Saturday, January 30, 2016

More About Green Screen Video for Cheap

The discoveries on eBay were a stand which is 12 feet by 9.2 feet for about thirty dollars and there's a muslin green screen for about $40 which is 13 feet by 10 feet.  My concern with the stand is what potential for sagging in the middle of it because sag means wrinkles, wrinkles mean shadows, and shadows really stink up the effect.

This isn't something which can happen this minute but it's moved up to Required for the "Andromeda Weeps" video.  The possibilities this offers are tremendous and I have done some green screen experiments previously but they have been limited whereas this will take out the whole end of the room.

Note:  this not pro chroma key masking because a sheet for that green screen may cost hundreds of dollars or more.  However, the quality will be sufficient for rock'n'roll because of the aggressiveness of the visuals within the Rockhouse.  For example, the green screen won't make the laser patterns disappear on the wall and they will still appear, in effect, painted on Sundance Square.

This is not sci-fi and I know already I can do it.  The questions are how much and how soon.  It looks like a good, as opposed to professionally-excellent, kit for this is about seventy bucks.  I know already that will get it done at a satisfactory level so this campaign is charging forward.


In effect, the Rockhouse in relative darkness will be a window into whatever world I choose to place behind the green screen.  Spacial perspective is not important and there is complete freedom.

For example, there's nothing to stop me from rotating the background image such that it appears the Rockhouse is spinning relative to the background.  There's no particular reason to do that but I easily could.

Regrettably, there isn't much video footage from Greece ... so ... that means go to Sundance Square in Fort Worth to get more on-location footage and the reason for that specific site is it's where they shot part of the sci-fi movie, "Logan's Run," so the look is there.  It would be an easy thing to shoot and to put at the back of the Rockhouse so that would create a window looking out onto it.

It's all very well to make a window but there are some details.  We want the plane of the floor in the Rockhouse to be roughly the same orientation as that of the video from Sundance Square because that will give visual continuity out 'beyond.'  It can't be dark in the Rockhouse and light in the video on Sundance and still have convincing continuity but it could be interesting for some other reason.


(Ed:  won't this be too much CGI?)

In my definition, this isn't CGI since that's a different kind of fakery in adding light sabers, etc.  The lasers in this are real.  It doesn't curdle my thinking of aesthetics to do that.  "World War Z" still remains the worst movie of all-time because of abusive CGI, tho.


This has all been splendid revelation since I thought green screen was impossible, costs too much, no way to do it.  Well ... let's see about that.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

paint a wall green $12

Unknown said...

That's fine if I copped the crash from some slumlord but it ain't exactly that way here! I really don't think Yevette would be diggin' a lime-green wall back here. It needs to be a putrid color like that because chroma key works by making that specific color disappear everywhere in the image. The more putrid, the better it works.

The biggest variable is how pure the monochrome in whichever screen you use. A color you sample from anywhere will have multiple shades of the perceived color and the computer sees all of them. You're only masking one so the purity of the color is vital. You can expand the 'reach' of tones near the putrid color but that brings fuzzy and you wind up, eventually, with a green halo around everything.

Unknown said...

One other aspect is vital: must be close to zero reflectivity because any kind of shine, sheen, etc is a killer which guarantees unwanted artifacts.

Anonymous said...

too much detail
PS ask Raven about his green screen room

Unknown said...

Now I'm curious to what he does. This would be so much easier up there because Young Beautiful People all over the place. Everything else would be more difficult, tho. Ain't no justice (larfs).

I'm sure there are Young Beautiful People aplenty here as well but being related to them up there makes it a sight easier. I know without even seeing him do it the Raven would kill the part of Jason. I'm sure he could rustle up a Young Beautiful Person to become Andromeda and he loves that cosplay anyway. Down here I'm starting with, well, Tobey the Dog (larfs).

Actually, this may be feasible (see previous about Sunshine). With a more coherent storyboard, I could shoot this in a weekend and maybe that would be a twisted visit for the Raven and Suitable Squeeze. It wouldn't necessarily have to be in hard sync with the music except ... whoa ... it could be. If I shoot the base video first (i.e. the Rockhouse with Necromancer guitar player) then that gives the soundtrack I can use while shooting the Young Beautiful People and that will permit an exact sync. Whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa! (larfs)

In case you don't see it, the window out of the back of the Rockhouse shows them all mad in love, maybe in a park, or who knows where, whatever the story needs. Hang on for full-out demented. How about I film then in the Rockhouse and green screen them so only the Young Beautiful People remain ... then I put them inside the virtual Second Life scene which appears in the back of the Rockhouse scene. At some point it reaches the tricks for tricks state but there is such immense potential. Must talk to him when he gets back!