Where to find quality bluescreen footage?

[user_deleted]

Hi all

OK! I have built the workstation, learnt the software and read the books. I am now ready to start on the long and arduous task of compiling a show reel to show the world what a good compositor I am....... Oh wait where the hell do I get the raw footage from?

My options were as follows

1) Royalty free stock bluescreen footage. (Cant find any)
2) Shoot my own footage (I can only afford Mini DV and as the old addage goes, cr@p in = cr@p out)
3) Find a desparate film student or low/no budget production and offer my services for free (where the hell do you find them?)
4) Roto from DVD footage (the quality is really bad and the rotoscoping would take a seriously long time, also there is the issue of copyright)

Any suggestions? Preferably where I can find some cheap, quality bluescreen footage or where I can find a filmaker who needs a compositor and cant afford to pay.

Thanks all

Mike

[ryan3d]

90% of students who are breakin into the business use mini dv or similar grade footage for their first reel...if your just starting out nobody expects that you have a personal camera crew and herd of gaffers and grips....use your imagination to set up some shots yourself, plan them carefully and use your own footage....i garantee you most people starting out shot their own...

[kiwi]

yep -

DV ain't for broadcast work, but it's the thing to use for learning the tools and pulling personal projects together.

Also, there are some plugins that are specifically designed to pull good quality keys from DV footage.

Like this .... http://www.joesfilters.com/joeschannelblur.php

and definitely read this .....
http://www.neopics.com/bluescreen/

Remember
proper lighting is just (or more) important than video quality!!!

KIWI

[user_deleted]

Does this apply equally to NTSC and PAL? I have heard it expressed that PAL is even worse for keying due to the 4:2:0 colour sampling.

Mike

[kiwi]

DV PAL color sampling depends on the camera used -

DVCAM PAL = 4:2:0
DVCPro25 PAL = 4:1:1
DVCPro50 PAL = 4:2:2

But yes, 4:2:0 would be a little worse (25% less chrominance resulution than 4:1:1).......

[vintersorg]

Hi..

You only mentioned PAL video....
You don't want to slight those who use NTSC, do you?
Although we ALL know that NTSC stands for:
"Never The Same Color" ! (hee hee hee... )

Here is the complete List of ALL Dv Color Sampling:

DV Family of video signals:

DV Consumer is 25 Mbit/second: PAL countries, 4:2:0 sampling , NTSC countries, 4:1:1 sampling

DVCAM is 25 Mbit/second: PAL countries, 4:2:0 sampling rate, In NTSC countries, 4:1:1 sampling

DVCPRO is 25 Mbit/second in both NTSC and PAL Countries (4:1:1 sampling)

DVCPRO50 is 50 Mbit/second in both NTSC and PAL Countries (4:2:2 sampling)

D-9 Digital S is 50 Mbit/second in both NTSC and PAL Countries (4:2:2 sampling)

Bye,
JACK

[user_deleted]

Hey, good news!

I have found quite a bit of usable bluescreen footage on the companion DVD of attack of the clones. Obvoiusly I cannot use this in my showreel due to the fact that it would be blatant plagurism but it will make great practise footage.

Can anyone give me any info about keying from mpeg2 footage. How does it compare to the various DV formats when it comes to keying?

Are there any tricks that work specifically for mpeg footage? I am assuming that the trick of applying a horizontal blur to the U or V channel is not relevant in this case?

Mike

[kiwi]

it's worse than DV -

color sampling for MPEG2 encoded for DVD's and satelite/digital cable (MP@ML) is typically 4:2:0........

It's absolutely the worst format for your purposes!
(but it's a great distribution format)

sorry, man

KIWI

[deke-kincaid]

The Monkeybone dvd has a bunch of bluescreen footage of the stopmotion on the extras of the dvd. It looks perfect for learning to key and make garbage masks.

[kiwi]

sure, for learning purposes that would be great.

Just remember that the final product will not be as "clean" as he might like -no matter how much he tweaks the keyer variables........

KIWI

[zapta]

Mike
I am an ex student who was lucky enough to have a school with a bluescreen room, but we used a DV camera which worked fine. However using DV to shoot blue screen is a bad idea and their is a tutorial in shake about it. Greenscreen is better. But nonetheless I have just landed a Junior Compositing gig at a very big company with just my student reel. So it can be done. There are place where you can buy bluescreen material or just paint your room. Whatever it takes.