Low budget green screen underwater

[Paul Bruening]

Hello good people,

 

I will be shooting green screen this summer myself. I'm shooting Techniscope on 5274. This is what I intend. I'm going to use Color Composition's green paint cut with an artist's matte acrylic, painted onto ordinary (sanded) hardware store plastic tarp (already has tie-off grommets). I will stretch on a frame and bag down into the deep-end of a local swimming pool. I will submerse the cam in a shallow box with window. I am going to try Jon Erland's trick of using buff visquin (sp?) over the pools surface to break refraction from sun or cloud light. This should give me even lighting accross both human subject and green screen. Am I an idiot? Will this work? What do you anticipate as problems?

 

Thanks,

Paul Bruening

[drew_town]

I wouldn't want to composite that. I'd shoot a test for sure, but if I had to guess I'd say you'll have all kind of artifact problems when the subject moves the water around, or if there's anything floating in the water. I'm not sure from your post what you're trying to do exactly. Film's a lot easier to composite (not that I have any first hand knowledge on that :rolleyes: ) but I know video (HD or SD) would be difficult. Also if you're using an outdoor pool, sunlight changes will throw you off a little. It might be a pain to run a test but I'd at least shoot one on a smaller scale, maybe even with a dv cam.