The Masters of Compositing Series - Part 2: Paul Vlahos

This is the second in a series of interviews with the pioneers and masters in the compositing/VFX film & television industry. I originally recorded these interviews for my published book “The Green Screen Handbook” (Sybex/Wiley, pub) and had intended to produce one full-length documentary from the materials. But after a couple of years past now, I thought they would be better served as individual parts of a series to help educate and inform people about these historic times from the early days of VFX compositing through modern-day techniques.

The Masters of Compositing Series - Part 1: Petro Vlahos

This is the first in a series of interviews with the pioneers and masters in the compositing/VFX film & television industry. I originally recorded these interviews for my published book “The Green Screen Handbook” (Sybex/Wiley, pub) and had intended to produce one full-length documentary from the materials. But after a couple of years past now, I thought they would be better served as individual parts of a series to help educate and inform people about these historic times from the early days of VFX compositing through modern-day techniques.

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Basic Lighting Setups for Green Screen

There’s more to lighting your green screen than just sticking some green fabric up on a wall behind your talent and hoping for the best! Planning ahead and choosing the right setup for the shot you’re hoping to get is a key factor in determining what kind of lighting setup you’re going to require. Will it be in a studio? On-location? Indoors or outdoors? Full-length with walk-ons or just a talking head? Will your actors be making contact with the screen? These are all questions covered in this video lesson from my Green Screen Workshop series - this is a FREE video lesson, so enjoy!

Green Screen Lighting on the Cheap!

Before you go out and spend hundreds of dollars on a cheap light kit online or through a catalog, consider the option of making your own portable, durable and ultimately flexible low-voltage lighting kits. You’ll not only have more control over how much light you want to put on your background and your subject, but also how much you want to spend!

Choosing the Right Green Screen Materials

Okay, you’ve seen the green screen “Kits” that come with some cheap lights, stands and a green screen cloth backdrop… or someone tells you to just go down to Home Depot and get a couple gallons of their “greenest” paint - a couple hundred bucks and you’re good to go, right? WRONG! A setup like that will be of little use if you’re seriously trying to get a decent matte. Without the right green screen materials, even the best lighting and camera won’t help you.

The entire green screen process is a careful balance of color & light - a very narrow spectrum of colored light that reflects back through the lens and is easily matted (or “keyed”) out with sophisticated software.

ScopeBox Software with the Reflecmedia LED Green Screen System

I’ve been testing the Reflecmedia LED LiteRing system for about a month now, and it wasn’t until I paired it with the ScopeBox software scope that I finally gained some real control in my shots! These products should be bundled in my opinion, because without a scope, it’s nearly impossible to tell on a preview monitor if you’ve got the correct gain or lighting from your LED LiteRing.

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