First time green screening

[groundedmedia@hotmail.com]

Ok. So i just got my first good paying job for a multi media company. I will be doing all the video for there websites ($20 a hour) stocked to be making that at 21.

Anyways. We are doing out first shoot next week, and we a will be green screening. Its just a person talking, so not much movement.
What i will be using
sony z1u and fx1
shot and edited in Final Cut Pro HD


SO i know a few things.
-evenly lit green screen
-subject far away from screen

What i need to know.
-Settings on camera
-tricks with editing
-working with talent

Thanks for the help guys.

You can see a test i did in my room at http://thewordtv.ning.com/video/video/show?id=1424223:Video:11208

 

[djsmackmackey]

If you have the ability to check the different channels, try and get the screen as close to white in the green channel, while keeping it as close to black in the red and blue channels. I just had a project where the green screen was just thrown up in the background and even though it was overcast and made for a very nice even light across it, in the channels the screen showed up gray in the red channel, and somewhere between gray and black in the blue channel. and the green channel was less than white as well. So it was a real pain to work with.

for the lights on the greenscreen, try gelling the lights green.

 

[ProfessorU]

You can use levels to pull the greenscreen closer to green for processing, then generate your matte from that color-adjusted version, and apply the matte to the original image, but following djsmackmackey's advice will give you less noise and cleaner edges.

If you're shooting for a staged event (and sometimes even for realism) you can backlight with a magenta or minusgreen gel and define your subject's edges more clearly. If you are forced to put the talent close to the screen this can be a lifesaver, and if you get the levels right, it will look like white backlight. I have used this a lot for the classic "interview" setup where realism isn't as important as looking good.