pre-pro Green Screen Setup

[Eliekhoury123]

Dear All,

I'm New to IndieTalk Forum and looking forward to your help,

I'm looking to build my green screen Studio and get the same result as this video channel :

https://www.youtube.com/c/COLORSxstudios

What is Blackmagic equipment needed to have the correct professional setup?

How many cameras do I need? And type?
Lights?
Production equipment?

Room Size 6.5mx3.7m Height 7m

Thank you

 

[Nate North]

You need one good camera, a BMCC would work ok for HQ on YouTube, or smaller use case. DaVinci resolve is free, and is the best software for greenscreen at home. You will need a reasonably powerful computer for keying 4k in real time, at least a 2080 but it depends on your format. I would also suggest an SSD drive or two for pulling your footage.

The biggest deal for a clean key is lighting (a good camera makes a big difference also) so I would invest in enough lighting to evenly light the greenscreen, and a separate studio lighting set for your subjects.

After that, you should be good to go. A simple workflow involves lighting the greenscreen enough to kill any shadows cast by the subject lighting onto the greenscreen, shooting the footage, importing it into resolve, dropping the 3d keyer or similar process onto the clip, painting the key, finessing the keying in the controls, and then simply putting your desired background behind the subject.

It may sound complicated, but once you get used to it, it's nothing. I do this process dozens of times a day, and I doubt you'll have much trouble with it. The big takeaway is that you need a good bit of extra light to eliminate shadows being cast on the greenscreen. After that, it's all downhill.

 

[Eliekhoury123]

Appreciate your reply ,

Can you guide me for a good lighting setup ?

 

[Nate North]

Appreciate your reply ,

Can you guide me for a good lighting setup ?

Sure, but what you should buy depends a lot on your overall budget. If you're trying to get it done on a shoestring, you probably don't want to buy brand name cinema lighting like the Arri stuff. That's what I use for the subjects, but it's really expensive for what you get. Bottom line, all you really need is lighting that has matched color temperature. Just don't mix and match color temperatures. Backlighting for the greenscreen only can be a different temp from the subject lighting, since it's all getting erased anyway, but you'll need some space to prevent backsplash. All subject lighting needs to be one temperature, and all greenscreen light needs to be one temperature. If everything is one temp, that is best. I mention this because sometimes you can light a greenscreen for 5% of the cost with off the shelf lights, if you have that bounce space.

Your room is kind of small for this use, but for simple one person shots, you can probably pull it off by keeping lighting lower and exposure higher than normal.

I'd specifically look at LED panel solutions, which can provide a lot of even light at a low price. Some diffusers and barn doors would probably be of use as well. It's also possible to backlight certain types of greenscreen, if you can make it work in your space. That could reduce your bounce some, but you'll still need some space between the screen and subject.

I'd look at wider lenses for this small space also. 50 is optimal, but I don't think you have the room to shoot in 50, so maybe rent a few lenses, 35, 24, 40, in that area. It definitely matters whether you are trying to do full body stuff like the link you sent, or just talking head type stuff.

 

[Eliekhoury123]

Thank you so much for your help

 

[Nate North]

You're welcome, If you run into any problems during setup, I'll try to help you out.

If you're excited to start learning to use greenscreen and want to get some experience while you wait for all this stuff to be delivered, you can always just go to the store and buy a lamp and a blue or green sheet (thicker is better) and an iphone tripod. Shoot in 1080p if you have a weaker computer, try keying a few things against it, a cat, a soccer ball, whatever you have laying around. Simple experience, even on a bad greenscreen with bad light, will help you learn keying in Resolve, and you'll be ready to go by the time your studio is assembled.

 

[CelticRambler]

I'm looking to build my green screen Studio and get the same result as this video channel :
https://www.youtube.com/c/COLORSxstudios

Room Size 6.5mx3.7m Height 7m

Unless I'm missing something, you've got bigger problems to sort out than your green screen arrangements. In fact, if you want the same look as that channel, you'll be needing proper coloured (theatrical style) background lighting, not a green screen.

But you're going to really struggle in getting good shots and a good background/set decoration in that space. If you set things up using the "wide" version of the space (i.e. with your talent positioned against the long wall) bearing in mind what @Nate North says about controlling shadows on the background, there's no way you'll be able to get anything wider than a head-and-shoulders shot, and then you'll be limited to really short focal length lenses (24mm or less) with all the distortion that that creates.

To get a full-height shot and/or use "better" lenses, you'll need to position your talent against the short wall, which means they'll effectively take up one third of the space available, forcing you to use a curved background if you want to create a "wide" feel - but that then introduces new lighting challenges, if you want it keyed for replacement. On the other hand, such a curved background, painted white or pale grey, could be lit successfully with a set of coloured LED lights to give that homogenous coloured set.

 

[Nate North]

Focal length issues are definitely a big issue in that space. I could be wrong, but I was assuming he wanted to go with greenscreen so that it was infinitely adaptable for different videos. If he just wants that one look, a regular backdrop would work better.

 

[CelticRambler]

Before I watched the linked video, I assumed the use of a green screen was to compensate for the narrowness of the space, allowing for an artificial stretching of the set left and right of the talent. But the Colors+ concept seems to be deliberately positioning a single performer in a wide, empty space. That's an entirely different set-up. Perhaps @Eliekhoury123 will clarify for us how closely they wanted to replicate the different elements of those videos.