Green Screen as a dress?

R

raneparish

Active member
I'm shooting a dream sequence and was wondering if I have the actress wear a dress made out of "green screen", colored fabric, would it work? How would I light that for the best result? I'd like to shoot outside but the scene could be adapted for indoors if necessary.

thanks
-rane
 
Re: Green Screen as a dress?

That sounds like a tough one to shoot. From my limited experience with doing green screen work, I can suggest making sure to evenly light the "dress" and actress. Inconsistant lighting will make it very difficult to key out. You will also need to watch for reflection off of the green screen onto the actress.

Shooting outdoors for this might be extremely difficult unless you have a lot of control over the lighting.
 
Re: Green Screen as a dress?

I don't think it would be that difficult. The guys at Brazillian MTV used to do it all the time... I guess testing is the only way...
 
Re: Green Screen as a dress?

Watch out for any wrinkles in the fabric. This type of thing is normally done with form-fitting clothing.
 
Re: Green Screen as a dress?

Out of curiosity, why do you want to shoot it outside? If you're greenscreening anyway, why not use the more controlled interior lighting and add the outside elements later?
 
Re: Green Screen as a dress?

An interesting idea would be to do a backwards matte of the dress and then convert it to gray scale and use that information as a displacement map after you greenscreened it. Most "invisibility" effects have displacement maps where the object should be so that we can see the form and outline even of an invisible object.
 
Re: Green Screen as a dress?

Thanks for the advice. I'll have to experiment with all the suggestions...and bury myself in the FCP manual for Policar's idea.


                                         rane
 
Re: Green Screen as a dress?

In the Movie Final Destination 2, there is a scene where a guy gets his body cut in half. In the behind the scenes segment they showed the guy wearing a green screen outfit.
 
Re: Green Screen as a dress?

Instead of using green screen, you might want to look up Reflectmedia, they make a silvery cloth that works with a chroma green ring light. The ring light emits the chroma green light that is reflected off of the silver material. The camera 'see's the green and will subtract it out. This is the stuff they used for Harry Potters magic cloak.
 
Re: Green Screen as a dress?

Just checked out Reflectmedia... $2300 for the light ring setup. So it's a chroma green dress or I'll have to think of another way to do the scene.


Thanks-

Rane
 
Re: Green Screen as a dress?

Rane, You could always rent one. New York outght to have plenty of rental companies. You are right $2300 is kinda steep, but I don't often use something like that.
 
Re: Green Screen as a dress?

A dress will be tough becuase you will be fighting shadows in the folds. Most reflectance systems are very direction sesitive.

If you just want to cut her off at teh waist they make blue and greenscreen boody suits. This is what you'll see in the behind the scenes footage. If it has to be a dress see if it can be made as a smooth cone.
 
Re: Green Screen as a dress?

Hey! I've got an idea. Since this is a dream sequence, the dress could be made out of something stiff. Almost like a cardboard apron. Then I wouldn't have problems with the folds of material. It's a dream so anyhting goes.
 
Re: Green Screen as a dress?

you didnt really explain why you wanted green screen stuff for the dress. are you going to make a floating head type of shot? If I were going to shoot outside i would have them wear an all black spandex suit and key that out. just make sure the background contrast is low so not to get any dark areas where the actress passes giving you a screwed up matt. If you are trying to recolor the outfit and make it dreamy i would try white and over expose it in post and add a few blurred over lays.
 
Re: Green Screen as a dress?

what I'm trying to do is superimpose images on the dress as the actress moves.

Any ideas?
thanks
 
Re: Green Screen as a dress?

Depending on the dress you could roto it. By using a white or light gray dress you can use the shadows to displace the overlayed images.
 
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