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DV Capture straight to PC for green screen work?
Hi, we are doing a bit of green screen work for a website which will unfortunately be captured using a DVCAM.
I have read a lot about DV being really bad for keying out the background but it looks like this is the only way it can be done at the moment.Is it possible to capture direct from the camera to a PC via firewire uncompressed? will this avoid some of the problems associated with DV as its not being copied from the compressed tape? Unfortunately i will not have the camera till the day of the shoot to do trial runs.
Just want to know if its possible to capture direct to premiere, and also if there is actually any benefit when it comes to green screening
Cheers
Neil -
3 Replies
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ok, as far as i can tell this isnt possible with the setup we will have on the day. So can i change this thread to be useful tips for greenscreening to minimise DVCAM quality?
Here is what i have planned so far:
Record in 4:3 with the camera rotated 90 degrees using all the frame ignoring safe areas
(it will be shots from waist up)Lots of distance between actor and green screen to minimise spill
A back light to help seperate the actor from the screen further
turn off camera sharpening
I have also heard that de-interlacing the footage before keying helps. Is this correct? I’ll be using DvMatte for the actual keying
Actors to wear warm coloured clothing.
Any other tips would be appreciated
Cheers
Neil -
Green screen keying is harder to do with DV, but definitely not impossible. I have pulled some very good DV keys in the past.
As you said, the most important parts are going to take place during your shoot, a nice flat diffused screen lighting, and as far away as possible from the screen. You can also help cancel some of the spill with an amber gel on your back light (Like a Rosco # 2)
In general, if you had access to AE with Keylight, I would highly recommend it over Premiere, especially with DV, but I can’t speak of DV Matte since I have never used it.
As far as capture goes, if your footage is still on a DVCAM tape, just capture it through firewire as you mentioned.
Vince
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Like Vincent mentioned pulling keys from DV is not impossible usually you need an aid, like mentioned I use AFX, I was using Canopus before they stopped supporting Premiere, if you plan on doing alot of keying there is also Ultra 2 software from Serious Magic https://www.seriousmagic.com which can aid the process considerably
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