Green screen with simultaneous cameras

M

MVdirectress

Member
Hey everyone! Sorry if this is sort of a newb question. A client of mine is attempting to shoot 2 speakers against a green screen with TWO or more cameras simultaneously at MULTIPLE angles (side shots and the like). He wants to set up a sort of green screen room where the floors, walls, etc are painted green so you can do side shots/ multiple angles, etc. Is there a green screen set up available for this sort of thing? Or do people generally just paint an entire room green? Is there like a big circular green screen tube available somewhere so you aren't restricted to shooting one angle? Has anyone every done this with success, or would it be unsuccessful simply because it would be hard to light correctly? Thanks everyone!
 
It's certainly possible, but definitely harder than 'normal' greenscreen, as it pretty much doubles the normal greenscreening problems with lighting.

A curved greenscreen background (some people have even specially built a curved wall in a studio) is probably the easiest way to get a background roughly perpendicular to each camera angle (making it easier to light), and such things are available or can be built if you have the time and money. But a flat greenscreen may work fine if the angles are fairly close - it all depends on the lighting. As you've already noted, overall lighting is the biggest problem - it's hard enough to keep the background lit with a nice strong consistent green with one camera angle, let alone two or more.
 
I did a music video where some shots were floor and back wall green screen. I used a 20' wide screen on the wall and chromakey seamless paper on the floor. I would have preferred a cyc (curved wall) since the paper is less saturated then the cloth, and I often had to roto different layers. You can make a cyc with lumber and rolls of linoleum flooring (you use the "bottom" as the top and paint the daylights out of it). In my case, the talent's shadows held up well and looked realistic on the comp. For green screen paint, I just had the paint store scan my green screen and make a flat latex. I can't imagine a $60 can of "real" chroma paint working much better.

Seamless chroma green paper comes in 9' wide rolls, in a big city they're about $60 for 12 yards... you can make a cyc with it as long as nobody steps on the curved edge. You can overlap it with some spray glue and the seam will be minimal. You can even make a "box" with curved corners, but I'd allow a lot of time and a lot of paper. And keep in mind it's a little dull and can be tougher to key.

The biggest issues you'll have will be color pollution where talent is close to the floor. You should try to get your walls at least 12' away. Try to have talent in dark pants and footwear. (We had light blue stewardess uniforms... harrrrd.) Cover soles and heels of shoes with tape to protect the floor and don't let the talent leave the set without booties.

If you see hollywood BTS shots of green sets, you'll notice things that seem like they would be a nightmare to key - but they're using stuff like 4k film scans, not compressed video. For lower budget stuff, the camera/codec is about as important as the lighting. I've keyed DSLR footage and the aliasing made things very hard. AVCHD is a little better. A camera that can record clean high-def to a prores recorder (like the Ninja), even nicer. A Red or an Alexa, hell yeah.
 
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