3 Camera Green Screen

pmc181 wrote on 1/15/2005, 12:02 PM

Hi all,
In the last year I have added a little green screen setup in my recording studio so that I can both record a band playing music, and also shoot a video of them and later in Vegas, turn it into a MTV video like. This way I can put the band on a mountain or whatever in the video.

I want to setup 3 cameras that I control via joystick from my recording console. I was thinking of using miniture cameras like they show for color surveilance systems, and recording it directly into a dedicated laptop to do this rather than using 3 camcorders. So I have a couple of questions on how to start.

1. Do any of you have any links to sites that would show me the hardware and software that I would need to get started ?

2. Have any of you done this or something simular to it ?

Thanks,
Paul McNerney

Comments

p@mast3rs wrote on 1/15/2005, 12:06 PM

I dont have much experience in what youre doing but I would think that using security cameras would not deliver the quality you are looking for. Most I have seen are of poor quality and resolution and the most arent designed to work with a steady stream of video rather more like time lapse captures.

Maybe someone else will jump in here and give some better advice.

Spot|DSE wrote on 1/15/2005, 12:12 PM

The cameras themselves will be more or less OK. I don't know where you can find security cams cheap, other than I'd try ebay. The cam will output a steady stream, most security cams do provide at least 640 x 480 and up to 30fps. The quality of the glass is usually weak, if glass at all, but they're cheap. You could effectively do the same thing with 3 decent webcams or iSight devices.

Keep in mind that shooting three cams against a greenscreen means you need 3 differing perspectives on your background that you replace the greenscreen with. This is one of the benefits of the Serious Magic Ultra kit is that the backgrounds have various angles.

Orcatek wrote on 1/15/2005, 12:31 PM

Any chance on getting 3 DV cams - even cheap is better than security cams. Bescor makes a pan/tilt head that is under $200 that you could use to move the cam remote. Add LANC connection (cheap ones can be had for about $80) to your cams and you've got it all.

You'll probably need a few hundred dollars of cable too for the connections.

Liam_Vegas wrote on 1/15/2005, 3:05 PM

Try SuperCircuits.com

pmc181 wrote on 1/15/2005, 9:09 PM

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone !
I'm off to research each one of them on the net.

Paul

vicmilt wrote on 1/16/2005, 5:36 AM

another viewpoint...
three camera shooting is always, at best, a compromise.
green screen is great for exactly the reasons you state.

for something as controlled as a music video, I'd suggest simply reshooting the same camera, for ALL of your various angles, rather than messing around with the various cameras (which will probably not match exactly in color) and the other assorted gear you are considering.

you might question whether you have a touch of "black box disorder" (I suffer from this) where you love the technology as much or more than the end product.

You'd be better off to storyboard your shoot and then get the exact shots you need, one at a time.
Or (my lazy man's technique) just shoot a couple of master shots from different angles, and then cover each band member in close up. Cut all your best takes together into a single movie and then work out the backgrounds.

The music is always going to be fine (you ARE shooting to premixed tracks, aren't you?). So it's the video that matters. The beauty of the greenscreen technique is that you don't have to get perfect performaces on every setup. You'll have plenty of footage to cut away to.

You also don't have supe complex lighting situations. You can vary it minimally for each setup.

best,
v.

farss wrote on 1/16/2005, 5:57 AM

Good security cameras these days are very good, Sony / Panasonic SuperHAD CCDs and there's one that'll do a trick I;ve yet to see in any video camera, dual shutter speeds. It takes one frame with the shutter set for the darkest and one for the brightest and compsites them together using a DSP chip and around 500 lines of res, S-Video out but add a decent lens and you could buy a low end camcorder for less.
I'd also mention that some of the cheap pan/tilt heads are just that, they're designed to move a camera, not do a smooth pan! Most are fixed rate as well.

Bob.