Music Video White Background Effect

M

mmiller884

Active member
I am going to be shooting a music video in a couple of weeks, and in the video, we wanted to have the effect where the artist is singing on what looks to be a white background. I know that most of the time this would be shot on a green screen because than the footage is more universal, but i was wondering if it would work just as well to shot on a white background. I would shoot on a green screen but i for one do not have a lot of expierience with green screening and two i do not want to worry about keying anything out. Any thoughts?
 
Are you familiar with the onBeing podcast from the Washington Post? The director of those uses the same style I believe you're talking about, and I'm fairly certain that she just has a well lit white screen of some kind behind the subject. I've never tried it myself, so I can't say how to do it and not screw it up (but I want to eventually).

And if you've never watched onBeing, give it a shot! It's easily one of the best podcasts out there!
 
awesome, ill have to check out that site. I really do not have a ton of expierience with correct lighting either, but i figured that lighting a white back drop would be easier than green because i can just dump a ton of light on the white w/ out worry about hot spots.. Im going to just make it one giant hot spot!! :)
 
If you can get your hands on the equipment, one trick used in photo shoots for that effect is to use a large roll of white paper, hang it high and then pull it down towards the ground on a curve. I think something about avoiding harsh angles makes it easier to light and more believable as a continuing solid white background.
 
A few clips that I have seen have been shot similarly to a standard greenscreen setup (evenly lit white background, talent separated from the screen and lit separately etc.)

They then slightly overexpose the background to get rid of any detail on it :)
 
awesome! i will give this a shot! like i said i am no pro with lighting but i guess ill try and figure it out.. thanks for all the feedback
 
It'll look way better on an actual white background than if you shoot greenscreen and try to fake it.

However, be careful about simply overexposing the background. Severe over exposure can lead to blockiness around the edges of the subjects that are not overexposed.

It might be nicer to get it lit so the background is almost overexposed (use zebras to get it just under 100%), and your talent is properly or slightly underexposed. Then, in post, you can make a slight adjustment to make the background blow out without having cruddy blocky edges around your talent.
 
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