how to match apple commercials

[John Sharaf]

Jared,

I don’t know for a fact how the Apple spots were done, but I did shoot behind the scenes on some eHarmony spots that were the same look. Sure enough they were done a large white cyc, with the white exposed at 80ire.

I believe these Apple spots were done the same way, now the iPod spots were surely greenscreen.

JS

[Jared Smith]

well thanks for the help… i was afraid of that and trying to not go this route, but thanks again:
https://www.atomicstudios.com/white-cyc-rentals.html

[Todd Terry]

Hey Jared…

Coincidently, we did exactly the same thing for a product video hawking digital signage transmitters for a corporate client (Avocent Corp)… they wanted pretty much a straight rip-off of the Apple spots.

So, considering the spots as “inspiration”… we did the white limbo thing. We even cast an actor that looked a heckva lot like Justin Long from the Apple spots.

We shot it mostly practically, with some clean up in post. It was shot in our studio on white seamless photographic background paper that hung from the grid and trailed out onto the floor.

Because the background roll was pretty far back (to help eliminate shadows), the paper wasn’t quite wide enough to cover the frame in the wide shots. There was also some things in the frame to get rid of (mic boom, some lighting instruments)… so in the end all of the extraneous stuff was matted out, along with extending the virtual set and killing a few floor shadows.

The background was lit by Kinos, and the key light on the talent was a 1200w HMI that was bounced into a high central white 4×4 bounce card. If I recall, I think we also had a reflector or two for fill, and maybe a couple of small instruments to help fill in some problem areas (this was a few hundred shoots ago, so I don’t remember the exact details).

You can see the results at the beginning and end of the video here…
https://www.connectivity.avocent.com/tv/

I think in the end we got a better result doing it practically rather than trying to greenscreen. It’s not perfect by any means… but close enough considering the scope of the project and their fairly low budget.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Hunter Mossman]

If you have the money rent some stage time a place place with a big pre-lit white cyc. As for your subjects go with what the stage can provide as far as G&E. Use a large diffused Key. Maybe a 5K kicked into a bead board or through a 4X4 silk or some 216. Kino Image 80’s and Wallolights are great as well. Whatever suits your fancy. Add a little fill maybe a backlight and your good.

If it’s low budget. White paper background and smaller lighting fixtures and open up on the lens a bit. Then add some more time in post to crop and blend the edges. To get 2 subjects into frame you’ll still need a good size space to role the paper out enough.

Hunter Mossman
Director of Photography
huntermossman.com