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There's a revolution happening . . .
The line between broadcast and web advertising is blurring.
Now that the web is becoming higher bandwidth, more immersive
and media-rich the possibilities are expanding. And as audiences
are spending much more time (and money) on the web, it is
swiftly taking over the broadcast space as the place for
true-motion video intensive advertising and entertainment.
Enter Studio B . . .
Over just the past couple of years we have been partnering
with some of the top creative agencies in the bay area,
including Carat Fusion, EVB, Mekanism, Kaboom, and Teak
to produce high quality HD and SD video for the web. We've
also set up our own pre-lit
green screen stage in the heart of San Francisco's SOMA
district.
Stills from a greenscreen shoot
for Adidas with a sample of how it was later composited.
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Some of our recent projects include: Adidas MLS soccer
website, Gilette's Body Tag campaign, Barclay's Bank, Wrigley's
Winterfresh, Old Spice NASCAR Racing Network with Tony Stewart,
and mony more. We even have a traveling 20' X 30' green
screen package that can work in any studio or your own space.
Because Studio B has top of the line HD and SD camera and
green screen packages, we can give you the best bang for
your rich media buck.
And, when you need help on the post side, our seasoned editors
have also refined the art of pulling a great key. We can
often deliver files with alpha channels on DVD or firewire
drives to speed up your workflow.
Why this new revolution?. . . Enter Flash 8 . . .
With it's killer support of alpha-channel video, Flash
8 is becoming a major vehicle for this revolution. While
earlier versions of Flash supported some type of video,
the files were often prohibitively large and therefore were
limited to download areas much like in standard HTML pages.
The current version of Flash, however allows for 33% smaller
files and still look much better than video from previous
versions. In addition (and this is where the green screen
comes in) Flash video can now support alpha channels. This
means that you can incorporate full-motion video within
your website seamlessly - for a full immersive user experience.
Now that Flash 8 has brought full quality embedded video
to the web, there is an increasing need and opportunity
for shooting rich content for web delivery. While green
screen shooting has been around for a while, the new interest
in video for the web has increased the need for an experienced
and technical approach.
Stills from a greenscreen shoot for Wrigley's
gum with a sample of how it was later composited.
Here are some of our recent rich media & green screen
clients:
Adidas Football website
Adidas MLS soccer website
Winterfresh
The GAP Inc.
Leapfrog Inc.
Cisco Systems, Inc.
Here are some resources for green screen shooting:
Acquisition: Always start with the highest
possible quality footage that you can. The higher-end HD
formats such as HDCAM or the Varicam DVCPRO HD are preferable.
If you can't afford the broadcast HD cameras then the HVX200
is a great next choice. You can get an okay key from HDV
footage but it is so compressed and the color space is so
limited that it is less desirable. DV footage is notoriously
difficult to key but there are some great plug-ins out there
that can work well with it.
The Green Screen: You want to have the
smoothest green or blue background as possible. If you want
to key out a full body subject then you should have a painted
cyc or a large enough green screen fabric to create a nice
curve that will reflect the light evenly. For anything knees
up you can also use a 12' X 12' green screen stretched between
C-stands.
Lighting: The goal is for the most even
lighting with as little spill on the subject as possible.
The best way to monitor how evenly you have lit the screen
is by running the image through a waveform monitor. The
green will be represented as aneven band on the scope --
the more even the horizontal representation, the easier
the key. Often, a little magenta will be used in any rim
or backlights in order to separate the subject even more
and create a distinction from any green spill that might
be happening on the subject.
Post: There are many nice software packages
and plug-ins that can be used to get a very good key in
all of the major non-linear editing apps. DVgarage makes
a very good one for DV footage and Keylight, which ships
with Final Cut Pro as a separate install can give great
results. With a little bit of research, you can find the
best software for your particular needs.
For further study, you can take a look at some of these
helpful web resources:
Greenscreen
and Bluescreen Checklist (General Specialist)
Ken
Stone's Chroma Keying in Final Cut Pro (Ken Stone)
On
set green screen tracking tips (fxguide)
The
Blue Screen Page (seanet)
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