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green screen question

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dreamoftheiris

Sorry if this is in the wrong forum, I just registred.

I have a question concerning using a green screen.


I'm planning on shooting this short film soon and one of the scenes requires the use of a green screen. The idea of the shot is to have one of the characters look out a window and see a city scape with missile trails coming closer to the city. The window will be this:

P1018783.jpg





The approximate size of the green screen will need to be 6 feet by 4in height and 4 feet by 1/4 inch width.

A few questions:

* Should I cover more than just the window with the green screen?

* Will it be better outside the window or inside?

It is pretty much impossible to cover the outside as it is on a second floor office. As you may be able to see, there is a tree in front of it as well.

* What type of material should I use for the green screen?

* There will be a person in front of the window at exactly that angle. Will this affect the green screen much and if so, any tips on how to get around this?
 
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As long as you light the area well enough being close shouldn't be too much of a problem. If I were doing it I would cover just the window unless you want to exaggerate the size of the window. And as far as green screen goes for material...any cloth that is long enough......and is a solid color (in your case you chose green, I personally prefer blue but that doesn't matter because you can chroma key any color of the rainbow). But make sure that cloth is SOLID green no stripes or polka dots etc. It's harder than it sounds to find.
 
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I suppose it could I've never tried poster board so i don't know how it would turn out. But in theory it should work if you can get it to cover the window correctly.
 
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You can use the green poster board as a green screen, you just need to be careful to tape them together as seamlessly as possible.

Really the most important thing for your green screen is proper lighting. You must light the screen COMPLETELY evenly, keep your subject as far from the screen as possible to avoid spill, and light the subject with 3 point lighting so he/she stands out from the screen.

I made these two videos with a poster-board green screen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6fVzkXibrk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQw7HuyGmsY
 
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This was the very first thing I ever did with a green screen. It was a goofy promo vid that we did while we were trying to get funding through kickstarter. We failed. However the green screen turned out not terrible considering it was the green wall in my home gym, and it wasnt even matte paint.
So my big piece of advice? Use something as unreflective of light as humanly possible. Also there is usually hi and lo end threshold adjustments that can be made in your software(I use vegas) in case you flub the light slightly and have some color degradation.

http://zombieconversational.com/pages/content/dreamworld.htm
 
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@goob:
I haven't tried it, I'm sure it would work to some extent, but you'll run into problems with it being too shiny. You want to find a really flat material and also something that won't be so crinkly/or something ironable.

@Murdock:
Ribbon is really easy to buy still. I've got one of these
1_cb73fed4bdec9f6335cdf7856ee5f28e.jpg

And recently picked up some ribbon for it at Staples. No special orders or anything.
 
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Goob, If it's just the regular plastic kind, too shiny and crinkly.

Money is always tight I know, but if can get a real greenscreen for like $50 off ebay you can at least save yourself the trial and error time and expense.

-Thanks-
 
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Dreadylocks said:
@goob:
I haven't tried it, I'm sure it would work to some extent, but you'll run into problems with it being too shiny. You want to find a really flat material and also something that won't be so crinkly/or something ironable.

@Murdock:
Ribbon is really easy to buy still. I've got one of these
1_cb73fed4bdec9f6335cdf7856ee5f28e.jpg

And recently picked up some ribbon for it at Staples. No special orders or anything.
Click to expand...

That's crazy! I wouldnt have thought you could.
 
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