Pre Production

For this essay i will be covering my pre production methods for my green screening assessment, this will include research of lighting, cameras and softwares, I will also talk about my process of production during this assessment what i do i want to achieve for the finally project i will look into calculations of amps and watts and positioning for my lighting and why. I will talk about my post production using screen shots of the procces and why i did it.To finish I will write about what i think about it and also what i think was the strong and weak points of my finished project and what i would do differently if I was to do it again.

Green screening is shooting a video or image on coloured background mainly green or blue and replacing it with a moving image or still image of anything this is made possible by making the colour background transparent.For my green screen assessment we have a wide variety of equipment to choose from. I will look at all equipment and prepare a plan of what i will use and why.

First camera i will be looking at is the black magic camera the blackmagic has a 4k resolution or 3840x2160 rather than 2.5k.the menu is touch screen and uncluttered easy to work your way around and quick to access although the screen i found was quite reflective . The black magic also uses EF lenses so canon DSLR with fit making the variety of lenses bigger to choose from. When shooting in RAW the black magic offers a 13 stops dynamic range a big difference from the DSLR’s i am used to working with. The data rate is extremely big in the black magic which would take up alot storage in my hardrive and a lot longer to edit even if the quality is a lot better.

Another camera options is the JVC GY-HM&90 this is a full resolution HD camera built for the studio and various field work but i would be using it in the studio filming in full Hd at both 720p and 1080p. Big plus side i think to consider with using the JVC for the assessment is

the 2 options of power you can use the internal power pack or plug it into an external power source. I think with my lack of knowledge of the JVC I won't use this for the assessment and

wait to I have learnt more.

The canon 650D is a high quality EOS DSLR shooting at 18.0 megapixel and with a brilliant senor. The canon shoots 5 frames per second continuous. It also films in full HD at 1080p resolution with automatic and manual controls for adjustments and continuous AF. the canon has a light body but its auto white balance isn't always accurate which means manually setting it just to be sure. I can comfortable using the canon and because the green screen templates were also film with the canon 650D i think it is the best choice for me and i will probably use it during my practical assessment.

We have the option of using the grid which is equipped with 24 fluorescent lights. These are low pressure discharge lamps that produce visible light. An electrical current in the gas excites mercury vapour this then produces short waves of ultraviolet light.

The other option is the halogen lights or tungsten light. The tungsten like uses up 500 watts with the colour temperature of 3200k which is standard white balance settings on our digital cameras, but if i was looking to get more power the halogen lights uses up to 1000 watts the colour temperature is the same in the halogen lights the difference is the halogen light has light control this mean i can adjust it over a 4 f stop range. After looking into both lighting options i feel i should use the halogen lights. The reason i am going to use these lights is because i can change the distance and positioning a lot quicker and more efficiently, and I can also use the colour filters to add more effect to my subject

I have had previous experience with final cut pro 7 and find it a great software to use but i find it is also so when rendering, Because i don't have an imac even though they are available in the cib building free to use. I don't think i will be using this option but I have to consider it anyway.

Another option for software is adobe premiere pro. I am more comfortable using premiere pro because I am more used to this software and how to work around, i have used this in previous projects like horror, comedies, music videos and so on. Also i have it on my laptop meaningI can spend as much time as possible on this project trying different thigns and seeing which works best I won't have to leave it at the end of the day when the cib building closes.

I have looked at the videos we and i have decided to go for clip 8629 because it in focus the most out of all the videos and i will try to achieve this by zooming in on the subject and manually focusing. Above is a rough diagram I have done in photoshop using a clip of video

8629 to show where the direction of lights are coming from. This diagram is to help me with positioning of lights and subject to get the best results. This is part of my pre production progress and using this helps point out things and study what is needed exactly to adjective the best results i am looking for.

I

have done a rough floor plan also on photoshop to show what i am looking to do on the day and what i think will work for this video. I have choose 300w, 650w and 1000w lights i chose these for a reason the 650w is positioned at the left side slightly behind the subject to create my back lighting. The 300w light is close and low down and slightly to the left i will be using this to light the the left side of the subject more than the right but not too powerfully and lastly i want to use the 1000w light as far away i don't want it to overpower the subject. This is my pre production plan after researching the camera options and lighting options. And carefully decide on my choices.I have calculated my lights before I go in i have done the sum watts ÷ voltage=amps. 1000+650+300=1950watts1950watts ÷230voltage=8.4ampsI have also considered another 300 watt light incase it is needed2250watts ÷230 voltage=9.7amps

Production

So trying to flow my plan as much as I wrote my plans on a page floor plans equations. I took my friend Will with me to be the subject and read the script letting me focus fully on

what i need to do. So I started by putting out the roll of green on the floor,I then started to set up my lights I stuck to my floor plans and i plugged the 650 watts and 300 watts lights into the left side of the studio and the 1000 watts on the right side, this was not because I didn't have the amps for one plug but because it was safer because the 1000 watt light was on the other side and to save anyone from tripping and injuring themselves. After setting everything up I asked will to stand in front of the camera turning off the house lights I used the light meter getting readings of 11,14 18 apertures, I moved the lights back and forward to get as close aperture as possibly finally setting at 14 fs. Sticking to my pre production plan i went with the canon 650D and setting up on the tripod and connecting the microphone which i forgot about in pre production but I used in production. When we started filming we had to take few gos due to will forgetting lines, but got it in the end.

Post Production

So obviously when I was setting up my lighting I was not able to get rid of the shadows, this is a mistake on my part and should be able to do that by now, so its leaves me to just have to fix it in post production. I went onto youtube to get a idea on how to fix it i searched online at websites and several different turtorals to help me with this problem and show me how to correct it this is a link just for example of the kind of thing i was watching a researching. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBDza-x_DIc

So as you can see on the left i added a ultra key but you can still see shadowing, it's a white/grey colour and very noticeable, it's not appealing and would just not be good enough this is the image that is showing on the screen shot on the left. I remember going over this in class with final cut pro 7 using multi chroma keys so I added three different ultra keys to get rid of the shadows, i used each ultra key to select a different colour shadow to complete the final result this is showing in the image on the right.

After ultra keying the layers I decided to

adjusted the subject by moving him slightly to the right and also adjusting the scale of the subject, I did this because i filmed from the waist up and therefore the would have to be positioned close to the front. I am aiming to make it look as real as possibly, try to scale the subject to match background I think i have made him look to scale compared to the background. I took in consideration of the way i filmed from waist high to the highlights and shadowing on the subject, the right side of the subject is darker than the left matching the right side of the background which is just slightly light from what i believe to be reflection of light. I also the side of the wall and the window ciel as markers for height of the subject so he doesn't look to small or too big.

After scaling and positioning I personally thought my lighting was to bright and the subject still stood out of place. I took it upon myself and decided that i should do something about the colour. On the left photograph is where i adjusted the contrast to darken my subject down about to match the background it's a low light alley i am looking to try and recreate this as much as possible in the subject. On the right side I adjusted the colour by adding fast colour corrector I felt it was best if i give my subject a slightly orange overlay on top of the darkened contrast to match the vibe of the alley lights. I feel these adjustments are for the better and my the subject look more in place in the low light alley.After the process working on the visuals my sound quality was very poor with static in the background i tried my best to fix it i got most of the static noise away but the volume was then disturbed and not the loudest it could of been.

Conclusion

In a over all for my first individual attempt at setting up and filming and post production I i think it's ok better visual than sound but I now know for next time the more time spent getting it right in production the easier it is in post production. I like the subject of green screening and would like to dive further into it possibly do some of my own projects and learn from my mistakes and grown in the strengths.

Works Cited

"Canon EOS 650D Rebel T4i." TechSpot. Web. 23 Apr. 2016.

"Cinema Cameras." Blackmagic Design:. Web. 23 Apr. 2016.

"Green Screen Editing: Final Cut, Premiere Pro, After Effects." Udemy. Web. 23 Apr. 2016.

"How to Chroma Key in Adobe Premiere Pro." The Beat A Blog by PremiumBeat. 22 Jan.

2013. Web. 23 Apr. 2016.

"JVC Pro Product Overview Page." JVC Pro Product Overview Page. Web. 23 Apr. 2016.

Person, LEDXpert Lighting, and Http://hubpages.com/@ledxpertlighting. "LED vs

Fluorescent vs Halogen Lights: What Is the Difference?" Dengarden. Web. 23 Apr.

2016.

"Halogen Studio Continuous Lights - Google Search." Halogen Studio Continuous Lights -

Google Search. Web. 23 Apr. 2016.