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Hello!

I am working on a project at the moment and need some help deciding on a way to make the background. The location is a set of a crossing at a road and i need it look as though the background is a continuous street/city.
The background itself is never going to be in focus but will be in shot from time to time (At least 3 of 4 directions). The street is 11m wide and the centre of the crossing is 20/30m from the background. I have 3 options that i am considering.
A. Printed sheet with the image of the background
B. Green screen
C. Rear Projection
I am just trying to figure out which of the 3 options would be the most effective/efficient way to create my continuous street background.
Thanks.
Edited by Anna Patarakina
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Anna,

 

I know this jumps pretty far forward in assumptions about your shoot, but I was recently at an event where Rosco was showing off their new trans-light backdrops. You can send them a picture (Photoshop in what you want) and they will print the backdrop for you. However, this assumes a set camera height because obviously there's no parallax with a fixed background. If the camera is fixed, then you can always composite in moving stuff onto a trans-light, but that seems like a lot of work compared with a good green screen. I remember on "Ugly Betty" they composited in NYC "stuff" using plates shot elsewhere. Do a search for "ugly betty visual effects". FilmmakerIQ.com has a good entry about it. Hope this helps.

 

Stuart

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You probably have more flexibility if you shoot the plates and then match the lighting on the subjects with a green screen background.

 

But if you are just shooting close-ups with a soft background, it may be simpler to use a photo backdrop and get it all in-camera.

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Thanks a lot for your answers!

I have quite a lot of stedicam moves but I guess it shouldn't be a problem as long as background out of focus. I might have couple of shots from a crane and here comes the tricky part with the background cz persperctive will be wrong.

Is rear projection a completely wrong direction? Or it's just too expensive compare to a printed backdrop?

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Steadicam implies wider angle lenses and arcing moves, doesn't sound very budget friendly no matter which approach you take. The big budget solution would be to shoot a lot of plates and create a 360 or 180 degree virtual world so that the effects person can match semi-CGI backgrounds to the 3D movement of the camera, which is a big job. I'm not sure you are being realistic if you plan on a moving camera... And if you use a flat backdrop then how are you to move the camera in any sort of curved moves and not see that the background is flat nor shoot off of the background? And if you aren't going to build a 3D virtual world then how are you going to shoot against a green screen and be able to repeat the same moves in the b.g. plates as you use on the f.g. subject?

 

Rear screen is even worse because you need to shoot close to the projector lens axis or else you may see a change in brightness or see a moving hot spot.

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Adrian, I'm afraid it's not possible cz we are builiding quite special decorations (kind of fantastic city with theather elements).

David, thanks a lot. Picture is getting clearer now. Seems like its must be green screen with lots of work for CG guys. I ll try to show background as little as possible.

Thank you

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