So you can’t afford Betacam. You are giving up one meal a week to afford that Final Cut Pro rig you’ve got and you certainly can’t spring for more pro equipment. You’re not going to be able to afford what the industry sets as the bottom line for professional keying. You are a DV Guerrilla and you want to make unbelievable things happen in your garage. You want to make your kids fly through the air next to an airplane. You want to sit in a chair next to yourself and have a short conversation. Is it possible?
Oh, sure. There’s some limitations you really need to take into account and it will take a little cleverness and a lot of experimentation, but you can key quite well with a prosumer DV camera and FCP.
Unlocking the Keys…
What’s really involved here, though? If you have no experience at all with keying, let me say a few things first about that. Keying, whether chroma or luma, is the process of matting out specified colors in a frame of video. FCP can look at each frame, find every pixel containing the color you have chosen for a background key color and make that pixel transparent. Then whatever you have on the video layer underneath shows through. If you use Luma Keying instead of Chroma, FCP will instead select all the pixels in Continue Reading...
OK, so from Chroma Key Basics for DV Guerrillas Part 1, you have gotten up to shooting. As you enter this stage of the game, you should have some Chroma Key footage to work with. If not, go get some now. Keying is not an inborn gift. It is a skill that is improved upon with practice. One thing that must be understood with any compositing work is that there are always different ways of working. As you experiment, you will find the process and method that serves you best.You will also steal lots of great stuff from other compositors.
The only rule of thumb that pretty much applies to everyone is to stay organized. Write down everything. Save everything. If you finish a project, archive the project file when you trash your media. Sometimes after you finish a project, a better way of doing things comes to you out of the blue. If you save the project file, recapturing and rendering is a snap and you can quickly find out if you were right. If you use the same lighting set for your footage, chances are that your keying settings will be the same. Also, set up an archive of Favorites in your filters folder and pull and tweak them instead of always starting from scratch. Wasted time re-doing work you’ve already done is depressing after the fifth time around. Think ahead.
Mon-Key See, Mon-Key Do…
For those just joining us, let’s review what keying is and how it does what it does. FCP can look at each frame of video, find every pixel containing the color you have chosen for a background key color and make that pixel transparent. Then whatever you have on the video layer underneath shows through. Keying means choosing a color for a Continue Reading...
I am going to be shooting a short film style dv movie for my thesis project this winter. The bulk of the scenes take place in a car, and this is new to me. Does anyone have experience with shooting car scenes, or have suggestions of where I can find answers about this. Most if not all the scenes will be daytime. This is not for an action film, but a drama/comedy, and there will only be two people in the car (driver and passenger front seats). I am planning to rent both a hood mount and a hostess tray, both of which I have little experience using (but hopefully will be working with someone who has).
Congratulations. You have a challenging experience ahead of you. BUT, once you get through the shoot, the rest of your life will be easy. The foremost important thing to have is redundent safety features. Or, make sure all the gear is strapped and clamped down tightly. And that includes the talent and crew inside the vehicle. You are going to become a magnet for rubber neckers. You have no control on their driving. So, put a safety strap on the camera to hold it in place. Don’t trust just one hard point. Use Continue Reading...
