Heath McKnight's Tech Blog
Heath McKnight's blog

Making green screen movies

Around two years ago, I asked an old friend of mine named David Michelinie (a legendary comic book writer who created Venom for Marvel Comics, among other things) to write a short script for me to direct.  I gave him the limitations: one location, minimum number of characters, etc.  He sent back a terrific script called HELLEVATOR, about an elevator that may or may not be haunted.  For around 85% of the short, there is only one character, Jordan Marley.  Easy, right?  Not really, if you don't have the budget to build a set (or to pay to rent an elevator).

Fast-forward two years later.  It's been a year since I produced and directed my latest feature film, 9:04 AM, and I'm itching for a new project.  I pull up HELLEVATOR and decide to go for it.  My production coordinator Kathie Ward and I, along with my friend and long-time co-writer Grant Balfour, started scouting locations.  We found some good ones, but the owners of the property wanted a large fee + insurance.  Having very little for the project, we gave up there and went home.

A day or two later, I was instant messaging with my friend Matt Miller, who happens to be a visual effects artist and budding cinematographer.  I started asking about virtual sets (he created one for an extended scene in 9:04 AM) and he became nervous that I was about to ask him to create photorealistic FX for HELLEVATOR.  No, no, I replied, I just want to explore it.  It's so much like a comic book, let's just make it hyper-stylized, a la 300, SIN CITY and SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW (an underrated movie, by the way).  He was onboard.

For the first time in years, I drew up some crudely drawn storyboards (I usally write a shot list), I cast Jordan Marley (Greg Nappo, who had a small part in 9:04 AM), my friend Patrick Speicher supplied the studio, I assembled the rest of my crew with Matt shooting, and Panasonic was kind enough to loan their new HPX500, shoulder-mount P2 camera.  (My review.)  We were ready to rock!

Two days prior, Matt, Pat and I went out to an office building and took around 50-100 stills for background plates, for the FX.  We used Pat's wife's brand new Nikon D200 (the D300 wasn't announced yet), and Matt snapped off everything he needed for FX.  I took some behind-the-scenes pix (with the Nikon D40x, my review) of Matt in awkward positions to get all the angles he needed to build a 3D virtual set.

The shoot went flawlessly in mid-September, one day only.  The day before we shot, I spent a few hours rehearsing with Greg while Matt and Pat lit the green screen and built some China Lantern Balls to light the set itself.  Greg had two challenges: acting mostly alone (he does interact slightly with a recorded voice) and acting in front of the green screen.  After 2-3 solid hours, we pretty much had it down.  We shot for around 6 hours when the extras came in (including three actors from 9:04 AM, along with crew from the film, too--it was like a reunion), then shot another 4-5 hours. 

All in all, we spent around 13 hours that day, including final rehearsals, set-up and more.  We shot in 720p24p native (no pulldown, straight 23.98 frames per second to P2 cards) and the camera with Canon lens was a dream!  Having Matt shoot the film and creating the FX was a lifesaver because he knew what was needed.  Greg did an excellent job, the crew was outstanding and the extras were patient while we shot.

One more thing about production before I discuss post...we hardly moved the camera around.  Instead, we moved the actors, who were always around 8-10 feet in front of the green screen (to avoid "green spill," making it harder to key) and we would just tell them to stand sideways, or with their backs to us.  We were always mindful of the 180 degree rule and would just zoom in as needed.  Occasionally, we would move the camera, but mostly it was just a simple zoom or reposition.

Okay, post-production.  It's been a little slow, because I've had to re-think my workflow AND how I edit.  I've been cutting since 1995 (when I was in film school), and I've used everything from linear, tape-to-tape video (DVCPRO 25/50, Beta, 3/4, Hi-8 and VHS) to film (16mm), so I think I've developed my own style.  I moved into nonlinear in 1999 with Premiere 5.1 for Mac and soon after, Final Cut Pro 1.0.  None of my training could prepare me for the "art" of cutting with only an actor and that's it! 

We decided that since I'm on a Mac and Matt is on a PC with Vegas 8 and his other tricks to create FX, I would cut the film, then create full-frame (960x720) QuickTime movies of the raw, unedited clips, keep the names the same as they were when created in the P2 cards (usually a series of ascending numbers and letters).  I have cut the first act so far, then I had to take the clips I chose and extend them out so the entire clip is available.  I am using Sorenson 3 to create the files, and they look great and the size isn't too big (around 40 MB for a 45 second or so clip). 

After that, I put the clips onto a CD-r and mail it off to Matt (it's taking too long to use yousendit.com with a DSL or Cable line).  He'll add the FX and color correction and send it back to me.  I simply load up everything and "re-point" the Final Cut Pro project to the new clips, and since the names are the same, I don't have to re-edit.  FCP will recognize it.  And this is when I'll be able to really finesse the cut, because it's not easy without the set.  I'm missing beats, I am struggling to tell if this cut is good vs. that cut, because everything is in front of the green screen.  But so far, not so bad.  :-)  I'll definitely get used to it, and I think Matt and I will probably develop a better workflow.  For now, we're still cutting away and Matt's working on the FX!  (Btw, thanks to my cast and crew for all their hard work, and to Pat Speicher and his wife for the use of their studio.)

For more information, visit hellevatormovie.com.

Posted at 11:32AM Oct 07, 2007 by Heath McKnight in General  |  Comments[5]