Matching the Apple Commercials

J

jrod81

Veteran
So, I have a client that wants to do a DVD distribution campaign ripping off the white room/two guys standing beside each other of Apple. So, how do I go about that? Is that green screen issue? Can't imagine that room that they are standing in is truly that white... let me know
thanks a ton
jared
 
Shooting white for white is ever so much easier than trying to shoot greenscreen and keying in white in post. Unless you are really good at using "anti-green" backlights to counteract the background bounce, etc.

Sure the Mac commercials were shot in "infinite white". It doesn't seem like a big deal. Not sure what you mean by "that white". White is white. Are you talking about the color or the size?

Here is a pretty interesting DIY video showing how to do your own "infinite white" setup on a budget... "Lighting Infinite White" http://www.vimeo.com/789519
 
I had the same request this past week, and I was fairly nervous about pulling it off.

Here's how I did it. Much easier than I had anticipated.

I bought a white sheet at Wal-Mart for about $10. I then hung it up on the wall. I also had an iron to iron out all the wrinkles, but it turns out I didn't even need to do that.

I then borrowed two more light kits from a colleague. I blasted as much light as possible on the background. 1-650W Arri, 1 -300W Arri, 2-Totas, and 2 Omnis. Obviously a ton of light.

Then, I placed the talent about 8 feet in front of the wall, and also in front of the background lights. I gave them each a 150W backlight, and then light them really softly with a lite panel, and a softbox'd omni.

I exposed the camera for the talent, and that blew the background out so much that I didn't even have to iron out the wrinkles. It worked out perfectly. In post I did notice a small wrinkle in the upper right hand corner that I masked in AE, it could have easily been solved on set with just a little bit more light, but I missed it.

Then, a quick white balance corrections in post and it was finished.

Screen Grab

The biggest issue was, this was a commercial for a hospital, and of course nobody thought to think that some of the Dr's would be wearing white lab coats... I was worried about them "disappearing" in the white, but it actually worked out pretty well.

Screen Grab 2 (This one hasn't been color corrected as much yet, so it's got a touch of blue in the white)

I also got curious after it was all finished and tried to pull off a luma key on it, it worked fantastic, and I could place any kind of background I wanted. I honestly may just do this method the next time I need to greenscreen someone. I haven't been thrilled with our chroma setup lately, and this was really really easy.

Hope this helps!

Evan
 
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thanks evan... so you didn't do full body (showing the feet). i wonder if i could put a sheet on a piece of plywood... it would probably shift around too much...
 
upearlyproductions.com music videos the pu$$y song.
all of it was shot on a white muslin backdrop
not quite an apple commercial though
 
tons of muslin matches in ebay... i think we will just go with that from now on... i figure a 10x20 would surely be enough to cover the ground to have the subjects walk around and still be able to get the full body shot with them standing in all white
 
so many on ebay that don't include lights that i will probably just go with one of them... i cant imagine that lighting setup is any good
 
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