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shooting line of people on a white cyc
Hi,
I’ve been asked to give my input on a possible commercial shoot and how to set it up for the fx.
The shot is this – one actor in the foreground, head and torso, off to one side. In the background is a line of people, 20 or so. As the foreground actor says his lines, various people in the line behind him fade out one by one until only one is left. The scene is to be set on an all white background.
Here is what I’m thinking of doing, correct me if I’m wrong. Shoot two lines of people, each line with spaces between the people so that they don’t overlap. Isolate each person by keying or rotoscope (they will be hardly moving), then composite them into the final line with some overlapping others so it looks natural. Finally, shoot the foreground actor separately and composite over the line.
My question is, is it worth it to do this on a white background to begin with, or would shooting on greenscreen be easier to key instead of trying to do luma mattes+garbage mattes? Also, would it possibly be better to shoot the line and actor normally, no composites and ‘minus’ the disappearing figures by fading inverse rotoscoped white shapes over them? You’d have to start with the figures standing behind others first, because of the overlaps, but perhaps this would be easier and more natural looking.
any guidance on how to set this up would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
-z
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3 Replies
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Also, if you’re on a green cyc, make sure that there’s enough light on the actor’s legs and try to avoid ground shadows. I’d shoot each actor separately as large as possible, then composite them. And I’d also echo in shooting the main guy full on, then moving him in post.
hope this helps,
kurt murphy
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I don’t see anything in that link that shows me a perfect key…
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awesome. thanks for all the quick responses. I figured green screen would probably be the way to go, my only reason to think about shooting white was to avoid dealing with green spill which I’ve found tricky to remove in the past.
shooting the bg actors full size and then shrinking later is also a good idea and easier to separate from any bg spill.
At the very least we would shoot varicam, otherwise 35mm. Incidentally, is there any advantage to shoot 35mm in a case like this? Its always a pain to deal with grain and gate weave for fx shots, although I guess that wouldn’t be a big factor if its keying only and delivering for SD. My thinking is its pretty tough to tell and difference between varicam and 35 when its all set in a white background like this and of course properly lit.
thanks for all your advice!
-z
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