[Travis Wine]

Thanks Todd!

I appreciate your input.

[Travis Wine]

Thanks Tom – taking your advice and getting another to do it.

[Travis Wine]

I own a c100. I just filmed 34 interviews on a green screen in 6 days with the Ninja 2 while recording to AVCHD internally at the same time. I was shooting in DR mode.

It’s ok if the screen is a flat green color as long as the subject/talent is not wearing this shade of green. The secret is making sure the green screen is evenly lit. Light has to be evenly lit on the green screen. You will need two lights for this.

Once you chroma key your talent/subject in your editor, you can manipulate the color of the talent/ subject without effecting the chroma key. Or at least I can in FCP-X.

I will also be the first person to argue that avchd transcoded to ProRes will hold up just as well as the Ninja 2 recording to ProRes. If you go to my site traviswinevideo.com you will see my green screen example in the demo reel. The footage is the internal AVCHD transcoded to ProRes. This saves a lot of storage. My demo will show an older man behind a green screen then I cut in every step. I used the C100 for this.

Having a Ninja 2 will not make up for an un-properly lit green screen. And I am not saying that you did this, but I always and will always say that if the green screen is done correctly, I don’t care what your using as long as you transcode to ProRes, you will have a clean key. It’s also possible to have a clean key with AVCHD natively. Now I understand the Ninja 2 records to ProRes. I own one. But here is the main reason green screens look bad. People put their subjects/talents too close to the green screen, so when the light hitting the green screen reflects, it can bleed / shine on a talent who is too close. Then when you key, you will see some of your talent disappear. I always keep my talent or subjects 12 feet away from the green screen. I also make sure the screen is evenly lit. Do these two major points and you will always have a clean key.

As for my Ninja 2, I mainly bought this for color grading shots. This is where it really shines for me.

[Travis Wine]

What were your settings. I know that C-log or DR may be your culprit here. I am getting ready to shoot a project and wondering if I should shoot standard EOS to maintain good color. I also heard you should bring your sharpness down to -7.

[Travis Wine]

I agree with the AVCHD statement. I own a Sony NXCAM NX5U. This is a great camera. After encoding to ProRes the grading is wonderful! It also helps that the default profile on the camera shoots very flat.

[Travis Wine]

First of all, my wife and I saw the Avengers in 3-D last night. It’s now on my top 10 ten list of best films ever watched by me. My favorite part is when Loki looked at the Hulk talking how he was a God, then Hulk picked him up and smashed him around like crazy – everyone in the movie threater was cheering like we were on a roller coaster going downhill. It was great.

But to get back on topic – you have been a great source knowledge and I thank you for your advice and will adhere to this.

Let em know if you ever come to Houston, I’ll buy you a beer.

Thanks again Bruce!

[Travis Wine]

Thanks Bruce –
After seeing your resume on your site, Ill listen to what you have to say. So I hope they come out with a compressed raw, considering this will be cheaper. Given your experience is there a to the eye difference when you edit with the average compressed raw or uncompressed raw?

[Travis Wine]

Thanks for your time and communicating your experience Alex. Your a good man!

[Travis Wine]

I have been having the same problem. It seems as if Avid FX (Boris) just plain out hates ATI Video cards and Macs. I have nothing but problems with AVID FX using my ATI 5870 or Nvidia gt120 – Qualified from Avid. It amazes me how After Effects works wonderful with any video card. Yet Boris FX is able to only work with certain video cards. This is so 1990. I guess that’s why Boris is giving away FX with Avid MC and selling the version on their site for $299.00. I also foresee Boris dropping FX from their line up considering Adobe After Effects rules the market here. The only benefit of using Avid FX is in Avid. I have a fully qualified system – MACPRO 2.26 8 Core with Nvidia GT120. Again, even with the latest version of Avid FX – crash crash crash! I”m assuming Boris is not keeping up with writing their codecs for future editing software releases, unless it’s making money like Continuum Complete. Sad thing I used Avid FX all the time in Avid Express Pro when it was solid. It was a great tool then. Now it’s useless for the MACPRO. I have tried everything to make this software work.

[Travis Wine]

I honestly think it has to do with the graphics. I know that Avid Fx is a part of Boris or should I should say a Boris codec. They only admire nvidia drivers. I have an early 2009 mac pro. My nvidia gt120 card installed runs avid fx stable, however if I put in my ATI 8750 thats a recommended card from Apple, it crashes all the time.