Tagged with screen - Personal View Talks

budget lights for green screen?

cevahic — Mon, 23 Sep 2019 00:27:40 +0000

I am buying a Westcott 130 fleece green backdrop: https://www.fjwestcott.com/9-x-10-green-screen-wrinkle-resistant-backdrop

What sort of lights would be best to evenly light this screen and get a perfect key? Ideally under $500 for a pair of lights (or more lights if needed). I am thinking of lights that I can mount on C-Stands or light-stands.

The talent will be lit separately with soft boxes, around 4 meters away from the green screen.

4K Displays topic

Vitaliy_Kiselev — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 14:01:47 +0000

The ASUS PQ321 True 4K UHD Monitor uses cutting-edge Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide (IGZO) rather than traditional amorphous silicon for the active layer of its LCD panel. IGZO panels support much smaller transistors than amorphous silicon, which in turn gives much smaller pixels and the 3840 x 2160 resolution of the PQ321 is four times that of a 1920 x 1080 Full HD display.

176-degree wide viewing angles on both vertical and horizontal planes minimize onscreen color shift, while the 350cd/m² brightness rating and 8ms gray-to-gray response time ensure smooth, bright, and vibrant moving visuals. IGZO technology also gives reduced energy consumption compared to amorphous silicon and reduces bulk — at 35mm at its thickest point, the PQ321 is the thinnest 4K UHD monitor available today.

Via: http://www.asus.com/News/L9xTPmmMwTlPMq5l

Coronavirus: How will productions change how they shoot during the near/mid term future?

IronFilm — Fri, 17 Apr 2020 08:44:00 +0000

Over the years there has been a general trend to do more TV series and feature films be shot multi-camera.

I wonder if (until we find a vaccine for COVID-19, or it naturally burns out) in the near future we'll see a shift back to more single camera shooting instead?

Could mean more shooting days, but there could be a strong desire to shoot with the smallest minimal crews possible. As the bigger the crews, the bigger the risk someone comes down with COVID-19, causing the entire production to be shutdown!

With one exception, I can see the sound department needing to add an extra boom op than they'd usually budget for. Because lav-ing a person is quite intimate, I can see for the next few weeks/months that lavs will be avoided. Thus it becomes even more essential than usual to make sure you get the best possible coverage with the boom.

Wonder too what will happen to the generous film incentives these scripted productions get from states/countries? When their state budgets are already under massive stresses from increased costs and a reduced tax intake, they'll be looking to cut "costs" (although I'd argue it is not a cost, but merely a tax rebate? Tax money the state would have never got otherwise, if the production wasn't shot there).

These tax rebates / film incentives will be especially vulnerable to attack if they were implemented under the basis of being "marketing for the region" to help promote tourism. Was where is the tourism now?? Dead. There is very little tourism to promote, and many regions would not want to promote tourists coming! As they want to lock out everyone who is "non-essential".

Moving on from the scripted narrative world, to the corporate world of videography and also event shooting. Am expecting a rise in live streaming. Soon nearly everyone will need to offer, just like the shift from SD to HD, everyone had to offer HD. (and we're almost at that point with 4K now)

Who charges extra for 4K these days? Most don't, or only a small token extra amount.

So will be the case with live streaming I think, you'll either throw it in to get the job or just a modest upsell extra cost.

And because an ATEM Mini Pro costs only US$599 you can easily eat that cost, as if it only gets you a couple of extra jobs that you wouldn't have otherwise, then it is worth it!

Effects question: removing a background

Brian_Siano — Tue, 11 Apr 2017 11:07:10 +0000

Let's say I have a shot with an actor in a room. The camera doesn't move, so the background is completely static, and doesn't change from frame to frame beyond the usual grain. I'm figuring that, if I had a frame of just the background, I ought to be able to use it to filter out the background and isolate just the actor, as though it were a greenscreen.

I'm having some trouble doing this in Premiere Pro. Any suggestions?

Using a 4K TV as a Cinematic Background

andyharris — Fri, 24 Feb 2017 09:37:41 +0000

I was curious to see if the old ways of back projection could be updated with the use of a 4K TV. We thought that the brightness and refresh rates of modern screens could work well with a 24FPS camera.

Here's the results:

GH4 laptop Requirements?

mpgxsvcd — Mon, 24 Mar 2014 12:58:47 +0000

Let me start this off with saying that I know a desktop is a better option for this. However, I absolutely must have a laptop to do my editing on the road while it is happening. I have a matter of hours to edit this footage and not days, weeks, or months.

Also I am a PC guy. I understand that some people use Macs. That just isn’t for me. I want a fast PC laptop that can handle editing the GH4 4K video for less than $2000.

I definitely need to upgrade my laptop before my GH4 gets here. However, I am not sure what specs will help me and what will just cost me more money and not really give me any benefit.

Obviously a 4K screen would be ideal to match the footage. However, is that really necessary? With a 15-19 inch screen is that extra resolution going to matter at all? How much are the 4K laptops going to be? Is 1920x1080 going to look about the same as 4K on this size screen? Do any of you have a 4K laptop already?

What Grpahics processor? I have always been an ATI person before. However, Nvidia makes great video cards as well. What is the minimum ATI and Nvidia card that will work for editing 4k footage? Is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M enough?

Processor. It is confusing about what processor are fast and what processors are just pretending to be fast. My understanding is that I7 doesn’t always mean what you think it means. So what processor should I be looking for? Is the i7-4700MQ the best processor to get right now?

Operating system. I really hate Windows 8. I have a laptop with it and I hate it. I really don’t want to get another one with Windows 8. Will Windows 7 hold me back in any way? I have a lot of astrophotography programs that I also run and those won’t work properly under Windows 8.

Ram. I know the more you have the better. However, will you see a difference between 16 Gigs and 32 Gigs? There is usually a significant price difference between those. Is 16GB PC3-12800 DDR3L SDRAM enough?

Hard Drive. I am using USB 3.0 external drives right now. I need a lot more than 250 or even 500 GB so solid state is not really an option for me. Is solid state that much faster than USB 3.0?

Here is one laptop I am looking at. It is an Alienware 17.3" Laptop - 16GB Memory with the components I listed above. Are there better options out there for less than $1850?

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/17-3-laptop-16gb-memory-750gb-hard-drive/5211137.p?id=1219115309847&skuId=5211137&st=categoryid$abcat0502000&cp=1&lp=1#tab=overview

Optimizing your greenscreen shots when shooting with the gh2

vempire — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 16:00:13 +0000

Here are some tips and tricks for optimizing your greenscreen shots when shooting with the gh2.
Since I have the gh2, I use it side by side with a red one when doing greenscreen shootings for TV Vfx.
As the gh2 isn´t capable of recording raw and doesn´t have the same lattitude as the red, I figured out the following techniques
to take the gh2 greenscreen shots to a level where you can really intercut them with the red material on broadcast programs.
Which I regularily did and do, and nobody ever realized, that that material wasn´t all shot with the red.
Try this with the 5d MK2 and you´d be completly lost.

Lets assume you build a little greenscreen set, maybe 5x3 metres, shooting somebody standing in front and on green cloth.
As money is short you buy no pro greenscreen cloth but just green cloth from ebay or so. Thats fine.

Try to get the cloth as wrinklefree as possible, some wrinkles won´t be a big problem.

If you have very dark (Black) shadows on the foor or elsewhere in the greenscreen try to brighten them up with bounced light - styrofoam will do.
It´s not necessary to get a perfectly even lit screen, just avoid deep black shadows and blown out white spots.

If you can control the brightness of the screen by adding light with lamps or bouncecards, or subtracting light with black cloth here´s how you can find the perfect sweet spot for the brightness, the greenscreen should have:
You need a greycard which has a square of 90% white in it and a Kodak Wratten No. 99 Filter. Both together shouldn´t be over 100$ but it really makes the difference.
Light your actor in front of the screen and the screen itself.
Set the exposure on your camera.
Hold the 90 % white card in front of the greenscreen, so it catches the light the actor would usually catch.
Look thru the No.99 (green) filter. If the the 90% white looks darker green than your greenscreen you have to brighten the greenscreen,
if it looks brighter try to darken the greenscreen. Your setup is perfect when the 90% white seen thru the green filter looks more or less like your greenscreen. If you´ve done that a few times you get a feeling for it.
This technique really helps getting an easy good key with gh2 material.

If you have a lot of action creating lots of motionblur in your image, you´ll get problems. The blur against green gets quite ugly and tends to produce
black edges. If you can afford Reelsmart Motionblur (an After Effects Plugin), you should double your shutter speed during shooting (1/100 for 25 frames or 1/120 for 30 frames). You´ll get cleaner and sharper motion. Use Reelsmart Motionblur to generate Motionblur on your greenscreen footage right after the keyer before merging with the background. Select "Images are premultiplied" if you encounter fringes.

I found the following GH2 settings best for me:
Smooth, contrast -1, sharpness -1, color saturation -1, noise reduction -1

Always prefer greenscreen to bluescreen, cause the green channel is much cleaner.

If you are short on light, and you have too much noise in your shot, even if you don´t see it a first glance (zoom in and you´ll find it),
denoise your shots with neatvideo before keying. It´s the best denoiser by far. In my opinion it gives you the opportunity to push one stop further than you would normally do. Push the iso up to the extend, that you would normally say "Okay thats one step too much, now I see more noise that I can accept" . Using neatvideo gets you back to the quality of one Iso down most of the time.

Use 5DtoRGB to transfer your clips before compositing. It helps you get a "smoother gamma", saving more color information in dark parts of your greenscreen.

Although all this works with a unhacked gh2 (I did a broadcast job with it before the hack), using the higher bitrate of the hack greatly enhances your results. I use the 66mb setting.

Last tip, if you have serveral keyers or keying plugins, always test them all quickly without heavy tweaking on your shot.
In most cases one keyer will work obviously better than the others, and thats really not always keylight. Choose the one that performed best, and refine.

Hope that helps you to tackle greenscreen shots easier in the future.
It´s clear that you can´t follow all that tips in most cases, just try to use as many of them as possible.

Regards
Holger Neuhaeuser

Work In Progress

andyharris — Mon, 29 Aug 2016 13:00:55 +0000

Work in Progress

I've made myself a goal of creating a short worthy of presentation at a film festival. Basically because creatively it is the next step up from corporate videos. It's actually very hard to do, I've put more than 1000 hours in an have virtually nothing to show for it. However this long weekend has allowed me to get a whole pile of tests done and even have the 3D printer running for a few hours.

I've built this 'studio' in a spare room and I'm going about dealing with the challenges of video is a small space. Audio has been a bit of a challenge, I've been adding tiles to the ceiling in blocks of £90, and that doesn't get you many tiles!. Ikea has been my friend in terms of cheap deep pile rugs.

I've purchased Fusion Studio so that I can get access to the proper version of Primatte (Keying). I'm just getting my head around keep-out mattes which you can see connected to the garbage matte below (two Primattes, one to key the other to build the keep-out).

Here's a few seconds of bringing a pile of stuff together, It's a Fusion composition where the background is created in Cheetah3D. The interfaces are procedurally generated:

Modifications to some standard office LED Panel fittings for Green Screen lighting

andyharris — Mon, 27 Jun 2016 07:19:53 +0000

Here's a couple of test shots, one backlit and one not:

Here's the controller I used

And here's one of the modifications that I needed to reduce the flicker:

Here's an overview of the space:

Here's some printed brackets:

and a side view:

In a few days, I'll put together a blog of how I come to this result. Right now I'm awaiting a full copy of Black Magic's Fusion Studio in the hope of getting to the finest keying.

Art video for double screen HD projection

Gerondo — Wed, 08 May 2013 04:07:29 +0000

I want to share this video with you. The original video is a double full HD sequence made for projection in an exhibition room. Filmed with the earliest GH2 hacks. Thank you Vitali e.o. for making this camera so good!

The video work "INVERSION", consisting of two full HD video projections side by side, shows indoor and outdoor spaces of an abandoned place in a forest. The camera slowly scans the landscape showing traces of a silent inversion of nature taking over culture and culture taking over nature.

What brand chroma green screen do you use?

f1lm3r — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 17:39:01 +0000

Just a curious question. There seems to be quite a handful to choose from. I'm looking to do a green screen shoot in the near future for a short film and was looking at picking one up. I know one of the big things to look for is non-reflective and wrinkle-resistant. Westcott seems to be popular brand. But could I just get any old green screen and it'll work?

Test of CN-R640 LED Ring Light

andyharris — Fri, 09 Jan 2015 12:41:15 +0000

Here's a quick test of this Ring Light. It came up cheap on e-bay then disappeared, I tracked down a UK supplier that apparently had a six week wait. It arrived in four days!

I've been having a idea about an interface's POV, in that you see characters from behind the interface, so that formed the based of this test:

It took more time to set up than shoot (about 2 hours). In this test the Ring Light is set to 50% brightness and the white balance is set at 5600K. I believe its going to be a pretty useful addition to my lighting and the only downside it that I can't find a suitable soft bag to protect it in transit.

The music was assembled from kits from Big Fish Audio.

Greens Screen Music Video (multiple cameras)

hempo22 — Sun, 06 Jul 2014 08:04:05 +0000

FS: 8" LCD Monitor

yuripirondi — Fri, 25 Apr 2014 09:44:08 +0000

Hi there! Due to give away my 5d, I'm selling this 8" LCD Monitor, with the possibility to powered up with Canon Batteries LP-E6. If you own a 5d or 7d and you have spare batteries, this will be an amazing opportunity to view your footage in LARGE!

The cost is £60!

I'm living in London, pick up is preferred, but I can also send the camera, within European borders.

http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/8-lcd-monitor-for-canon-cameras-5d-7d/1058609008 I FORGOT TO PUT IN THE PICTURES THE REMOTE CONTROL, It will come with the screen..

What you going to get: -8" LCD Monitor -Canon LP-E6 Charger -Power cable -Sun Shade -Accessory Shoe Mounting Adapter -Remote Control -360 degree swivel mount

Features • Ultra Bright 450cd/㎡ High-Definition Display • Supports Composite Video RCA Input • Display Resolution up to 800*480 Pixels • 16:9 or 4:3 Adjustable Display Ratio • Designed for FPV Application • Application to FPV or Wireless Composite Video Camera in making Movies.

Specifications Panel Size: 8" widescreen Brightness: 450 cd/㎡ LCD Type: TFT LCD Resolution: 800 x 480 Aspect Ratio: 16:9 & 4:3 Contrast Ratio: 500:1 Light Source: LED Backlight Surface Treatment: Anti-Glare Viewing Angle: 70°/70°,50°/70° (L/R,U/D) Inputs: Compostie 1 Video RCA Input, 1 Audio RCA Input Input Voltage: DC 6-12V Input Current: DC 0.5A-1.5A Power Consumption: ≤8W Watts Speaker: Built in, 1 Watt Mount: "1/4"-20 Thread and VESA mounting socket(75mm) Storage Temperature: -20°C to 70°C Operating Temperature: -10°C to 60°C Size: 208 (L) × 146(W) × 32(H) mm Weight: 515g

My version of High Wit' U for 7 Days of Funk ( AE music video )

sdope79 — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 06:10:53 +0000

Hi here is another video i've done this time in AE for Stonesthrow Records competition. Took about a week to put it together but been struggling with crashes after upgrading to Maverics... finally came up with this and now Im sharing it with the world... We all know that Snoop likes to smoke so heres my smoked out version... Enjoy!

Green screen in small space

tonalt — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 17:05:45 +0000

I'm building studio to small room (size about 3m x 3m).

I need 3 backdrops: green (for chroma key), black and white.

For this I already have 3-roller background paper support system (similar to this http://www.ebay.com/itm/400373022462 ).

The background paper will be about 2m wide. Haven't found any place where to get this custom size though. Any ideas?

I will put this in between cheap man's Manfrotto Autopoles: http://www.biltema.fi/fi/Rakentaminen/Vari-ja-Saumaus/Tyokalut/Kattotuki-86034/ . That's the best version in Finland, in US I guess it's this one: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000067S12/ref=asc_df_B000067S122575981 . Reason for "autopole" is that I don't want to drill extra holes to the wall and the "autopole" provides attachment point for lights etc.

I attach the 3-roller to the "autopoles" using these Manfrotto super clamp replicas: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Articulating-Small-Super-Clamp-Crab-DSLR-Rig-LCD-Monitor-Studio-Light-Magic-Arm-/200926374880 . If I find them to be bad quality, I will buy original super clamps instead.

And then the biggest problem. How to light green screen in limited space? I don't want any extra tripods / softboxes to the studio. I'm thinkg using led lights something like this http://www.ebay.com/itm/Portable-500-LED-Light-Panel-Photo-Video-Studio-Portrait-Dimmer-Lighting-Filter-/290900481579 on both sides. Hope them will be enough. I would attach them using super clamps and Manfrotto extension arms http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/546373-REG/Manfrotto_by_Bogen_Imaging_042_042_Extension_Arm_with.html to the "autopoles". This way I would not have any extra tripods on the floor for the green screen lights.

It would be also cool to have head light attached also to the "autopoles", with something like this: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/546560-REG/Manfrotto_024B_Boom_Assembly_Black.html . The Manfrotto is pretty expensive though so I'm looking for alternative.

I have seen many DIY green screen light projects like this

but those don't get me too excited.

Main purpose for the studio is basic "interview setup" and I aim to get everything as cheap as possible.

Any ideas would be appreciated!

GH2 or GH3 for green screen?

flablo — Wed, 15 May 2013 11:09:39 +0000

Hi, I own a GH2 and a GH3, quite happy with both. I'm going to shoot videoclip on green screen. I already have some experience with GH2 and green screen, and I've already searched and followed all related discussion here on PV (and outside), but one thing I couldn't come up with a decision is basically wether using the GH2 (hacked) or the GH3. What appeals me of the GH3 is essentially the improved DR, while for the GH2 the main factor would be using a hack (Driftwood or CM Green Screen). I would not use the horrid All-I with the GH3. I'm not asking tips on green screen, I just want to know it anyone used both for this task and has some thoughts to share.

Thank you

Premiere CS 5.5 PC and playback freezing with GH3 mov files

MRfanny — Tue, 14 May 2013 10:17:26 +0000

Lately my CS5.5 with cuda enabled on windows 7 64bit has been crapping itself with a large amount of scrubbed GH3 50p mov files. I get random green preview boxes on the timeline with playback freezing that causes the program to freeze. Rendering also produces green screens in random spots of the timeline also. In order for Premiere to restart and load the media files properly I have to shut down Adobe QT32 Server. I suspect it has something to do with quicktime and mov codec. Never came across this problem with GH1/GH2, only recently with GH3 footage. Its making editing impossible, its driving me nuts. Does anyone have any idea what the problem could be?

I am thinking of doing a system restore and reinstalling CS5.5 again.

Enlarge a photos using screen capture

tinbeo — Mon, 13 May 2013 20:59:37 +0000

I accidentally set pictures size in smallest size with lumix lx7. All pictures is now in small size : 2x3, resolution 70.

Did any one experienced about enlarge a photos using screen capture. What are the necessary steps. Using retina macbook pro, I previewed the photos, zoom in then using command+shift+4 to capture . Look like it do the trick, but I was not sure.

Your inputs would be appreciated.

DIY Foam wind screen for the internal microphone of GH2

CoolColJ — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 22:13:18 +0000

Did a little test with an old foam wind screen from my Shure SM8 microphone, which has an internal diameter of 25mm.

Was a bit tight to get on, so 35 mm would be better.

Works pretty well and is dirt cheap - just ordered a set of five 35mm internal diameter foam wind screens from Ebay for well under $10 :)

Rookie Monitor Calibration Question - Is it really important?

matt_gh2 — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 20:38:00 +0000

Here's a rookie question. Is it really necessary to calibrate the monitor you use when editing? I ask this because I guess when the editing is being done...whether you have a calibrated monitor or you don't...it seems you still have to export your footage and view it on the all the types of screens your audience would view it (computer monitors, hdtvs, standard def tvs, iphones, ipads, theater screens).

I currently edit in Adobe CS6 on a PC laptop with a less than stellar screen (one of those ones that looks kinda washed out). I often will connect the Laptop to a 62" HDTV or a 42" HDTV to edit as well. So I've basically just been exporting footage and viewing on a variety of screens...and adjusting as necessary.

My only guess is that a properly calibrated monitor can be defined as one that somehow sits in the middle/average of what all the different audience members screens are?

All advice is much appreciated.

"Disappearing effect" in Music Clip

Dubidu — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 10:46:17 +0000

Hello Everyone I recently saw Two Door Cinema Club's newest Music clip. It's called "sun" here's the link.

In this clip they're using a very confusing disappearing effect. Turns out I shoot a music clip my own in two weeks and I could use this effect too. Has anyone an Idea how they do it? I thought maybe they used green screen towels. But they're also using the effect in moving shots, so they actually had to film two times exactly the same camera movement to make it work, right ? Thanks for your answers :)

Money in m'uh pocket ( green screen music video filmed with gh2 )

sdope79 — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 09:29:07 +0000

Good, cheap 1080p TV?

christianhubbard — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 07:25:49 +0000

I know you guys recommend some cheap editing monitors, so i figured you had your own opinions about different TV's and what was worth the cost. So what would you guys recommend?

Thanks

Moire Focusing - Gh2, possibly other cameras

DUCK — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 00:26:30 +0000

So far, I'm just playing with video on my GH2, but I've found something curious while trying to learn to pull focus; the touchscreen seems to show moire whenever sharp details are in focus. On my screen, I see a sort of rainbow pattern where in-focus highlights should be. So far, this actually seems to be a reliable indicator of what's in focus. With catch-lights in eyes, along with numerous still scenes, I've reliably found that whatever was ringed with moire was perfectly in focus when examined after the fact...

Does GH2 go to sleep when no displays are in use?

jimtreats — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 20:01:00 +0000

When i was shooting a wedding a few weeks ago I ran out of battery power, having only had the 1 battery. I've now brought an official spare one so hope to be good to go for at least a days worth of casual shooting. During the wedding there were times where i left the camera switched on, the monitor was folded away and the EVF was off as it wasn't to my eye. I just wondered at the time, and more so now whether in this sort of configuration the GH2 may go to a lower power mode to save battery life, ie. is the sensor perhaps powered down etc.

Hard to know, to my knowledge the manual doesn't mention anything of the sort. It'd be a nice thing to have though, one step closer to that walk around all day with a dSLR switched on and no significant battery drain. But then again with their pentaprisms SLRs have it easy in this regard.

Cheers