Shooting Green/Blue Screen 24P DVCPRO-50

[Chris Smith]

If you’re outputting to video and not a projected film in theaters, why are you shooting 24p then? 30p would be a hell of a lot easier than dealing with pulldown removal and you won’t see a difference. On my reel is a mixture of stuff shot at 24 and 30 fps and nobody can tell the difference (unless they went frame by frame looking for a pulldown).

24p isn’t going to look any more “film like” than 30p. It will just be a major hassle to do effects with.

Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com

[Jason Connolly]

Thanks, Chris. That’s my thinking precisely. I’m working on a project where the producers would like to test 24P vs. 29.97 to see which one they prefer. I’ve explained that there will probably be little difference in the end result, but that it’s easier for me to work with 29.97 during the production process. The final destination will be video and the web.

Thanks again, Jason

[Chris Smith]

It’s a common misconception that 24fps is some magic framerate that “looks more film like”. Shooting a video camera progressive instead of interlaced is really the magic part. 30 interlaced is really 60 new images a second and that’s what gives a harsh video motion. But a secret is, is that film cameras for things shot for TV only (Music vids and commercials) are often shot at 30fps. Depends on money really. If there isn’t much post effects, but there is a lot of footage being shot, then we’ll shoot 24fps to save film stock. If we aren’t shooting a ton but there will be a decent amount of effects, then we shoot 30fps. But if you’re shooting a video camera where tape is cheap, to me shooting 30p is a no brainer. If you’re shooting a short/feature film going to festivals, then by all means shoot and edit in 24.

[Scott Rachal]

Backing up to the shooting part… Go to the SDX900 menus, and set one of the user buttons on the side of the camera to “Y GET”, also make
sure the viewfinder has a cross hair in the middle of the image.

Pressing the “Y GET” button acts as a temorary spot meter at the crosshair location. Light the green screen first, and make sure your green
screen reads 50% when you press the “Y GET” button.

Bring in your talent, (or a stand-in) and light your foreground WITHOUT touching the iris. When the foreground looks good be careful,
because light for your FG elements may have spilled onto the green screen and brightened it. Try to keep the green at 50%

In a perfect world, the green would be 50% edge to edge, but here in the real world, I usually end up with a 48%-52% variation
in the green brightness.

Of course… make sure with a test ahead of time that those levels will work with your particular image path and keying technology.
Here, we shoot SDX900 50 mb 24P (30p when I want to slow down to 24p for a soft slo-mo look).
Import footage thru SDI uncompressed, key in Aftereffects w/Keylight.

Also in the studio, we shoot SDI Direct out of the SDX900 uncompressed into our FCP Workstation via the optional SDI output card we bought with the camera.

-scott