How to film someone moving a picture which will be added in post

M

matt_c

Member
Hi, next week I have to film a person grabbing and holding in front of a camera some large slides which are to be added in post production so I can put a glow effect on them, etc. I'm not sure if After Effects is the best program to do this so I am open to any suggestions. What the person does is in front of a still camera he will pickup from offscreen slides (the slides aren't real, these are the ones being added in post), hold them in front of the camera, and move it off screen (there are four slides so he will do this four times). My first question would be what do I need to do in production, do I need to get the character to have a black or white dot on each hand and is there anything else I should be aware of? Then, how do I add the slides on in post?
I know this is a pretty big question but if anyone could give a rough guide it would be greatly appreciated!! :)
Many thanks,
Matt
 
One solution would be to use framed peices of green or blue screen - possibly with tracking points. You'd then key in the slide imge and therefore place it "behind" the frame.

Or you could actually use preintouts of the slides, and then just layer the fake ones on top - this would help hide any mistakes.

- Mikko
 
I would definitely have the actor hold something--fake slides, pieces of cardboard, etc. And having them be a convenient chromakey color would be helpful. But a word of warning: corner-pinning a stillframe to a moving plane is tricky. I know it seems easy in principle, but be prepared to go frame by painful frame to make sure that it's okay. The smother motion the actor makes the easier.

I learned this the hard way trying to key a plasma TV over a piece of blue chromakey paper in a frame. It wouldn't have been too difficult except that it was a steadycam shot walking towards the would-be TV. The results never really satisfied me. I know I'm not an After Effects genius, but the moral of the story is that any task that you're unsure of, you should make as easy as possible. Or find a way to work around. I like Mikko's suggestion of having them hold mock-ups of the final product, so at least there will be something to fall back on.

Unless the images the actor will be holding are from the video track (like those AWESOME digital camera commercials--you know, the ones where the people hold the blank frames and then the frames become photos...) I would make all efforts to have the actual photos at the screening. I think it would be easier to try and add a glow effect to those than to add the glow effect, then paste them in afterwards.

Just my point of view. But hey, sometimes it pays to ask the guy who's admitedly not an expert, because he'll know the easiest way to do something. The expert just knows the right way, which is probably beyond the skill level of the rest of us.
 
Hi guys,
thanks for your help. I was luckily and the client pulled the idea the night before. However I had the cardboard lined up ready to go and was ready for many hours of editing. However as rapsucks said, there is the risk of it looking bad if not an expert (which I am definetly not with After Effects) so I am glad it got pulled. I think if a client asks for similar in the future, I'll get a quote from a compositor at a local production house to incorporate into the budget.
Cheers,
Matt
 
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