Green Screen Stage

Most folks in the business keep at least one number for a production studio nyc at the ready in their speed dial. They know that with hourly and daily rates, it can be highly cost effective to call in the experts to achieve a certain effect with a minimum of fuss. The technology has reached a point where visuals are seamlessly integrated into the visual fabric of the piece and there is no continuity break. On the contrary, viewers will often be unaware that there is a special effect taking place. Long gone are the days when actors in a car scene were superimposed over some random jolting street scene. Fully equipped professionals at green screen studios have all of the technology necessary to create flawless visuals that look completely real and immerse the audience into an imaginary world.

In the big apple, green screen studios are constantly booked for collaborations with TV producers, film sets, documentary makers, and instructional video directors. While big time players will often bring in their own crew, most NYC Green Screen Rental studios can handle all of the technical details for you. With loads of experience, they know what needs to be done in order to capture takes fast and efficiently. They will be able to advise clients on technical requirements as well as the amount of space required. These studios are also set up for rapid turnover in post production. They can work with you or by following your guidelines to create exactly the effect you are looking for.

Because there are several companies currently competing for market share, the client has more power than ever to get good rates and great service. One thing to watch out for are companies that pile on extra expenses at the end of shooting. It’s best to look for a studio that offers an all-inclusive hourly or daily rate, or at least a clear description of what you can expect to pay. Besides a large, comfortable studio with clean lighting and a professional stage manager, you will want to find green screen studios that are set up for full production filming. At the very least they must have the proper equipment including high res cameras, monitors, a full sound package, lighting and grip. They should also have a full library of background images that you can use royalty-free. Because you want filming to go smoothly, it also makes sense to choose a studio that has wardrobe and makeup facilities and a green room with phones and internet where actors and producers can relax.

Thanks to cutting edge technology and a competitive market, this is a great time to be a producer or director using green screen technology. In New York City there are many great studio options that can get you the effects you want on time, hassle-free, and without hidden costs. Whether you are working in TV, movies, dance productions, or any other sector, fully equipped studios are currently available to magically make your vision a reality.

 

At Arizona State's Dance Media Lab, staff build the green screen stage!

Here at the studio, it’s easy to forget that green screen isn’t just for television or film mediums. I always appreciate when I’m reminded to “think outside the box” when it comes to what we specialize in here at American Movie Company.  Yesterday I came across an interesting and exciting use of green screen being used at Arizona State University’s dance students as part of the Institute for Studies in the Art

The Institute has created a residency program combining research into arts and technology. This fall the University will unveil a fully interactive green screen stage programmed to trigger lights, sound and video by movement! The “dance media lab” is equipped with computers, a green screen stage, video projection, animation and motion-tracking software, sound and light

The lab is a result of Utah dance professor Ellen Bromberg’s passion for integrating technology and imagination. Bromberg spent over a decade developing and building the dance media lab

“Once the technology entered my awareness, I understood that as a choreographer, I was no longer restricted by time and space in the ways I was accustomed to,” Bromberg said. “By liberating the physical body from this anchor, a whole new language of possibilities emerged. Causality, linearity and even gravity was called into question, through the body’s representation in a digital world.

Thanks to the passion of innovators like Bromberg, dance, green screen, sound and digital media are primed to intersect in a complex discourse of ideas about the body on screen. It’s refreshing to see that green screen is making a place for itself as a tool of intellectual discourse as well as shoot-em’ up action films these days.  It’s in these creative roads less traveled that boutique green screen companies like American Movie Co. can help innovators take their ideas from thought to reality – and that’s work I’m proud to be a part of as a producer!

By Adrianne Arno

 

Adrianne Arno: Producer

Even Lighting on the Green Screen

Using separate lights for the background and the models gives more control . The background should be lit evenly and not too brightly. Position the model as far from the background as possible to avoid spill light from the background on the model and shadows from the model on the background. Use barn doors or black screens to further protect the model from spill light from the background. A hair- or separation light hitting the model from the back also helps reduce green spill light.

Shooting Chroma Green Screen

The Videographer will always be tempted to compose the image in camera, but in this case that’s not a good idea. It’s important to allow for a little air on all sides of the model to make the pictures more flexible to work with later. You can always cut off half the head in Photoshop, but painting it in because it was cropped in camera is far trickier…

Avoid Selective Focus & Shallow Depth of Field

The videographer should avoid using selective focus. Objects that are out of focus get blended with the background, which makes it really difficult to separate them afterwards. Use an aperture small enough to ensure sufficient depth-of-field to get the entire model in focus, including contour lines. If you absolutely must have selective focus, I would recommend faking it in Photoshop afterwards instead.

Green Screen Digital Composite

Slight Overexposure is Useful on Green Screen

The image should be slightly overexposed rather than underexposed, but this goes for all digital photography. By shooting in the RAW format, you will be able to tune the white balance losslessly in your RAW editor of choice afterwards.

Avoid Harsh Shadows makes complete Green Screen removal impossible. The shadows show up as black areas in the final image. The photo on the right used an on camera flash with a diffuser to soften the shadows. Green Screen Wizard then has no problem showing even the detail in the hair.

Shadows can also come from a screen that has folds in it. So the first and most important thing to remember is: NO SHADOWS

So avoid shadows whenever possible, Sometimes shadowing can’t be avoided, For example, when doing a full body shot with the subject standing on the screen, there will be no way to avoid shadows. For this case, all areas of the screen should receive light by at least one source. A simple way to accomplish this is by using two sources at an angle to the person (one to the right and one to the left). The area that is shadowed by one light is illuminated by the other. Since some screen areas are lit by two lights and other areas are lit by one light, there will still be some shadowing. However, this should be good enough to get a good extraction.

Diffuse The Light for Best Green Screen Photography

We all know how hash the light is that comes from a lamp that does not have a shade. Harsh shadows make us look unattractive and our environment stark. Using a built in flash is like using a bare bulb. It is a point source of light. It has to cast shadows.

The first line of defense it to ask the subject to stand away from the screen. The more distant he or she is the less dense the shadow. This may solve the problem.

Green Screen Studio Lighting

Chromakey Composite

I will never forget how excited I was when I saw the quality of the image I could get from a digital camera when I used studio lights. Nothing makes better green screen photos then studio lighting because it can virtually eliminate all shadows. Still not all studio setups will work. It is best to use what they call “Butterfly” lighting.

It is called that because both light are at the same level causing the shadow on your nose to be equal on both sides looking like a butterfly. This is sometimes called flat lighting. The result is even lighting

Dramatic Lighting Many photographers what more dramatic lighting. These photographers use “Rembrandt” lighting were part of the face is dark. The problem is it can make the green screen too dark! If you do this kind of lighting then you need to add a third and maybe a fourth light to light the green screen. So it becomes a much harder lighting arrangement.

A Rembrandt lighting setup.

A second more subtle problem for advanced photographers is Rembrandt vs. flat lighting. It is often nice to have one side of a face or body shaded to give a more dramatic look to a photo. Unfortunately this can shade the green screen as well. You need to use this technique with caution or separately light your background.

If your just starting out I would stick to a flat lighting setup and try to stay with lighting that is even enough to keep the green screen illuminated.

Place Your Model at Least Six from the Green Screen.

The closer the subject is to the green screen, the more green spill that will be encountered. This is because the screen reflects green light back onto the person. Obviously, If you are doing an upper body shot, you will be able to space the person further away then if you are doing a full body shot. If you need for the person to stand or sit on the screen then try to use a screen that’s long enough to cover sufficient floor area so that you can get decent spacing between the persons upper body and the back of the screen. Easy Green Screen does a pretty good job of green spill removal. However, its best to try to minimize the spill during the photo shoot.

Outdoor Lighting for Green Screen

Make sure the subject is in the shade, not direct sunlight light. If you see shadows on the screen you are not setup correctly.

Camera Settings

• ISO: Always use 100 (or lower if your camera goes lower) – High ISO values have more noise. Higher noise can cause a speckled transparency mask on the extraction. This is because some of the pixels from the green screen are less green (or not green at all) with higher noise levels.

• Aperture – Use a wide aperture (lower number) – Similar to ISO, Using a narrow aperture leads to higher digital noise levels. Also, a wider aperture will reduce the depth of field and cause the green screen to be slightly out of focus. This also helps for a more uniform green color to remove. We usually try to shoot with the F8 or less. 6.3 is the default value that we use for most of our studio shooting.

The Right Wardrobe for Green Screen

The model should obviously not be wearing anything green, but this is less crucial for photo than for video as long as the color is not next to the background. Avoiding loose hair, curls, higly reflective or semi-transparent fabrics and furs etc. will make post production much easier.

Use a Wide Aperture (lower number)

Similar to ISO, Using a narrow aperture leads to higher digital noise levels. Also, a wider aperture will reduce the depth of field and cause the green screen to be slightly out of focus. This also helps for a more uniform green color to remove. We usually try to shoot with the F8 or less. 6.3 is the default value that we use for most of our green screen studio shooting.

Chromakey Lighting for Green Screen can give you excellent results if you take the time to do it right.Check www.AmericanMovieCo.com for more Green Screen information  212-219-1075

by Adrianne Arno

Adrienne Arno, Producer

When I first began my working relationship with American Movie Company as a young producer, I didn’t have the slightest idea what “chroma” green screen was.  Despite my excellent academic training, nothing really prepared me for using green screen. I’ve been with AMC for almost four years now, and today I’d like to share the basics of what chroma green screen is all about.

In film production, green screens are most often used as a part of feature films where visual effects are needed (for example, a building is burning down behind your actor – it’s much more cost effective to use visual effects to digitally create the house burning behind your actor than to actually burn down a house and film it!).  Most (if not all) of this summer’s blockbuster films relied heavily on visual effects and green screen technologies. Frank Miller’s Sin City is probably the most famous film shot ENTIRELY on a green screen stage. Take a look at the clip below from the film’s opening:

In television, news anchors and meteorologists when reporting the weather most often use green screens.  But the same exact green screen can be used for still photography as well.

For still and portrait photographers, after the photograph is taken, the image is opened in a “keying” program. Chroma Key and Color Key are two of the most popular of the keying programs. These programs are used to remove the green from the image ‘s background while keeping the image’s subject untouched. With the green removed, the photographer is able to freely change the backgrounds to whatever they can imagine!

The process itself is simple: photograph your subject against a green background, then use Chroma key software to isolate the background and replace it with any still or moving image you like.

While its association with movie special effects has stopped many photographers from considering it for their work, a growing number of professionals are making Chroma key part of their photographic set-up.

This is partly because the screens themselves have become more affordable in recent years. They are now sold in different sizes, shapes, and materials, and you can easily make your own by painting a roll of paper or fabric with green paint. You can also easily get hold of Green Screen masks, gloves and different items of clothing, including full body cover.

Green Screen backgrounds are easy to select, making Photoshop selection battles a thing of the past, and they make it easy to quickly change your subject’s setting and create a fresh composite. This flexibility is particularly useful for portrait and wedding/social photography, as having an unlimited range of available background options promotes experimentation and an out-of-the-mould look at your subject.

Bride Shot Against Green Screen

Wedding videos, for example, could include composites of the bride in a tropical island setting, or the couple in front of an atmospheric sunset or New York skyscrapers.
Thanks to Green Screens, studios can now make video shoots take place in front of a striking office building, in magical gardens or over fairy dust kingdoms, in front of a crowd at a huge stadium, or even out in space. There are many background and effects collections available on the market, and of course you can always import your own images to use as backdrop layers.

 

This compositing can be executed in Aftereffects Key Light, it  has the advantage of being designed around the compositing process.  For  example, background selection is a one- or two-click process, even for notoriously difficult hair, feather and fur. The software interface is made of clear foreground and background areas which you import your images into. With the basic composite in place, you can adjust subject and background size and location, import additional images for layering, apply filters, special effects or place your composite inside a layout preset.

PhotoKey also has more advanced tools, such as hand-drawn masks, and if you feel your composite requires further refinement or additional effects, you always have the option of transferring it into Photoshop.

“Chroma” green screen is the superior choice for this kind of media work because the color “chroma green” is not a color that naturally exists in nature.  This makes the color a solid contrast to skin, and as such easy to remove (aka “key”) from a video or still image. Unless you’re streaming live with the use of a tricaster, the keying of the chroma green from the image is done in the post production process.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg! As a young producer, the most important part of your job is to simply be aware of the technology available to you on a basic level so you understand what your options and possibilities are. The second most important part of your job is finding a team of people who are skilled in the necessary niches to make your media project come to life in a competent and cost effective manner.

In closing, green screen is a versatile and cost effective tool in creating media at a time in our industry when budgets are tight and time is limited. If you think green screen might benefit your next project, give us a call at 212-219-1075, Bill or one of my colleagues would be pleased to discuss the details of your shoot and offer an advice we can!

BBC's CLONED will utilized green screen technology

While the use of green screen stage in prime time television continues to grow, it looks like the game show genre is exploring green screen territory too! This week the BBC announced their commission a new game show pilot entitled “Cloned”.

The show will be utilizing both the green screen’s technology in conjunction with the CGI visual effects rarely seen outside of the movie industry. The team of four contestants are faced with a line up identical celebrities-they’re task is to discover which person in the line up of computer-generated clones is a real person…is anyone thinking about Blade Runner right now too?

Each player will be given a set of challenges and puzzles that they must completed in order to detect the minute differences between the clones and the living breathing celebrity in the studio.

Karl Warner, BBC’s executive editor for entertainment, was quoted saying:

“Cloned is an exciting new format which pushes the boundaries of production and game show mechanics.”

Here at American Movie Company, we had an opportunity to work with Mr. Hugh Jackman on a similar project not too long ago. Mr. Jackman filmed from our studios in New York City and the footage was to be used to create a hologram of Mr. Jackman interacting with presenters at a live event his schedule would not allow him to attend in person. That was a little less than a year ago, interesting how quickly these new uses of green screen grow so fast!

How successful will the game show be in their use of green screen? That will have to remain to be seen, as the BBC has not released a broadcast date yet.  And as always, if you have any questions about how you might use green screen or CGI in your next project, don’t hesitate to give us a call at 212-219-1075!

Well done team

$195hr Day Rate All-Inclusive Plan or $295 hr. 3hrs. minimum.
Contact Bill Milling at 917.414.5489

NYC Green Screen Studio Rental

Services :
- 25′ pre-lit, green screen sound stage
- Panasonic HVX-200 HD camera, P2 cards.
- On board HD monitor, zoom, focus, iris control.
- Camera operator/stage & client service managers
- Sachler Tripods, video amplifier & 32” HD client monitor.
- Complete lighting, grip and expendable package.
- Sound package, microphones, wireless mic & mixer.

- Royalty free HD & SD digital backgrounds.
- Downloading direct to your hard drive or via P2 cards.
- Mirrored make up station: steamer, iron and hair drier.
- Wireless Internet, phones, computer & printer
- Kitchen- green room, executive office.
- Complimentary beverages and snacks.
- Luxury high-rise building with air-conditioning.

Post Production Digital Effects

Our Maya, Boujou, Moka and After Effects artists can seamlessly insert live action footage shot on our green screen stages into photo realistic or fantasy virtual sets.

Contact Bill Milling at 917.414.5489

American Movie Co. - Green Screen Professionals - NYC

There are any number of truly great Boutique Video Production Companies in United States.
Quite a few in L.A., a good number in sunny Florida ( Wonder why ) and of course a small number of high specialized studios in the commercial heart of the country – New York City.

There is one particular studio that we would like to point out particularly if you are thinking of shooting in new york. They call themselves Manhattan’s Green Screen & Virtual Set Specialists.

Their own text says,

AMC is a full-service, boutique video production facility specializing in HD green screen studio production, editing and digital compositing.

Our in house After Effects and Maya artists create photorealistic & fantasy 3D virtual sets and then use “camera matchmove” to seamlessly integrate moving camera shots of actors from our green stages.

Give them a call.

You can contact Bill Milling: 917.414.5489