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Shooting green screen with Sony’s NEX-FS700 and AXS-R5
We’ll be shooting green screen with Sony’s NEX-FS700 and AXS-R5. Recording AVCHD 1080 in camera and RAW 4k on the AXS-R5 recorder. The 4k raw is kind of an experiment, and being recorded just in case we need to cut in to a close up on the footage without losing resolution. I assume we’ll have to apply some sort of LUT to the RAW.
I’ll likely be doing the effects in After Effects and editing together the composites in FCP X. I also use Premiere Pro CC at times. I could bring the original footage in there and cut, then send off to AE as another option. But since this will be a series of short videos with few shots, I can afford to export each shot/sequence one by one from FCP X. Lot of options.
So, any workflow suggestions or words of wisdom on this? it’s a good project where 4k isn’t necessary, but we have the opportunity to start delving in so we are more familiar in the future.
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10 Replies
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Super interested to hear your results Bret. Did you guys end up buying the AXS-R5? I was going to do it, but I think I’m going to wait to see what shakes out of Blackmagic at NAB this year instead. The FS700 is such a great camera but 10k for a recorder that would turn this camera rig into a bazooka was just too much for me.
John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.
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Well, there’s isn’t really a “we.” I’m the post and a producer & shooter team and in charge of the rest. I believe they’re renting the AXS-R5. Can’t remember if the FS700 is his camera or rental.
I’ve read that a con of this setup is the weak in camera AVCHD codec. Anyone have experience on how that keys? I get pretty nice keys with Canon 5D h264 without much trouble from the same studio setup they’ll be shooting in so I can’t imagine it’ll be an issue.
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I think if you can pull a 5D key with this setup you should be fine. You might be able to shoot it S-log in camera and get a little extra out of the codec.
John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.
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No reason other than familiarity. Been using AE since 1996. And it’ll be more than a simple key, it’ll be a bit of 2.5D stuff. Maybe some slow creeps with virtual camera, and some text and elements in background with floor reflections and such. But I’ve used Motion earlier this year for similar, although I did the key in X and exported as a 444 with the alpha already cut for use in Motion. I thought Motion’s keyer was the same as X? In which case I definitely get finer keys with the free Keylight 1.2. I find that X’s keyer, while really nice and easy to get a quick key, doesn’t seem to support transparency in motion blur areas as well, if at all. In key light, a fast moving hand keys with nice transparency in the movement areas akin to reality. The keys I’ve gotten with X tend to still support the motion blur area, but with little or no transparency in them no matter how hard I tweak. Usually not an issue with a standard standup though. And I do like the light wrap function.
I was looking for a reason to buy the LUT utility. Color Grading central is a great resource.
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The keyer you use depends on the material. The FCPX keyer is fantastic but sometimes it’s the Boris Keyer that saves the day, or Keylight, or one of the half dozen others I own. Definitely not a one size fits all in my experience.
As far as the FS700 goes, I only own an FS100 but I can pull great keys off that using the internal codec so I can’t imagine an FS700 giving you any trouble along as it’s shot right to start with.
Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland -
For green, I would stay away from SLog, but that is my personal preference. I tend to advise to shoot “normal” ie Rec709, on green screen shoots. I would certainly opt for RAW if you can handle it.
I find the same problems with FCPX’s keyer that you do. I find Keylight makes for better edges, and has an easy fill replacement system.
*Someone will tell me I’m an idiot for this, but that’s fine.
I have not tried keying AVCHD or SonyRAW from that camera, so caveat emptor.
I have keyed XAVC from the bigger brothers of that camera and it went well.
Jeremy
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Yes, should have added that log and green screen can be a nightmare but if you’re keying off the FS700 internal codec then you’re not shooting to grade later in any event. Rec709 is definitely the go-to colour space on Sony’s FS series for keying.
Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland -
Wasn’t this thread a lot larger just a day ago? I know some posts were removed, but the replies to said posts had some info I was going to check out…
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It does look like some things got trimmed.
You’d have to check your email history?
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Good idea. In the meantime, it doesn’t look like I’ll need the RAW footage, unless I need to do a cut in on a take. But I’m trying to play with the footage. However looks like Sony Raw is still pretty new to the FCP X world. I can certainly use Sony RAW Viewer to convert it to ProRes but only 1080p. Can also export it to a mxf format that FCP X reads, but only 1080p. Premiere can read the RAW file directly, although you have to navigate all the way to the mxf file directly in the media browser. IOW it won’t pull up the clips from the card structure. Each clip is in a folder and you have to dig into each folder. After Effects won’t read them of course. Looking for something to convert them into 4k ProRes or something. Is there a 4k ProRes? It’s green screen, so I’m not looking to grade, but I want the pixels.
In other news, the AVCHD key is looking pretty good in X. Still can’t get that motion blur of hands and body parts to key with any transparency without softening or screwing up other parts of the key. Keylight is where it’s at for that. X’s keyed is great, but it just always has this minute fringe when you see the key on white. That could be the AVCHD or H264 I work with, but KeyLight seems to take care of it.
In even other news, I tried the UltraKey in Premiere on the raw. Better results with the AVCHD in X.
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