Green screen! How well would this work?

[Michael Maier]

How well would painting the outside of window glasses green work for keying?

We have a window where we can't put a green screen behind it but need to key it out to put a different background behind it and I was wondering if this would work? Thanks.

[John Brawley]

How well would painting the outside of window glasses green work for keying?

We have a window where we can't put a green screen behind it but need to key it out to put a different background behind it and I was wondering if this would work? Thanks.

 

 

Hi michael.

 

Are you assuming that they would be *auto-illuminating* from sunlight coming through ?

 

I imagine the issue will be lighting them AND taking care of internal reflections. The glass, once painted on the outside, and depending on if they are backlit to a bright enough level and what your interior lighting, will start reflecting a lot of you lighting and internal set. The glass inside will turn *mirrorish* on you.....

 

This would NOT be good stuff to have in your key, as one would not normally expect to see internal reflections on a day interior set with large windows....

 

jb

[Walter Graff]

Are you locking down the shot? Does anyone pass in front? Just thinking without knowing your set up but how about shooting the window element seperate and adding it later as a matte?

[Scott Fritzshall]

This sounds like a worst-case scenario type thing. It's going to make lighting really difficult, since light would normally be coming through that window, right? And how are you going to light the green window? And how even are you going to be able to get the paint? Your spill from the green being just feet or even inches from the talent is going to be pretty bad too.

[Michael Maier]

Thanks for all the input. Yes there will be people pass in front and we are not locking down the shots.

Yes I was hoping the brightness from outside would be enough to light them, but I would avoid shooting when the sun is directly hitting the windows because this would send green spill in. About the glass inside turning *mirrorish* I could spray from the inside instead covering the glass surface to avoid the mirror effect. Also, maybe sticking a mirrored film on the outside could maybe reflect most of the excessive light back to avoid spill?

I'm wondering if building a small box outside the window would be a better approach? Although the box would be basically how deep the window whole or frame is in the outside. I couldn't rig a bigger box as we are on the 6th floor.

 

I have to say as well that most of the time the window is covered by the blinds so we can only see what's visible in between the blinds blades.

Edited March 13, 2008 by Michael Maier