Secrets of Indiana Jones – Production Diary #04
Yesterday, we filmed a few night scenes with a torch. We expected it to be a huge challenge, but we actually wrapped up the whole thing in about 20 minutes, and the footage looks awesome.
Last night, we also set up a pretty cool green screen studio in the garage and we will be filming all the information segments there today (hopefully).
It’s a new challenge (we’ve never worked with this kind of setup before), but our first tests in combination with Final Cut were very encouraging. We can use all your prayers, because we have to wrap up principal photography today – tomorrow I’m heading back to Holland with all the material to start post-production!
Fr. Roderick
Good to hear the news on the SQPN ‘Guerilla Video Studio Garage’ Fr. Rod.
I have seen a couple of those low budget studios and they can turn out some pretty good interesting video work.
I had sent you some information yesterday & today on the specifics of doing chroma keys with FCP and low budget studio type stuff(diy lighting, diy green screen setups, converting to a lossless format, etc.) I hope they gave you information you can use not only in Georgia but back in the Netherlands as well.
May The Good Chroma Key Force be with you!
This discussion inspired me today to google “diy chroma key” which led immediately to:
http://www.kenrickparish.com/jgeerling/articles/photography/diy-greenscreen.html
note the source not just the content.
That in turn led to:
http://www.kenrickparish.com/jgeerling/other_sites/lightsabers/Index.html
which is just too much fun!
Thanks for posting that DIY chroma key article link John. That is one article similar to several I sent Fr. Roderick.
I noticed in the lightsabers info that they were using Adobe Photoshop for their post effects work. Adobe Photoshop is the standard for still photo work and Adobe After Effects is a standard for motion effects. Unfortuately those are expensive programs($500+) beyond what I would consider low budget($200 or less) although if you are a current college student/faculty with proper ID you can buy them at the student rate for about half. Of course Apple’s Final Cut Pro is also expensive and is not available as a stand alone program any more, although you may be able to find old FCP 4 or 5 for sale at a substantial discount. Now it only comes with a complete suite of programs called Final Cut Studio 2 consisting of 7 full featured professional programs(Final Cut Pro 6, Motion 3, Soundtrack Pro 2, Color, Compressor 3, DVD Studio Pro 4 & Cinema Tools 4(only used for input/output from/to film) for a total street price of $1200(or $200 per program) or an educational rate of $500. A low budget alternative is Apple’s Final Cut Express 4 that has the same interface as FCP and many of its commonly used features for $200 or a $100 educational rate. Of course the very easy to use video editing program iMovie & other production programs is included with every Mac and many good video programs have been made just with those.
As far as low budget Windows video production programs there are quite a few that can be searched for information/reviews about them. What I know and have worked with is the Mac based ones so I don’t consider myself qualified to comment on Windows based programs.
By the way, a term used for low budget video production is ‘Guerilla Video’ which is why I used the term ‘Guerilla Video Studio Garage’ referring to the what Fr. Roderick & Greg set up.
May The Spirit Of The Good Guerilla Video Force Be With SQPN Productions!
Michael,
Before I settled on Frugal Audio I considered calling my web presence “Guerrilla Audio”. I do mostly live audio which is something of a combat profession.
I noticed the bit about PhotoShop too. I could probably pull the same thing off with my ancient copy of Paint Shop Pro, the poor man’s PhotoShop. Either way I don’t think I have the patience to sit through doing it frame by frame.
I’m a Sony Vegas user on the PC. I managed to get into it and up to Vegas 8 Pro with out spending anywhere near full price. It’s a different working model than FCP as I understand it. Much less based in the film world. It’s been pretty versatile and forgiving for me. Up until about 18 months ago I hadn’t done any video since ‘93 or ‘94. It often seems like I turned my head and the whole world changed!
God bless,
John
San Miguel Arcangel
Defiendenos en la lucha, se nuestro amparo ante las hasechanzas del demonio. Te pedimos suplicantes que Dios la mantenga bajo Su imperio; y tu Principe de la Milicia Celestial, arroja con el poder divino a satanás y a los otros espiritus malvados que andan por el mundo tratando de perder almas.
Amen
-maria-