Problem with white streaks in greenscreen background

D

David W. Richardson

Chapelgrove Films
Help!

I've got footage of a greenscreen scene. I guess the background wasn't exactly flat, because there are big white streaks in the green background. In some places the actor's head passes over these areas. Naturally, compositing is now a big problem.

What I need to do is figure out some way to make those white areas green, so I can composite them out. I'm using Adobe Premiere 6.0 -- not Pro, and I don't have After Effects.

The scene is 1 minute 45 seconds long, so I really don't want to have to export it as a filmstrip into PhotoShop -- at 30fps, that's a boatload of frames to have to manually retouch.

Can anybody think of any way I can do multiple compositing passes or whatever to get these white streaks to be green so I can get a decent composite? Thanks!
 
Reshoot your footage. It is either your camera (let's hope not) or your lighting. Try reshooting with less harsh lighting on the screen. There is no way to fix this in post unless you want to cut him out manually in photoshop since you dont have After Effects.

PS- It looks like it's time for an upgrade and an investment in AE.
 
I wish reshooting were an option, but it isn't. The actors are no longer available. This one scene stands in the way of completing the feature, and it's a critical scene that can't be cut.

The streaks definitely come from lighting, not the camera -- thank God!

I am a complete novice at Photoshop, and I'm sure it would be quite a learning curve just to be able to cut him out at all. Even then, I don't know how acceptable the final results would be. That kind of thing takes skill and experience. Wonder if I could find someone to do that bit for me?

Thanks for the advice, Chris. If I can't fix this scene, the whole movie goes down the drain.
 
the only option is to roto the whole thing by hand. I could help you if you want. How long is the scene?
 
Work through the scene bit by bit. (BTW:I mean the final edited scene duration - not the entire take)

Some areas may easily be fixed by using a garbage matte . Fix them first.

The parts of the scene where the head goes over the streaks...export them as frames and fix them manually in Photoshop (or farm them out to someone with AEFX).

If the whole film depends on this working you must do whatever it takes at whatever the expense (money/time). If the cost outweighs a reshoot..then reshoot.
 
Shooter, you're right -- only a small portion of the scene has the actor's head and arm passing over the white streaked area, so only those frames would have to be rotoscoped by hand in PS. As I said, reshooting is not an option. Either we fix what we have, or we throw the whole thing away.

Chris, it's very generous of you to offer to help. I'd REAALLY appreciate it! The part of the clip that would need rotoscoping is approx 18 seconds long. The exported DV clip of just that piece, without sound, is about 64 megs in size. I can send you a representative still from the footage if you'd like to see it, so you can evaluate the problem. Just let me know.

David
 
Send it on. Once I have looked at it, I'll set up an FTP login for you to upload the full quality file to my server.
 
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