Green Screen Chromakey Tutorial and Tips: How to the best from your Green Screen Shoot – PART 1
I have put together a basic list of the key points to work through when organising a Green Screen Chroma Key shoot. These are the most common questions and possible pit-falls that seem to occur. If in doubt it's always best to ask your Green Screen studio for advice on any of these points as they are involved in film shoots everyday, all year round.
Booking the Green Screen Studio - The right time and place
The Green Screen location is such an important factor as clients, talent and crew all need to be able to get the studio easily and on time. A centrally located Green Screen Studio with a good sized holding area, some sofas, TV etc. with excellent catering available should always be a preferred choice. You need somewhere with excellent transport links and also close to key suppliers. You may save money heading to out of town studios but if you run out of tape stock how much would it cost to bike some down? If your camera goes down.... again can a hire company reach you within minutes with a replacement?
Estimating how much time you will need for the shoot is not an impossible task as long as you take into account all the factors that make up a shoot:-
Build into your schedule some overrun time especially if you are shooting multiple interviews as some people will be late and some will be early! You can end up with 3 people all turning up at 2pm and having to wait to be interviewed.
Preparation
It's always best to visit the Green Screen studio to meet the staff and get a feel of how your clients will be looked after. This is very important as for many clients and talent a visit to the Green Screen studio is exciting, interesting and a break from their normal working day. They need to feel relaxed, and be confident that the production being shot will show them in their best light.
There are a few obvious things to remember such as asking your subjects not to wear anything green, heavily patterned, fine striped and shiny /reflective. For corporate shoots think about your colour choices as you do not want anything to clash with your clients brand's colour or even be seen to represent a rival brands colour!
If possible you should always ask for subjects to bring a choice of shirts (one light, one dark ) and different ties/ accessories. Within reason, you can ask subjects to tie their hair up as fine hair is always harder to key out. Glasses should be swapped for contact lens again if possible but remember that your subject may need to read off cue cards or autocue so they do need to be able to see!
STUDIO TIP – Backgrounds
If you're shooting some scenes against chroma green, and you need a few shots against a coloured background (white or black for example ), it's better to pull down the white background and not just shoot green and ‘fix it in post'! A studio with white and black backgrounds is therefore very useful if not essential.
STUDIO TIP - Perspective and camera movements
Think about how any camera moves (especially zooms / tracking in) will change the perspective and size of your background that you will be adding later.
A slow track into your subject will mean that in the editing stage you will have to accurately recreate the shift in perspective and rescale/size your background to match. Not impossible but keyframing can be time consuming. For best results your camera should be locked off on a tripod.
STUDIO TIP – Shooting blurred shots
If you're filming in the Green Screen Studio a shot that will end up being out of focus in the final edit, do not shoot it out of focus. Shoot in focus and then blur it later in the edit suite. Attempting to ‘key out' a pull focus shot will give you no end of headaches!
In the next article we will look into ‘What video formats are the best for Green Screen Studio Shoots' plus ‘What is the best way to light a Green Screen studio'.
Booking the Green Screen Studio - The right time and place
The Green Screen location is such an important factor as clients, talent and crew all need to be able to get the studio easily and on time. A centrally located Green Screen Studio with a good sized holding area, some sofas, TV etc. with excellent catering available should always be a preferred choice. You need somewhere with excellent transport links and also close to key suppliers. You may save money heading to out of town studios but if you run out of tape stock how much would it cost to bike some down? If your camera goes down.... again can a hire company reach you within minutes with a replacement?
Estimating how much time you will need for the shoot is not an impossible task as long as you take into account all the factors that make up a shoot:-
- Time required to set up the camera and any additional lights?
- Have you allowed time for your subject to rehearse?
- Do you have sufficient time for make-up and hair?
Build into your schedule some overrun time especially if you are shooting multiple interviews as some people will be late and some will be early! You can end up with 3 people all turning up at 2pm and having to wait to be interviewed.
Preparation
It's always best to visit the Green Screen studio to meet the staff and get a feel of how your clients will be looked after. This is very important as for many clients and talent a visit to the Green Screen studio is exciting, interesting and a break from their normal working day. They need to feel relaxed, and be confident that the production being shot will show them in their best light.
There are a few obvious things to remember such as asking your subjects not to wear anything green, heavily patterned, fine striped and shiny /reflective. For corporate shoots think about your colour choices as you do not want anything to clash with your clients brand's colour or even be seen to represent a rival brands colour!
If possible you should always ask for subjects to bring a choice of shirts (one light, one dark ) and different ties/ accessories. Within reason, you can ask subjects to tie their hair up as fine hair is always harder to key out. Glasses should be swapped for contact lens again if possible but remember that your subject may need to read off cue cards or autocue so they do need to be able to see!
STUDIO TIP – Backgrounds
If you're shooting some scenes against chroma green, and you need a few shots against a coloured background (white or black for example ), it's better to pull down the white background and not just shoot green and ‘fix it in post'! A studio with white and black backgrounds is therefore very useful if not essential.
STUDIO TIP - Perspective and camera movements
Think about how any camera moves (especially zooms / tracking in) will change the perspective and size of your background that you will be adding later.
A slow track into your subject will mean that in the editing stage you will have to accurately recreate the shift in perspective and rescale/size your background to match. Not impossible but keyframing can be time consuming. For best results your camera should be locked off on a tripod.
STUDIO TIP – Shooting blurred shots
If you're filming in the Green Screen Studio a shot that will end up being out of focus in the final edit, do not shoot it out of focus. Shoot in focus and then blur it later in the edit suite. Attempting to ‘key out' a pull focus shot will give you no end of headaches!
In the next article we will look into ‘What video formats are the best for Green Screen Studio Shoots' plus ‘What is the best way to light a Green Screen studio'.
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