[Joseph W. bourke]

No problem, Patrick –

That’s it –

Create new Solid Layer (CTRL-Y)

Create particle effect on Solid Layer

Composite solid layer over BGD shot in Additive Mode

And what Todd said is very valuable toward selling the shot. Think about what the lighting effect would do in the scene if it were real.

Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com

[Joseph W. bourke]

And to add to Joe’s idea (Doughtie), the Library of Congress has lots of stills which are mostly in the public domain (check the info for each shot). You can download stills which are high-rez enough for your production and use them to fill out the story.

Often times, and I hadn’t thought of this in my earlier post – in documentary, the writer will support the story line with historic events which were going on at the time of your own story line. It often adds impact to the story to add broad, sweeping events which were going on in the world (wars, womens’ right to vote marches, weather events, prohibition, etc.) at the time.

Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com

[Joseph W. bourke]

I can tell you the main reason that effects which are meant to look lit from inside fail to look real. They are done on a light background. Think about why fireworks displays aren’t set off in the daytime; they’d have absolutely no punch. They look best against a black sky.

Any time you’re doing effects which rely on brightness for their impact – flame, fairy dust, sparkles, etc. – the best way to achieve a sense of reality is to create your effect on a black layer, and then composite that layer in Additive mode. This adds the value of the pixels to the layer below, enhancing the illusion that they’re in the scene. The lighter the scene, the weaker the effect. Notice that even the flame VFX you use as an example have the talent in the shadow of the car – and it appears to be dusk. Light effects work their magic over darker backgrounds.

Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com

[Joseph W. bourke]

You could definitely take the Ken Burns approach to it, where you shoot atmospheric shots of the area the house was in at dawn and dusk, when the lighting is dramatic. You might take a look at an episode of The Civil War – there’s quite a bit of that style in it.

Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com

[Joseph W. bourke]

Here’s one solution with a free trial:

https://www.altova.com/download-xml-to-pdf.html?gclid=COvc-_3A7LgCFcuf4AodlhUANg

I have not tried it. From what I can see in Bridge CS6, you can only export Metadata one file at a time – if you select multiple files, Export is greyed out.

Here is more discussion – I haven’t got time right now to check it out:

https://www.justskins.com/forums/exporting-metadata-caption-information-84427.html

Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com

[Joseph W. bourke]

So who gets to eat the Butter Cow at the end of the fair? You should definitely get a still shot of the butter cow to post here – fits right in with the theme…

Now, if we could just find a Pancake Cow…

Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com

[Joseph W. bourke]

Jeff –

I know it’s too late to do this, but you should have had a look at the footage to make sure that it was doable in the allotted time. If your client is reasonable, you might be able to go back to him and tell him that there are technical problems with the footage, and it’s going to take longer (cost more). I know how that goes, and I’ve been in the position before – sometimes if you approach someone hat in hand, and are honest with them, they’ll allot some more time/expense. Sometimes not…

I haven’t had much luck with the Difference Matte, but yes, you need what they call a “clean plate”, the shot, with identical lighting, and no actor in it. Here’s a rundown from the Adobe help:
https://help.adobe.com/en_US/aftereffects/cs/using/WS3878526689cb91655866c1103a9d3c597-7b52a.html

Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com

[Joseph W. bourke]

Depending upon how you would search will be to a great extent the determining factor in what your Metadata structure is. I’m not waffling here, but there are so many possible ways to label your media (location, shot type, interior/exterior, client, MOS/SOT, timecode, date, frame and pixel aspect ratio, voice-over content, etc.), that you could end up overdoing and over-thinking the process.

Here’s some useful food for thought on how to proceed:

https://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/guide/metadata-and-digital-video

…followed by a look at how some organizations who have millions of things to keep track of do it:

https://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/guide/controlling-your-language-links-to-metadata-vocabularies/

…and some info on how PPro, AE, and other Adobe products work with the Metadata:

https://help.adobe.com/en_US/premierepro/cs/using/WSE2397406-3FEB-43df-868D-68EB20BBC021.html

Sorry to bury you with information, but the time you spend on the front end determining what’s important to your project structure will reflect on the back end when you can actually find things you need. The main trick will be consistent keywording, use of both metadata and labeling, and putting someone in charge of overseeing metadata. One more thing, here’s a link to an article I wrote on Managing Broadcast Assets in Bridge for the COW Magazine:

https://library.creativecow.net/bourke_joseph/magazine_27-Adobe-Bridge/1

Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com

[Joseph W. bourke]

My thought on this is that you may end up spending more time and effort on this than it’s worth. You can purchase these foldable green screens on *bay and B&H for pretty short money.

It might become a case of “why buy it for a sixty dollars, when you can build it for a hundred?”. The challenge of doing it, on the other hand, is rather interesting. The tough part, in thinking about it, is how you’re going to join the ends of the spring steel rod in order to not fly apart and injure someone on the shoot. Good luck!

Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com

[Joseph W. bourke]

If you do a bit of searching on *bay, you’ll find a lot of top handles, which, depending on your configuration, can be quite affordable. I’ve got most of the Fotga DP500 system, and I found it to be quite well built, and very affordable. They sell a set of handles which can be configured into your system for under 50 bucks, with a couple of added angle fixtures.

Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com