Video Compositing

[David Bradley]

Shooting a music video, director/producer spring the following idea on me: They want the artist to appear in the same frame as different characters, each played by himself.

 

I've never done anything like this before and they are aware of my lack of experience but want to go ahead anyway (their funeral).

 

How do I do this? Will I require chroma key?

 

Best

 

David

[William A Chapman Jr]

Shooting a music video, director/producer spring the following idea on me: They want the artist to appear in the same frame as different characters, each played by himself.

 

I've never done anything like this before and they are aware of my lack of experience but want to go ahead anyway (their funeral).

 

How do I do this? Will I require chroma key?

 

Best

 

David

 

 

Yes, After Effects would work as well as others, or you could mask it but it would be more work.

[David Bradley]

mask? My worry with chroma key is that without several thousand pounds worth of equipment which I can't afford it looks pretty aweful. I have basic chroma facilities i.e. blue screen but thats it. Could we not fix a static camera, wide angle on stable grip - shoot the player in one half of the room and then in the other without the two ever intersecting. Is it possible to effectively cut the screen in two and patch them together in post or am I making matters more difficult for myself. Any literature anyone could advise would help?

 

Thanks

 

Dave

[David Auner aac]

Hi David!

 

Sure, you could shoot two halves of the room and merge them in post. But that effect wouldn't be as nice as having the characters moving in depth and crisscrossing over the screen. Your best bet is shooting blue screen and layering the characters on top of each other. You can save yourself some pain by shooting them without their feet so you won't have to have a blue floor which would probably cause major blue spill from below.

 

Aside from that you'd have to mask each layer by hand which is a tremendous amount of work but can look very good when done well. How long would that shoot need to be?

 

Cheers, Dave

[David Bradley]

yes I see where you are coming from, blotting out the legs is a good idea - saves me alot of work. Perhaps I will need to limit the number of shots in which the player appears twice. This would give me alot more versatillity in terms of repositioning the camera. Perhaps some testing is in order.

 

Do you think it a good idea to shoot a scene as a master without bluescreen and then use that as the background for the chroma key later? Would it look convincing if I could replicate the lighting or would it be easier to do it all in studio with a screen?

 

Best

 

David