Need help with Green Screen

Gary61

Gary61

Member
I'm shooting a screen in van with dialogue. I'd like to park the van on a sound stage and use a green screen to input passing landscape in post. However my friend suggest that green screening will prove too difficult. I want the b.g. to look normal, just bleak desert, nothing special. What are the steps to lighting, and inserting the landscape in post? Or would it be simpler to shot on the road and replace the dialogue in post? I'm shooting on the AF-100 and editing on FCP7. Any help would be appreciated.
 
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I just watched Fraility from 2001 with Matthew Mcconaughey and there are some daylight driving scenes in a van shot from the front and the windows were made to appear blown out white. It was pretty clever and sure beats cheesy un-matching background plates inserted into your green screen footage...
 
There is plenty of discussion about how to properly light and use green screen. But experience if everything. You need to test it for yourself and see if it works for you. Buy a small green screen and experiment outdoors and indoors with it. They can be had for less than $100. You certainly don't want to rent a stage, shoot it, and find out it didn't work.

Here is my first test (AF-100, Keylight in After Effects). The man with the pink cellophane is about 3' from a green canvas. The canvas is in full sun, flopping about in the breeze and it is changing intensity from full sun to shadow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STmRLhwpdrM

Go to :34 in this clip and you will see a different shot, but it shows what the screen was doing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNd3N-j-zTI

Doing this sort of thing will give you the confidence that your shots will work.
 
Get the largest green screen that you can find and put it as far away from the window as you can. This will minimize reflections on the van and on faces. Light the greenscreen to around 65ire (if there's a waveform in the a f100). Watch out for reflections on the van body around the windows. I would shoot it outside if I were you.
An alternative is to get a large screen lcd tv and place that outside the window with the footage playing on it. If you are shooting only closeups that would work as well.
 
Obviously you don't want the actors actually driving the car - You hook it up to a truck and pull it. With the windows rolled up and a proper mic I'd say you can in fact get useable dialogue.
 
I've had good luck greenscreening windows (a train carriage in my case). What you'll often find is that in reality, the windows are almost blown out if you shot it practically. A very washed out plate will give you a sense of motion without looking pasted in.
 
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