Using Digital effects in Indie productions

Jeff Troiano

Jeff Troiano

Hey all, I was curious as to how many Indie Film makers here are interested in using computer effects in their productions. I have a big interest in using compositing programs (After Effects, 3ds Max, etc). My eventual goal isto film an Indie Action feature, using a mix of practical, and computerized effects. I dont know how many have seen the feature Monsters, but adding effects like that is what I want to be able to do. I was wondering if there were any others like me out there? I'm learning After Effects, at the moment, and hope in the near future to ad a 3D compositing program (not sure if it will be Maya, 3ds Max, or Cinema 4D).

I came across this short YouTube clip, and think its great, and hope to be able to do things like this, for my own productions some day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMdjmHQY7wM&feature
 
Yup, and with cheap software and cheap computers it's becoming a reality. The challenge isn't the effects so much anymore, it's standing out from the mass of people already doing it. Stand out with good story, great production value and cinematography, and absolutely believable effects.
 
PaulGriffith said:
Yup, and with cheap software and cheap computers it's becoming a reality. The challenge isn't the effects so much anymore, it's standing out from the mass of people already doing it. Stand out with good story, great production value and cinematography, and absolutely believable effects.
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Listen to Paul. He shall guide you to accomplishing great things.
 
Finally! An excuse to buy toys! :)

On a more serious note, I have these two 20-foot-long greenscreen cloths. Anyone have any advice on what kind of lights I would need to light them flatly? Lighting equipment is the last major piece I still need and I'm still a total newbie in that area.

Also, how do I get wrinkles out of swaths of cloth this large?
 
escher said:
Finally! An excuse to buy toys! :)

On a more serious note, I have these two 20-foot-long greenscreen cloths. Anyone have any advice on what kind of lights I would need to light them flatly? Lighting equipment is the last major piece I still need and I'm still a total newbie in that area.

Also, how do I get wrinkles out of swaths of cloth this large?
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The best light for a greenscreen is tungsten light, no matter which camera you're shooting on.

However, keyers have gotten so good these days that you can pretty much not light a greenscreen and still be able to key just fine, even better if your camera's putting up the rest of the work.

I typically only shoot RED MX (and Epic now) but I can testify to being able to key 5D MKII footage just fine--at least for web.

www.rainfallfilms.com/showreel

Check this link, at 0:09 is a shot on a 5D MKII with an old Zeiss 28-70 zoom (My favorite lense... before all of my gear got stolen) and it's done inside of a living room. That's greenscreen (obviously) and it's lit with two HMI's, one china and a 4 bank fake diva for the fella in the straw hat.

It keyed just fine.

P.S. we're literally walking maybe two steps in that shot. Haha.
 
Oh, and you can use a steamer to get wrinkles out. However, in the future, you should roll the material (not fold) and store it.
 
Holy heck, that's some good work!

The greenscreens were sent to me folded, but they were free so I'm not going to complain too much. :)

How much tungsten lighting do you think I can run in a regular house before I risk blowing out the breakers? Any good suppliers you recommend? Or even better, some sort of packaged light kit would be a good place for me to start.
 
escher said:
Holy heck, that's some good work!

The greenscreens were sent to me folded, but they were free so I'm not going to complain too much. :)

How much tungsten lighting do you think I can run in a regular house before I risk blowing out the breakers? Any good suppliers you recommend? Or even better, some sort of packaged light kit would be a good place for me to start.
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You can run 2K Watts on a circuit without blowing it, but you have to check the amp ratings for units. That's another reason why Fluo and HMI's are pretty good candidates for lighting.

If you had four (4) 300 Watt Tungsten Units you should be able to light a greenscreen somewhat evenly from head to toe.

More importantly, you need a large area of coverage so that you can move talent and objects away from the screen. Keying is easy, but removing green spill is not. Once it's in skin you can pretty much kiss that shot goodbye.

So, major note: get talent away from the green, as far as you can.

That's why you see massive rooms setup for work, or 30x50 screens on sets.

On packages -- Piece meal it. I could recommend a 2K Arri Package but it's an interview kit, and IMO it isn't a diverse enough kit for greenscreen work, but could be augmented with some very cheap eBay Fluos and still work.

I've never tried shoplights, but I imagine if you could tame the output and gel it to an acceptable color temp, a pair of those might be able to blast a home-grown greenscreen pretty well.
 
dona_1.jpg


Here's an example of what I believe is a 10 x 6 and some extra material to cover the lower half. It's a ghetto-setup: we're out, at night, in a driveway with very little wattage.

I'm sure I used my two HMI's (150w) and the Ebay 4Bank Fluo to pull double duty lighting the screen and her. The hairlight's for sure the 4Bank flying over the back of the screen.

THe rest are small tungsten units, but sadly with no flags/bounce it kinda hurts the overall look.

My excuse is that it was four or so years ago, when I just started.

The results are also in the showreel.
 
Flou... fluorescent?

I need to find a good lighting supply place. I've used shoplights (they suck!) and fluorescent lights in the past but could never ever get good color out of either.
 
escher said:
Flou... fluorescent?

I need to find a good lighting supply place. I've used shoplights (they suck!) and fluorescent lights in the past but could never ever get good color out of either.
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Fluo does equal fluorescent.

If I werent on my phone I would list my first kit, but just make sure you're not messig with lights that have a green cast. And male sure the ballasts aren't interfering with your shutter.

Color temp is why I stopped using that stuff and just pay for the real thing. Makes skin looks so bad.

Check cool-lights.biz -- they are pretty decent for the price.
 
On a nice sunny and calm day, the sun is wonderful for lighting flatly... then you just need to control the lighting on the model the way you want. Scrims, screens, flags and reflectors will do wonders for you.
 
My prop master is building a model spaceship to be the exterior of Andromeda with working lights. We will rent out a room from a theater group with no windows and I will bring my greenscreen kit. It comes with 2 250W lights with softboxes and stands. I will bring a third light with a softbox that is a 1K with a pot (dimmer/variable resister). Is that eough ligh? I'm also going to plan a day in the park we shot in to show the ship landing and taking off on location. One of my crew guys has the same camera as my DP. So, we should be able to keep the look consistant.

This will be pickup footage for IC2 we are shooting in the spring of 2012.
 
You may want to light that with hard light rather than softboxes as the light a craft would get in space would be unfiltered. A larger fixture a little farther away would give a slightly better approximation of the parallel shadows you'd see from a large distant light source. The softboxes would work as fill.
 
Thanks Knightly. Maybe a hard light with a gel to add some color? I've been paying attention to the lighting in Farscape, Space 1999, Alien 4 Resurrection. There seems to be a spill of yellow or blue from an out of frame source on the ships that move across frame in either yellow or blue.
 
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