, could be used and adjusted to be enough out of focus to simulate DOF and to reduce the distraction from the interviewee.

Think I'm going to do some screen tests just to test my theory.

Thanks again for the input

Ken
 
Proper green screen, with an actual green screen, requires a lot of space. I would think you'd find it more difficult to use greenscreen on location, because you will have no idea about how much space is available until you get there. With a green screen, you want as much separation between the subject and the screen as you can possibly get. The closer they are to the screen, the more green spill there will be. The further you can get them away from the screen, the cleaner the keying will be.

For close quarters, you may be much better off with the Chromatte or Reflecmedia type of systems, where they have the gray fabric and the ring of LEDs that goes around the lens. With those systems, you actually want the subject as close to the screen as possible. Those systems are vastly more suitable for on-location, unpredictable space scenarios. I prefer conventional greenscreening over Reflecmedia for quality, but for convenience, time-savings, and space, the Reflecmedia is much better.

Of course, it's quite expensive and may not fit into your budget.

Furthermore, the DVX100 is not a good greenscreen camera! Being 4:1:1 as it is, it won't really key very well.

My recommendation is that using a DVX100 with a flip-open greenscreen in an unpredictable-space location is a recipe for getting lousy footage. If your goal is to bring in your own background to hide the conditions the vet may be living in, I would recommend getting some fabric backgrounds of some type, some neutral textures etc. that can be set up behind them, that wouldn't require painstaking lighting and distance for separation and wouldn't be dependent on the 4:1:1 chroma sampling for keying.
 
hscully,

Thanks for the reply. I'm glad to hear it worked out well for you.

Barry Green's comment in concert with clang makes me think it may be more prudent to use the neutral background approach. It will not only decrease my workload editing wise, but may improve overall image quality too.
 
Barry,

As always, thank you for the input. Your experience & knowledge is invaluable and give those of us who listen to it, an opportunity to improve the quality of our work. That's certainly my goal.

BTW is 30 P the right choice in this instance since it's going to the web?

Ken
 
Budget issues notwithstanding, you could also print a poster sized portrait of your subject or his unit and use it as the background that you ultimately wanted (via greenscreen and compositing). Or it could be used in combination with neutral background for more versatility.
 
T2i with greenscreen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG13qQSczDs
DVX with greenscreen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1l2RBhuG7ho
I´m sure there are better examples for DVX greenscreen work out there, but I doubt the results for doing GS on miniDV and as a one-man-army (no pun intended) and no budget, will get that much better.

If you could afford a T2i (around 400$ used), I´d use it as the "imager" and use your DVX for sound recording. If you decide doing GS after all, the higher res image coming from the Canon will help in pulling keys. If you find out using whatever background just won't work, the T2i will also give you the possibility of throwing the BG out of focus, this will help with many locations.

I´d also really try to capture the veterans surroundings, so if you plan on "just" doing a collection of talking heads, with no B-roll, I´d not go for that clean/black background look many documentaries use.
This would result in a uniform "yearbook" style presentation of your videos, with all of them looking the same.
But for me it sounds as if you want to present the veterans as the individuals they are, all with their own (maybe) tragic story and not as numbers and last names as on some military excel sheet.

This is of course advice you didn't ask for and I know you want "to minimize any concern or trepidation the veteran may have about what others might think about those conditions", so just m 2c here.
All the best to you and your project!
 
Jordan_S said:
Budget issues notwithstanding, you could also print a poster sized portrait of your subject or his unit and use it as the background that you ultimately wanted (via greenscreen and compositing). Or it could be used in combination with neutral background for more versatility.
Click to expand...

That's an interesting idea - if the OP is e.g. going to interview veterans from a particular unit, then taking a giant pic of that unit's symbol or a giant map of the area they were stationed (or some similarly relevant graphic or photo) could be an easy way to 'dress' an instant set, by just clipping it to the background frame.

Also, don't forget Picture-in-picture - easy to do in post in most NLEs. But it does need some prep, e.g. keep the interviewee on the right of frame if you want to later add a Picture-in-picture on the left of frame - and some people do unpredictably wobble around a lot (or wave their hands etc) when they talk, which causes havoc if they accidentally cross the area where you were planning to add the Picture-in-picture. But I suspect you'll need plenty of post-production editing tricks anyway, to cover interruptions and pauses and other bits you don't want in the final film. Collecting suitable photos and video for use as cutaway shots would be wise.
 
Really appreciate your input.

I find the DVX with GS youtube example you cited perfectly acceptable for the needs of the project. I'm not a seasoned video buff that dreams of high honors and a sparkling career.
I just want to do a yeoman's job of getting the stories out and presentable, hopefully well enough done with the rest of the assets on the site, to make it a place where vets can release some pent up feelings to help demonstrate the human cost involved in wars.

Crazy? Maybe, but that is not something that bothers me. As has been said before, I do not suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.

The last Cannon dslr I owned was fun and certainly a museum piece itself now (T70), still waiting patiently for duty in my closet.

I do not see the benefit in adding the T2i. It seems like another layer of complexity that I'd rather do without, however your point is well made about the DOF capability in which the DVX is sorely lacking.

B roll is important and can add an element of uniqueness and depth to an individual's story and you are right that sometimes "clean backgrounds" can make the environment look sterile and cut & pasted.

Ah well, the grand art of compromise rears its ugly head again.

Finally, I share your feeling for food. Especially food for thought!

Ken
 
I have a popup screen - it's way too dull for pulling good keys. I don't know if they're all like this, but I tried it once and never again. A cheap eBay muslin green screen is dynamite, stretch it over a PVC frame. I've done some really complex & lengthy productions with cheap muslin screens, I have a pile of 'em.

And man, unless all of you subjects are completely bald, I'd look into the T2i. The aliasing of the T2i can give you some funky keys, but way better than the "blurry halo where hair used to be" of the DVX. And using a T2i is far less complex than the DVX. The DVX is one of the best sounding cameras of its era though, and makes a great field audio recorder (with visual synch reference to boot).
 
Just wanted to say as fellow vet it sounds like a cool project.

If you ever need help with interviews up here in the DC are give me a ring.

Semper Fi.
 
Michael,

The beauty of these forums is that good advice rises to the surface like cream, and the bad wonderings sink like lead. My wondering about popup screens is now at about the same level as whale poop (that would be Navy Submariner speak for the uninitiated) and need not surface again.

I'm the only one who's mostly bald so far, all the others who have signed up to speak so far are all full heads of hair and it makes me jealous ! ;-).

I'll keep the T2i in mind, being you are the second to bring it up, however I'm actually beginning to consider selling the DVX and moving to the Pana AC 130A. The good news is in order to afford it, I'll have to switch my diet to rice beans only, which should knock pounds off me and be a good win win solution.

Thanks for the feedback.

ken
 
Matt,

Thanks for the vote of confidence. At this point, since the site has not yet been launched, I have no idea if the interviews will catch on in locales that would would make the travel too expensive for me to get to. I had kicked around the idea of doing something like Skype interviews, but live interviews are of course always better, in my view.

Did I mention this is not a commercial endeavor? But gratuitous credits could certainly be given to those who help. Never hurts to have credits.

Once launched, how would I give you a ring if the need arises?

Ken
 
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