Greenscreen 'How do I do this?

G

gorillaonabike

So I know my way around green screen and compositing. And this is why I have an issue.

What I need is to create a shot where a man steps through a large picture into another world. The picture is hanging on the wall of a living room.

I will have created the 'other world' in a studio.

My plan is to cut between a studio with a green screen and the living room. Specifically:

- Man walks up to picture in living room (wide)
- Couple of cuts
- Mid-shot where he steps through (studio green screen).

The wide will be in the living room whereas the mid will be in the studio. I will have a large green screen around 5 feet behind the picture (spreading beyond the picture frame so I can add the living room wall) and simply composite in the 'other world' within the picture frame.

I will have some kinos to light the green screen and a three point tungsten setup to light the principal character. White balancing will be critical.

Although this is my solution, I think I'm missing something obvious. What would your solution be?
 
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rayw said:
Some version of this?:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMGCoCgW8kw
Click to expand...

Thanks. Unfortunately, this doesn't work in this case. The reason is the television is recessed from the wall whereas in my case, the picture will be flush with the wall.

This is why my idea is taking it to a separate studio then using a mid shot when the individual steps through.
 
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My first thought was building a false wall too - it will be difficult to make it look like they are actually going into the frame if they can't actually go past the frame. You might be able to cover it with something like an effect that sucks them through the frame as soon as they touch the picture.

A simpler option might be to mount the frame free-standing on a c-stand on your green screen stage, then add the wall behind it in later.
 
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ItDonnedOnMe said:
My first thought was building a false wall too - it will be difficult to make it look like they are actually going into the frame if they can't actually go past the frame. You might be able to cover it with something like an effect that sucks them through the frame as soon as they touch the picture.

A simpler option might be to mount the frame free-standing on a c-stand on your green screen stage, then add the wall behind it in later.
Click to expand...

In terms of my solution, I am shooting in a studio which means I can do what I want and simply composite a mid-shot onto the living room wall. Greenscreen 5 feet behind the frame is straightforward but I am still missing something really obvious. I don't have to get the angles absolutely bang on because I can mess around a bit in post but I will try to get it as close as possible.

However, I feel I am missing something better or more obvious.

What alternative solution am I missing?

Incidentally, the last greenscreen vid I shot looked like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeG2U2z82mY
 
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Seems to me the best way to approach this would be to have greenscreen in the studio in place where the wall should be, with the picture frame in line with it, and alternate world behind that.. so the guy can actually step through the frame into the world.

This would also allow you to follow him through with the camera, in which case you'd probably want tracking markers on the greenscreen so that you can 3D track that plane, and composite the living room wall onto it, tracked in place as the camera moves into the picture frame.

If you're already doing the alternate world in a studio, including your doorway into that world in the studio seems the most logical solution to me.
 
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Yeah, I don't really see how you're going to achieve a step-thru effect without any actual stepping thru anything at some point in the effect's process.

I just drew out a image of the plain mechanix of it.

2014%252003%252019%2520Greenscreen%2520Step%2520Thru%2520False%2520Wall%252050%2525.png


I understand you want the effect of A, but an actor can't just step through a solid green screen on a real solid wall.
It LOOKS like that, but that isn't how it's actually done.

With a false wall, B, it all get's real simple - just have a green screen background and all is good.

I think this is the only thing you're missing.
 
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Will Vincent said:
Seems to me the best way to approach this would be to have greenscreen in the studio in place where the wall should be, with the picture frame in line with it, and alternate world behind that.. so the guy can actually step through the frame into the world.

This would also allow you to follow him through with the camera, in which case you'd probably want tracking markers on the greenscreen so that you can 3D track that plane, and composite the living room wall onto it, tracked in place as the camera moves into the picture frame.

If you're already doing the alternate world in a studio, including your doorway into that world in the studio seems the most logical solution to me.
Click to expand...

We have a winner!!!!! And I can now see the obvious mistake in my method. Specifically, I should be using the greenscreen where the wall should be, not recessed 5 feet in the initial shot. This will work.

I will not use all of this because I have a slightly different way of moving the camera through a greenscreen environment without having to use tracking markers on the screen. And I can throw in a cut shot (30 degree difference), back to a steadicam shot to follow him through the poster frame.

This all works.

Awesome.

Now to shoot a completely different music vid this Saturday. And then a party political broadcast on Sunday.

Busy weekend.
 
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rayw said:
Yeah, I don't really see how you're going to achieve a step-thru effect without any actual stepping thru anything at some point in the effect's process.

I just drew out a image of the plain mechanix of it.

2014%252003%252019%2520Greenscreen%2520Step%2520Thru%2520False%2520Wall%252050%2525.png


I understand you want the effect of A, but an actor can't just step through a solid green screen on a real solid wall.
It LOOKS like that, but that isn't how it's actually done.

With a false wall, B, it all get's real simple - just have a green screen background and all is good.

I think this is the only thing you're missing.
Click to expand...

With Will's idea, if I use a midshot and attach the screen to the poster (or thereabouts), I can step the actor through the screen into the world which I have built in the studio and simply composite this all onto the image shot in the original living room. It works very well.
 
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Now, if your NLE allows you to layer AND to crop a layer AND this is a static shot - thennnnn maybe you could just crop to the left or right of the frame's vertical edge as the actor jumps from left to right of the picture, but this is probably gonna look like dog shite.
Only an idiot wouldn't be able to obviously see the actor magically isn't touching anything as he went through the picture frame.
It'll look terrible.





Ah, well, it seems you have it all in hand, now.
GL! :yes:
 
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Will Vincent said:
Seems to me the best way to approach this would be to have greenscreen in the studio in place where the wall should be, with the picture frame in line with it, and alternate world behind that.. so the guy can actually step through the frame into the world.

This would also allow you to follow him through with the camera, in which case you'd probably want tracking markers on the greenscreen so that you can 3D track that plane, and composite the living room wall onto it, tracked in place as the camera moves into the picture frame.

If you're already doing the alternate world in a studio, including your doorway into that world in the studio seems the most logical solution to me.
Click to expand...

+1
 
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gorillaonabike said:
With Will's idea, if I use a midshot and attach the screen to the poster (or thereabouts), I can step the actor through the screen into the world which I have built in the studio and simply composite this all onto the image shot in the original living room. It works very well.
Click to expand...
I wanna understand how to do this, as well.

So you mean have a greenscreen WALL to go thru into the fantasy land?

2014%252003%252019%2520Greenscreen%2520Wall%252050%2525.png
 
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It doesn't even need to be a wall, just surround the picture frame or whatever with green cloth, enough that the actor can step through a little to get the depth.

You don't need a lot to sell this effect because after the 'woah, cool, how'd they do that' shot you'll cut right away to another angle in just the normal room, as though you hadn't done any compositing at all. If that makes sense...
 
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rayw said:
I wanna understand how to do this, as well.

So you mean have a greenscreen WALL to go thru into the fantasy land?

2014%252003%252019%2520Greenscreen%2520Wall%252050%2525.png
Click to expand...

Pretty much, yeah.. and that gives you a lot of flexibility.. static shot, follow cam through the hole with the actor, etc.

Or if you really wanna get crazy, you could take a page out of the 80's...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djV11Xbc914
 
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