Working with chroma key en virtual sets pro & cons please

[Wiew]

Hello ,

I am a newbie in this so please correct me if I door say something wrong

I am starting with my first movie and one of the scenes in my movie is about a funeral (anno 1905)
Now I have asked permission in a lot of old graveyards for filming but until now they all denied , you know bla bla respeck for the dead ....

I was thinking maybe to do this with a green screen and just ad a virtual set of a graveyard or so

What are de pro and cons
What do I really need to watch out for when I start green screening ?

Thank you all very much for your help

 

[ChimpPhobiaFilms]

Hello new dude

It would be best to shoot in a real graveyard. I could make a long list of problems you will encounter shooting a graveyard scene, the first being camera movement. You're going to run into countless problems if you are going to have camera movement. You'll have to set tracking marks that can be tracked later in post so that gravestones move realistically. But there's going to be gravestones behind that, which will further complicate the process. You also will have to get royalty free photos/images of a graveyard, or shoot footage of a graveyard yourself, which is sounds like you cannot do. But if the background does not move with the actors, it will look wrong.

I'd highly recommend you shoot the scene inside of a building as if you are in a funeral home or small church. Or scrap some money together to shoot in a real graveyard.

Here's some green screen links that may help you:

http://www.youtube.com/user/filmriot/search?query=green+screen
https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=green+screen&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

Also, when you say "movie", are you talking about a feature or short? Because if this is your first more serious short film, I'd go against VFX and other things that will complicate the process.

Best of luck!

 

[Wiew]

Well it is actually like this

I am semi pro musician and for many years filming is a big hobby but nothing more
In the meanwhile I've done small promo clips for some compagnies and a few marriages, so I understand a (little)bit about filming and software.

About a half year ago I have written a Rock Opera called

Requiem for a Phantom

A story about John , a 40 year old single man who buy's a castle what was closed 50 years ago (the story is around 1900)
Rumour goes it is haunted by a female phantom so all the villagers are scared to enter the building
John meets some villagers and tries to unwrap the story about who she is and why she's there
The end of the story has a twist and everybody who is in my team likes the story

We want to play and sing the rock opera live with my band and behind us play the movie the tells the story (so no talking in the film , a giant videoclip)

We have to play with a clicktrack so that everything is in synch etc etc

A bit like the live preformances of War of the Worlds or The Wall

The complete concept will be 74 minutes long

For the moment I have written out all scenes with camera positioning

But there are a lot of things that I will do for the first time in my live and many questions unanswered

like ;

Can I film my phantom without a green screen , but still give the idea that she is floating above the ground (green shoes ?)

One scene has to be filmed in a long hallway, I have the location but I want the effect that candles on the ground light up when she passes them...

In a month we will start to film

I have

Most of the locations
Cosplay players hat dress anno 1900
Ballerina's
Photographers
...

 

[ChimpPhobiaFilms]

Go to a graveyard with a relatively small camera. Shoot some footage. Go to your studio (or wherever the green screen stuff with be shot), and film your phantom. Then pull the footage into your editor, and key out the green. Then play around with it until you find something you like. You may have to do lots of grading and complicated keying, but it'll pay off in the end. Also, check out the links I posted.

Also, if you do not have a green screen, here is a nice cheap one:

http://www.amazon.com/Fancierstudio-Kit-9004S3-TB-Gren/dp/B004HR2CWQ/ref=pd_sim_sbs_e_3

If you want her to be floating, you could always lay the green screen on the ground, and have her act out the scene as if she is floating. Or you could just have her stand up, and throw some blur/twitch filters on later to cover up the imperfections and flaws of the shot.

Best of luck!