[Dennis Size]

Way back in early days of lighting for theatre the philosphy was …”bright, white, warm and washed out for comedy”. Seems like that was the concept here.

DS

[Dennis Size]

Well Nick….. it appears you have a mission — and definitely an idea that will make you a multi-millionaire. Let’s face it, there’s definitely a market considering all the crap that’s broadcast these days.
Better hurry up and develop/patent this idea before someone else does.
Let’s face it… this month alone — what with Ed McMahon, Michael Jackson, Billy Mays, Farah Fawcett, Karl Malden, and Steve McNair, etc. — your ratings would have been through the roof!!!

DS

[Dennis Size]

Ahh …. I yearn for the “good old days”.
It seems like things were so much easier and simpler, and there was much more enjoyment from the “hands-on” experience!

DS

[Dennis Size]

You are 100% correct Mark ….. but isn’t that what I said?

As a sidenote, one should be careful of specific names and various gel company’s actual products. For example Rosco’s bastard amber #02 (a favorite of mine) is almost identical to Roscosun 1/2 CTO.
Rosco’s #01 Light bastard amber however is a VERRRYYY diferent color — with a lot of pink mixed in with the straw, rendering it somewhat useless as a “foil” to counter balancing the bounce from a blue screen.

DS

[Dennis Size]

We are all merely cooks making a fine meal …..adding spices and “special ingredients” as needed to provide that special flavoring.!

One question Todd ….when you used the 300w tungsten — instead of your normal 150w HMI — did you exclaim, “BAM!” 🙂

DS

[Dennis Size]

Actually a 1/4 minus green …and 1/8 CTO is subtle. Considering the amount of green light already rimming the subject (via bounce off the screen) the complementary pink serves to negate that. I’ve actually used full minus green in my backlights occasionally, depending on how much green spill is polluting the subject. Obviously the amber would do the same complementary thing if you’re keying with a blue screen.
I like adding a “hint” of CTO to my backlights all the time — whether I’m chromakeying or not — depending on the color tonality of the subject’s hair (and hair dye!). It adds warmth to people with white hair, vibrancy to people with blond or sandy blond hair, and a warm reflection (instead of a cold white refelction) off the head of someone with black, dead hair. It’s all subjective, and a matter of personal taste however.

DS

[Dennis Size]

MARK……

Thank you. This was one of the best threads I’ve read in COW in a very long time.
this will keep me chuckling for days …while my eyes continue to cry — not only from laughter, but also from the recognition of what we all go through.

DS

[Dennis Size]

Interesting choices. Why not use the softlights — and/or the Kinos — fo the greenscreen backwall?

DS

[Dennis Size]

That’s a lot of “firepower”!
How high, and how far offstage are your 1.2’s? A chimera or some sort of softbox to control the spill from your silks will be advantageous.

DS

[Dennis Size]

I also found that adding green gel actually gave us a better key.
I shoot with an HDX900 …. and its shoots beautiful pictures so we make it work for the green screen stuff. I’m be curious if anyone else agrees with that.

Mark D’Agostino
https://www.synergeticproductions.com

I agree with you Mark. The 900 shoots beautifully. Normally I never add green to the light on the greenscreen. When I have, it was only because I had LOTS of distance between it and my subject.. or I had a shoddy greenscreen material.
My preference is always to “warm-up” the subject (with either minus green, straw, bastard amber, whatever works best) to separate him/her from the screen. This helps minimize the green bounce “light source” that trys to “tear” my subject away from the foreground, while changing the quality of the light on the subject — as opposed to the greenscreen.
I always have the greenscreen at least one stop underlit.
Many of my lighting decisions are based on how big the greenscreen actually is, whether or not my subject is also walking around on it, and what type of lighting instrumentation I’m stuck with.
If I’m just doing a simple head & shoulders greenscreen shot I would light it very differently than an entire virtual reality set. Every situation brings with it it’s own set of problems.

DS