Quick production diary on music video shoot with hpx500

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G.P.

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A few days ago we were hired to do a really low budget music video on green screen. I'd like to just share the info with anyone who'd be interested.

Usually I'm in a studio with everything at my fingertips I would need. This was not the case so I had to make due with what I had. We started off in a large party room, this would be converted into our studio for the day.

A large cloth green screen was setup within the room. Next was lighting, we had access to very little. One of the Arri 1K's that were available literally blew up the second it was plugged in. The rental company the production hired must have no checked it before hand. Someone must have put a fingerprint on the bulb. So I was left with how to light the screen with very minimal resources... This is what I did...

Since this production company had no extra lighting and I was not hired to have lighting with me, it was a challenge to get an even lit screen.

Lights we had were:

1x Arri 1k Fresnel
1x Mole 1k open face
1x 500w lowl

This was just not enough to light the screen, nor enough to light a screen AND performer... I had remembered I actually had a 500w work light in the trunk of my car, that ended up being used to light the left side of the screen. The right side of the screen was lit with the Arri 1k open face. The open face was used to kind of fill the whole back of the screen it was tilted to cover the screen in full. The 500 acted as an extra kick to make the light even so that the fall off on the opposite side didn't show. Surprisingly this worked perfectly, I got a nice even light all the way through.

Next was the performer(s) I had the 1K fresnel on the left with a Full stop diffusion making a nice soft box effect. On the right I used the 500w lowl light... I hate these lights, ugly as anything but they work. I flooded the light and kept it at a distance to make an even match with the 1k with dif on it.

I checked our Panasonic BT-LH1710W monitor with the WF to see if everything was exposed evenly. Surprisingly again the line for the green screen was very even. Then I turned the house lights off... oh no... Everything went to crap.

I realized we just didn't have any light left so we ended up leaving the house lights on to keep the rest of the scene lit. It worked. I never light a set with the house lights on, but this time I did because of the working conditions we had.

House lights were florescent fixtures but they didn't seem to flicker at all. Camera settings were Cine V, 1080p 24PA Shutter 180 Deg.

Everything look solid and there were no problems in the waveform so we gave it a go.

Turned out just fine, the rest of the day we shot everything and didn't have a problem with our light sources at all. At one point I needed a hair light... we didn't have anything left, until someone mentioned an on camera light they had with them. I gaff taped it to the end of one of the stands and boom, hair light.

What a crazy setup and a crazy day, it reminds me why I'm happy I don't usually do these kinds of shoots often. The good thing about them is it keeps you sharp, on your toes always thinking. Sometimes when we have everything at our fingertips we loose the ability to work with less. Sometimes less is better... Then again sometimes not haha.



Video is untouched, no color correction, output from FCP in ProRes HQ then exported to a 720p quicktime for upload to vimeo.
 

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Update, some raw footage from the shoot. see above. In the part where there's a TV in the setup, I used that on camera light running off the portable battery to hit the back of the tv. It was too dark on camera without the back light, and I wanted you to be able to tell it was a tv and not some kind of thing in the way. It created a nice soft light that worked perfectly. Behind his head I popped a little bit of the 500 work light which is a warmer light than the 1k. It simulated the light coming from the lamp next to his head.

Then the lowl 500 was the main light for the scene coming from screen right. I had to imagine a living room at night so I lit it a bit darker to match what would be the background once added in post.

I kept at least 8 feet separation between the performer and the back of the screen so that no spill would happen with the green screen. Unfortunately there was a tiny bit of kick off the ground which hit his white shorts, but at the time it seemed acceptable. A good keyer will be able to fix it in post. The screen size was a 20'x30'

Any questions, please ask. It was a very interesting low budget way to shoot a green screen video, but it worked for what it was.
 
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Thanks for sharing. I did not have a chance to watch the video yet but it is nice to see how your production day went. It is a shame that the "no budget" approach seems to be the main way now. The client is probably thrilled.
 
Bassman2003 said:
Thanks for sharing. I did not have a chance to watch the video yet but it is nice to see how your production day went. It is a shame that the "no budget" approach seems to be the main way now. The client is probably thrilled.
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Yeah low budgets are becoming very difficult to do now. Too many people want too much for too little.
 
I agree and sadly, I think it will only get worse. As consumer elctronics become more advanced it seems that everything is easier to do, which it is, but what is left out of the equation is experience, knowledge and monetary investment.

The problem with these kind of situations is that you can't deliver a half-budget looking final product. People always know what is good or not and they will not be happy unless it looks great. Even though they do not want to accept what it takes to make it look great.

Makes me wonder where we will be in 10 years.
 
Bassman2003 said:
I agree and sadly, I think it will only get worse. As consumer elctronics become more advanced it seems that everything is easier to do, which it is, but what is left out of the equation is experience, knowledge and monetary investment.

The problem with these kind of situations is that you can't deliver a half-budget looking final product. People always know what is good or not and they will not be happy unless it looks great. Even though they do not want to accept what it takes to make it look great.

Makes me wonder where we will be in 10 years.
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I disagree , talent will always prevail. You as a director,camera operator, editor can make something look great. Yes there is a problem that people want a lot for little money, but you have to make it happen if not the next young person with a HDSLR camera will.
 
Cieloent said:
I disagree , talent will always prevail. You as a director,camera operator, editor can make something look great. Yes there is a problem that people want a lot for little money, but you have to make it happen if not the next young person with a HDSLR camera will.
Click to expand...


I personally hate this whole HDSLR thing. I think its such a waste. The fact that people are picking these crappy cameras over a $20,000 professional solution with way superior quality in image and color depth is just what this industry DIDNT need. These kids with their parents bought cameras coming in and taking away jobs that industry professionals should be shooting. I can't wait for all of this to go away. And I thought the introduction to RED was a bad thing, this is was worse. At least RED is professional level on every level.
 
pro---studio said:
Nice shots.

But to throw something into the discussion about budget look at this...

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/6807847

You can assign this to the camera department as well. Sad but true.

Cheers

pro
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HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAH:laugh: I loved it, that is EXACTLY how they are. This needs to be posted everywhere for all departments within film. Can dub it over to be any department camera, sound, editing, locations... I love it.

P.S. can you do the dubbing for me for free? you'll get a percentage of whatever we make. :cheesy:
 
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