Green Screen and EX-1

[Hasselman Jor]

If you work in a studio environment and can import straight to editstation, capture your material through HD SDI (the material will be a lot better.) It will be 4:2:2. And you can capture any codec etc. depending on your machinery.

But to shoot to the card it will be 4:2:0 long gop. If i’m not right, please correct me someone?

I haven’t gotten my camera yet, but for greenscreen i’ll be using iOHD.

[Don Greening]

[FinFJR] “But to shoot to the card it will be 4:2:0 long gop. If i’m not right, please correct me someone?”

You are correct.

[FinFJR] ” haven’t gotten my camera yet, but for greenscreen i’ll be using iOHD.”

You have chosen wisely 🙂 Working in Pro Res 422 HQ would definitely by the way to go for this type of work.

For Scott: Creative Cow’s very own Gary Adcock did some testing of the EX1 shooting green screen and stated he got consistent results. I believe he was using 4:2:2 from the HD SDI port.

– Don

[Heath Firestone]

There are a couple of other things to keep in mind. For one, Sony records at 1440X1080 vs. Panasonic’s 1280X1080 solution for 1080, and 960X720 for 720.

If you do a live capture off of HDSDI, your can actually capture 4:4:4 if you capture uncompressed. I generally capture my greenscreen footage using my HDCAM camera, captured live to one of my Axios, which I can use MPEG2 4:2:2 at true 1920X1080, which I generally capture to a 150Mbps stream.

This gives me results I can work with.

Hope this helps,

Heath

[Craig Seeman]

[heath firestone] “ony records at 1440X1080”

The EX1 records at 1920×1080.

[heath firestone] “o a live capture off of HDSDI, your can actually capture 4:4:4 if you capture uncompressed”

The EX1 HD-SDI output is 4:2:2 uncompressed (either 10 bit or 8 bit with 2 “dummy” bits – that’s being debated by some).

[Heath Firestone]

[Craig Seeman]The EX1 records at 1920×1080.

I stand corrected. 1440X1080 is for standard XDCAM, I was unaware the EX1 recorded to 1920X1080.

[Craig Seeman]The EX1 HD-SDI output is 4:2:2 uncompressed (either 10 bit or 8 bit with 2 “dummy” bits – that’s being debated by some).

Once again, you are correct. That’ll teach me not to double check before posting.

[Craig Seeman]

Keep in mind there are many advantages to the EX1 over the HVX. I suspect if you were recording DVCPro50 4:2:2 in the field for Green screen the HVX would have an advantage.

The EX1 is 4:2:2 Uncompressed both Hi Def and Standard Def out of HD-SDI from the camera head.

I do think 4:2:0 (especially progressive) will key well. Many good keyers today will have “chroma smoothing” filters to help it. It may not be “pushed” as far as 4:2:2 though.

[Don Greening]

[Craig Seeman] “I do think 4:2:0 (especially progressive) will key well.”

Like my fellow Canadian is oft quoted as saying: “Not all compression is bad” 🙂

– Don

[Craig Herron]

I’m doing greenscreen on a music video shot with the Sony EX-1.

The shoot was to the card and then it was brought into FCP for editing. I am working with the FCP edit footage.

The key seems to work pretty well and takes out the background but even with minimal settings I am getting horrible noise in the dark areas of the picture. Black sofa, coat, brown skin etc. The original footage and FCP edit is quite clear with no noise. I have keyed out HDV and MiniDV footage with decent results but I have never seen this noise problem. We are using Keylight in AE but also tried Primatte in Motion with the same results. Running out of ideas and need help.

Thanks
Craig Herron
http://www.herrondesigns.com

[Richard Ducasse]

Me too. Exact same problem. Did you ever hear of a solution, after all this time?

[Craig Seeman]

Without settings no one can help. Many people have no such issues so it’s likely your camera settings but you offer none so no one can make suggestions to improve.

Shoot progressive. Make sure subject is properly lit. Picture Profile settings can have major impact. If you’re getting noise in the blacks then pull them down.