-
Questions on 24p feel from 30i video and Green Screen prepping…
So I will be experimenting this Saturday. I have NEVER shot against a green screen but will be shooting a performance video for my band. This way I can toy around with compositing and, if it turns out well, we don’t have to spend thousands on a video!
My question to all you effects gurus is this: What should I keep in mind for the set up? This is a free flowing experiment so the biggest goald is to be able to key them out as close to perfectly as possible. For lighting I was going to use basic work lights to get an even spill on the screen and use par cans on the subjects to get shadows where I want them (and so they are visible :op).
The other question is regarding the frame rate. I will be using a Sony PD-150. I am more used to the Canon XLS but it won’t be available to me. I would like my final product to be as close to 24p feel as possible (end result, ultimately, just for television and internet).
How do you recommend I treat the footage to get the desired effect in AE 7?
I know its a lot – thank you for taking the time to read and respond! lol
Devon
-
6 Replies
-
Inferring from your list of lighting instruments that you’re planning on using a green cloth you got from a fabric store.
Shoot it and have some fun screwing around. You will not get useful green screen source footage from the 150 shooting DV against a roughly green cloth with pars and garage worklights. Forget it. Save yourself the grief. You’ll need better lights, better green, and a better source codec.Television is 30fps. Film is 24fps. Getting a film look can be researched in Google for several hours. There are no one-shot recipes but it’s easier to convert to 24 than it is to shot in 24 and then wish you had shot 30 so your slow motion effects would look better.
There are many flavors of 24 including baked-in film rate simulations that are based on 30i teimbases.bogiesan
This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”
-
Ok, here’s a crash coarse in greenscreening:
1) if you’re not using a reflecmedia screen, then you MUST backlight your talent with a violet light (violet is opposite from green, and will create halos on your subjects that are polar opposites on contrast… basically, defines your subjects when you try to key them easier.
2) NO HOT SPOTS OR COLD SPOTS ON THE GREENSCREEN!!!!! — how can you tell? turn on the zebra on the PD-150, and adjust your iris until you see the squiggles on the screen, and adjust your lights so you see even maggots (what I like to call the zebras) crawling on the greenscreen!
3) NO SHADOWS ON THE GREENSCREEN. Believe me, you care more about a clean key than you do shadows. You can always create the shadows in post… and really that’s where you should create them. (the best way to light especially for a music video is to try to emulate a ring light by placing your lights around the camera… it’s a delicate balance… just keep the maggots even on the greenscreen!
4) Turn up your shutter speed. motion blur = fuzzy key = lots of nasty halos.
Once in aftereffects:
1) key it out. Get the key as good as possible using a key effect. I usually use color range (since no matter how even the maggots are, there is still a variance).
2) Remove the halos. – Use matte choker to choke the matte in on the subjects, and feather it a bit…
3) EASY ON THE FEATHERING!!! Do us all favor and don’t recreate the crappy keying in Phantom Menace!
4) Get the green out. Use spill suppressor to get the green out.
Now, for the film look:
Forget 24p for a sec… that’s the easy part. You really want to recreate a film look, right?
Here’s how:
1) Do your keying FIRST because this is a good way to blend the footage together to make it look more realistic too.
2) Increase contrast. Make the whites white, and the blacks black. Don’t go all Jerry Bruckheimer on it or anything… but get that contrast up a bit (10-15).
3) Add some grain… you can use “add grain”, but turn down the intensity to like .25…
4) Now give it 24p… Please don’t attempt this in aftereffects. At least not unless you do it with cinelook. Other than that… here’s a tutorial for it: https://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/frame_rate_converter/
Ty Audronis
Supervising Editor, California Academy of Sciences/Morrison Planetarium
-
Update… just tried the 24p tutorial I included. Works famously… enjoy!
Ty Audronis
Supervising Editor, California Academy of Sciences/Morrison Planetarium
-
No – I am renting a screen from a video rental store.
I appreciate the help, but I was looking for an opinion on what has worked best for you. I have googled the conversions, pull downs, et cetera, but was hoping for guidance. Thank you in any case.
-
Thank you and David so much for the direction! Hopefully my experiment will yield a good learning experience (and maybe – god forbid – a good result! lol)
thank you for the help
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up