Opinions Welcome

[Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC]

Okay,

My DP is worried that we may have issues with the outdoors greenscreen shoot with shots of the Amazons iwith the green in their costume uniforms. He suggest I get a blue screen cloth for those shots.

There are no blue screen cloths advertised to work out in sunlight.

Is it worth it to invest in a 10' X 12' blue screen from Tape Tube for $48? It it worth the time and money to swap the cloths for these shots?

 

[rayw]

Since the editing program can select virtually any color to key out you can likely just buy a few yards of solid color fabric (blue in this case, but purple, pink, red, black, or whatever would also be fine) from your local fabric store, build a PVC frame, attach, sandbag for wind.

Likely cheaper and faster than ordering it pre-built, although $48 is reasonable. Would probably spend that in time-value alone.

Just key it out.

Doesn't really matter what color it is just so long as your subject doesn't also have that color in their skin, hair, or costume.

 

[p38]

A shot in the dark.... use pink or any other colors outdoor?
Blue screen is OK if there is no BLUE sky

Far as I know the 'correct' colors for green screen and anything green is not the same. We painted many plywood panels with Home Depo paint, I think one of them was "Disney" color and it stood up well among the other greens. Granted, it may cause some 'bleed' and the best thing to do is buy a quart of paint and try it. Another color we found was much better than anything else is: Green Acres! Two coats of that and it worked like a charm.

Disney paint was OK if you light it perfectly, while the Green Acres paint was perfect in any lighting and shadows. Sure winner for a fraction of the cost of 'green paint ' they sell for $100 a gallon!

 

[PaulGriffith]

Go for blue for sure. The bigest issue to be concerned about outdoors with cloth is wind, as long as you can keep it flat you'll be great. Any flat, non reflective material should be good for keying in sunlight, as sunlight is inherently even.

The second biggest issue is the position of the sun. If you're filming all day, your plates from 9AM won't match what you shoot at noon because the sun is in a different place. If it's an overcast day, you should be fine.

Red and Pink are ideas, but exist in skin tone and ar still harder to key than green or blue. Since you're only worried about keying whats in front of the screen, a blue sky isn't an issue. Green clothes in front of green is a huge issue.

 

[Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC]

Thanks for the input, everyone.

The silver demon hunters will actually wear flat red suits in front of the screens for post effects later.

So, I'll invest in the blue screen and an extra pin set to secure the cloths to the frame I have from last year. The more pins available, the easier it is to secure the cloth properly.

I can't find those cloths cheaper any where else than Tape Tube on the Internet. I'm also investing in a greenscreen suit for one of my returning actors for human POV shots where the silver demon hunters will appear invisible to the humans. But, the cyborgs can see them with their thermal scanning vision.

The cast is very excited in what we are attempting to do with a fight scene with lots of effects.

This shoot will be VERY work intense, which is why I'm bringing in 2 PAs to help with the chroma key screen setups. The end result, my fingers crossed, will be worth it with great action footage for the production trailer.

 

[Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC]

There are cases where green against green can work out, like in this shot of this scene:

The chroma key was manually adjust with varying highlights, midtones, and solid area in Sony Vegas Pro and the coloring was touched up with New Blue's Color FixIt tools. That's how I got this greenscreen scene to work.

It is better to shoot it more than one way in case all else fails.

Thanks again.

 

[Dreadylocks]

Since the editing program can select virtually any color to key out you can likely just buy a few yards of solid color fabric (blue in this case, but purple, pink, red, black, or whatever would also be fine)

You're right that keying software can select any color. But I would really recommend that you stay away from colors like red, black, purple, pink etc*. since you're going to get a lot of those colors in skin tones and shadows/clothing which will make your key extremely hard if not impossible. Even blue isn't ideal since a lot of folks have blue in their skin tone. But it's the best alternative to green either when your subject has blond hair or when you absolutely have to have something else green in front of the screen.

*You will see people use red and black sometimes, but usually that's just for shooting inanimate objects/pyrotechnics where you won't get crossover color-wise.

Likely cheaper and faster than ordering it pre-built, although $48 is reasonable. Would probably spend that in time-value alone.

Yeah. $48 is a good price.

Doesn't really matter what color it is just so long as your subject doesn't also have that color in their skin, hair, or costume.

Oh, here. You said it. Well, I'm posting anyways.

 

[rayw]