Green screen in 16mm

[Pavan Deep]

I am using Super 16, Fuji 64D and trying to film a scene in a small room which is difficult to work in. So I am thinking of filming it in two seperate stages.

 

Stage 1 - I would light the room and film it for a few seconds using various angles. I would have more conrol over the lighting.

 

Stage 2 - I would film ther actors in a studio infront of a green screen.

 

In adobe CS4 I will blend the two stages together. Would this work?

 

Thanks

 

P

 

[Heikki Repo]

Have you done such work before? I'm just asking that because with chroma key work there can be many stumbling blocks on the way. The worst case scenario is really that it looks like .. well ... like it was shot in front of green screen. That's what you'll get if the lighting doesn't look the same in the two and sometimes even that's not enough to make it look convincing.

 

The way I'd see this question is that what kind of film do you have. Are there other such elements which somehow "bend the reality" and involve compositing? If this is the only time in the film that you are going to use this kind of technique and the room isn't in some way really special, I'd try to avoid doing it. It just isn't worth the trouble and the fact that it'll draw at least some attention from those watching the film.

Edited April 2, 2013 by Heikki Repo

[Mike Lary]

I would spend the time in pre-production figuring out the logistics and avoid green screen unless I had a competent compositor committed to the project.

[Pavan Deep]

Hi

 

Thanks, I have never done green screen before and am very reluctant, but do see that I might get better performances in a controlled environment. Are there any 16mm green screen examplesd on Youtube or Vimeo?

 

P

[Geoff Howell]

As long as the green screen is very very evenly lit with no shadows it should work.

However the overall quality of the key that you'll be able to pull from 16mm remains to be seen; I'm just not sure it has the sufficient definition to get the nice well defined edges you'll need for compositing.

 

Back in the day when effects people were still using film the rule of thumb seemed to be to use the largest format you could get your hands on, ILM had vista vision, EEG/Boss used 65mm

[Will Montgomery]

The key you'd pull from 16mm green screen will depend much upon the quality of transfer.

 

I'd stay away from it unless you have no other choice because it sounds like you just need to invest time and energy on lighting and lens choice.

[Paul Bartok]

The key you'd pull from 16mm green screen will depend much upon the quality of transfer.

 

I'd stay away from it unless you have no other choice because it sounds like you just need to invest time and energy on lighting and lens choice.

1+

 

You'll need a high quality transfer for this to work. You could pull a nice 2K image from 16mm, but it will be grainier then 35mm, then it comes down to being stored properly like a 16bit DPX file and the chroma sampling of the image.

The cost of this all being done professionally may be more expensive then investing in it practically.

 

Look into doing it practically, doing a good key isn't as easy as clicking a button it requires advanced knowledge it's a art in it's self, you need to know how todo soft and hard key's and blending them together etc.

 

All the best on your project.

[Chris Burke]

I would say use another stock, if you can. Kodak 7213 would be a great choice for green screen.