• Adobe After Effects

  Hints for shooting a Drumset in front of a Greenscreen

  Posted by Dino Muhic on January 17, 2009 at 3:07 pm

  Hi,

  don’t know if this is the right forum for it, but you guys are my favorite.

  I plan to shoot a rock band in front of a huge greenscreen/greenbox. But I’m worried about the spill on the drumset and other strong reflective parts, because especially the drumset is very shiny.

  I’ll use a Canon XL-H1 for shooting.

  Do you have any hints for me? How would you do it?

  I appreciate any help
  Thanks

  Dino

  Grant Swanson replied 17 years, 6 months ago 3 Members · 3 Replies
• 3 Replies

• 

  David Bogie

  January 17, 2009 at 3:45 pm

  Practice.
  Shoot some tgest footage before you commit. You may find you simply do not have the facilities to control the lighting.

  I don’t know Canons, is it DV? If so, be sure you understand the limitations of your keyer BEFORE you shoot. Interlaced DV is a terrible key source, absolutely awful. A drummer is moving rapidly and you will not get good mattes around the blurred sticks and arms unless you use a fast shutter and that means more light.

  bogiesan
• 

  Dino Muhic

  January 17, 2009 at 4:26 pm

  Thanks. You are right.
  I forgot to mention something:

  We will shoot this in the studio of our university. It’s a huge greenscreen (about 25 Yards wide and 6 Yards high) and we have about 20 Lights hanging from the roof, completely adjustable in direction, position, intensity and falloff.
  So light is no problem.
  The XL-H1 is a HDV Camera but can shoot in 25p/50i in Full-HD (1920*1080).

  I have greenscreen and also rockband/music video expreriences but not in combination instruments <-> greenscreen.
  I know that I’ll use a minimum shutter of 1/250sec (no problem with our lights).
  Still not decided if 25p or 50i (intelaced would be better for slow-motion I think).

  I just have the problem of the reflective materials.
  What about some diffusing film/foil or something? Or should I place the drumset on a black carpet instead of just the greenscreeen (the greenscreen is also on the floor)? I think I saw this in some greenscreen band shootings as well…

  More tips/hints for me?

  Thank you
• 

  Grant Swanson

  January 17, 2009 at 5:23 pm

  Hi Dino,

  Sure you can use a diffusing spray on the reflective parts, and use a black material under the drum set to reduce the spill as much as possible…

  But think about why the spill falls on those shiny parts in the first place. That’s where reflections are supposed to land. Why not mask the reflections out of the key, and take advantage of that spill to add reflections from your new environment later on? It will save you a lot of work and give you a TON more realism. Spill on reflective surfaces gives you a perfect pre-tracked matte to add reflections later on.

  That said on objects that move quickly and that normally don’t have reflections go ahead and remove spill before color correcting.

  Grant Swanson
  Visual Effects Supervisor
  Video Apex – Minneapolis, MN
  videoapex.net

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