Green Screens, Virtual Newsrooms And Other Stuff...

Hello again, third post in quick succession.  I think that after this one things will settle into a normal routine where I post something new as it occurs, currently though I'm still filling in on the background info!


1) Green with Envy!

Anyway, the last little bit of kit for my film rig arrived in the post a couple of days ago, my green screen.  Its incredible but this extremely underwhelming looking piece of green cloth is going to make one of the key elements within my next video project possible.  As well as the live performance elements of the music video, there will be some specially shot sections where the singer from the band will act as a newscaster in a virtual studio, delivering the lines of songs verses as if giving a news broadcast.  When I first purchased my video editing software I did this quick experiment using footage cobbled together from Youtube - the newsreader was just stood in front of a green screen and all the other elements I added;

So this is the concept I'll be looking to expand upon, hoping we might get to do some proper testing with lights and green screen very soon, I'll see if I can post some initial results shortly.

2) Shooting Schedule and Location

Originally I was looking at getting the whole band together to shoot the performance section, like I did with the first video, but at a bigger venue so we had more space to work in and get more versatile camera angles.  It became pretty obvious this was a non-starter fairly soon, its going to be quite difficult to find time to get all of the band members together in one place outside of their rehearsals as they're all pretty busy chaps, but by far the greater problem was cost of hiring a decent venue.  I've been in contact with numerous community centres, function rooms and church halls, and they're looking for anything from £8 to £45 per hour!  As that kind of cost is totally unfeasable, I'm going to shoot scenes with each band member individually in the bands rehearsal room at weekends - and hopefully with careful lighting and atmospherics I can make it resemble a live situation, and more importantly, with clever editing, I can trick the viewer into either believing that they are all playing together - or at least not making it too noticeable that they aren't!  First shooting sessions could be next weekend, but it does depend on mine and the various band members schedules, we shall have to see.

3) Lights - continued!

All being well, the inaugural test ignition of the 500W light will happen later tonight.  Residents living in the Barton Hill area of Bristol might be able to witness the event with the naked eye, if you happen to see a blinding flash then that'll probably be me.  If this is followed by a loud bang and/or loud screaming, possibly it might be advisable to alert the fire brigade and ambulance services!  Seriously though, I'm not expecting any issues, and I will try and capture the occasion on video to share with you tomorrow!

And Finally...Some Movies I've Watched Lately

I'll probably do this on a regular basis, its just a round up of some of the films I've watched during the last week or so.

Re-watched the epic F1 documentary/bio pic, Senna, still one of my favourite films of recent times.  Was very pleasantly surprised by JJ Abrams sci fi creature feature, Super 8, which I watched a couple of days back, some superb performances from the teenage cast.  Finally, I'm part way through watching 70's dystopian classic, Soylent Green.  Not a massive fan of Charlton Heston at the best of times, but I've wanted to watch this for a long time.  I'm about half way through and really enjoying the bleak, futuristic setting and the climate of corruption and deception.  Lets hope there's a good pay off at the end!

Jim