The Blue Screen Saga Continues

Another import aspect of blue screens is lighting, so on Friday I went to investigate the lighting available. As expected the normal everyday lights (I.e. the ones you find in homes) were within price range, but they seemed to be a bit weak, I want something with a bit more power, so I looked further field and discovered these…


Professional studio lights! Only problem is they’re a lot more expensive. That first light costs $210.75 and the other $166.95! This doesn’t include accessories like barn doors (for directing the light) and a stand. The total price for everything was $964.54! Way out of my price rang! Never mind, now I know what kind of lights I’m looking for I’ll attempt to get cheaper equivalents from a hardware store. They probably won’t be as good, but since the area I need to light isn’t that big it shouldn’t matter too much.

At the place that sells the professional lighting I was informed they also sold 3.8L of special blue screen paint for $180 - that make the first place I went to seem reasonable!

During my investigation I also looked into suitable “blue screen” curtains and discovered curtains can get quite expensive too - $46 for 1 x 1.4 metres! One place claims they have curtains in Ultramarine Blue and Chroma Key Blue but they have to get back to me next week on the prices.

I’m getting quite bored with the research so I think its time to start doing something interesting… Maybe I’ll start sketching out a few ideas for the megalith…

The Blue Screen of Life!

For convenience I intend to set up a blue screen at home, nothing overly big, but just the right size I can use for my miniatures.

What I envisioned was a board painted blue, problem is the shade of blue paint best suited for the purpose costs $33 per litre, which is rather expensive.

So here's the shades of blue - "Ultramarine" and "Chroma Key Blue"




Maybe not precisely those colours baring in mind they've been reproduced by a digital camera.

I’ve been advised I can produce a similar effect mixing acrylic paints, however its about $10 per tube, so by the time I got enough tubes I might as well have bought the paint that costs $33 per litre.

My next thought was to use a blue curtain instead of a painted board, so it looks like I’ll have to do some research on curtains.

Where it all begins?

I have begun by conducting background research on megaliths, mythology, Shamanism and related themes. Using this information I shall sketch ideas for a suitable megalith and then gradually refine them until I achieve the right structure and aesthetics. I shall also plan how the virtual space will relate to the physical space of the studio, thus requiring testing and experimentation. Finally, I shall experiment with compositing the various mediums together and creating visual effects like bringing dead vegetation to life.

Essentially I must determine which techniques are feasible, warranting further development and experimentation for use in the final cut of the project.


What I really need is a blue screen I can use from home... So how am I going set one of those up?

What happens in The Megaltih Project?

Now that the first draft of proposal has been written I shall share what its about...

The plug line...

Using a megalith as a conduit to channel energy from the environment a shaman preforms a ritual that returns life.

Synopsis...

The project will be a video sequence combining animation, still images (miniatures, computer generated and photos of existing locations) and live video, running for up to 5 minutes. The sequence will depict at least one character performing a ritual involving interaction with an artificial megalith and its surrounding environment to regenerate a dead tree.

Of course these details could change at any time without warning!

The Megaltih Project has been Green Lighted!

On Friday I showed the draft of my proposal to Bill, the head of the E-Media department and he approved of the project!


The Megaltih Project has been officially Green Lighted!



Bill also put forward the suggestion that the lead character could be the viewer, so the sequence would engage them as though they were part of the ritual. I like this idea as it gives another dimension to the project, so I think I may pursue two versions, a cinematic version that is viewed like an ordinary film and an interactive installation version which more physically involves the viewer.

But I probably should explain exactly what's going to happen first ...

An Idea From Hugh Thomas

Hugh Thomas, a class mate suggested that I cast someone with a background in performance for the lead role. Now this probably seems like a blatantly obvious thing to do, but being a student means casting agencies are out of the budget. The real value in his suggestion was the information he shared on how to find such a person.

But wait a minute! How does why does The Megalith Project need a leading role? How does a lead character fit in to this project?

A Rough Experiment

A YouTube.com account has been registered!

A while back I made this sculpture that resembled one of the towers from Lord of the Rings, but I never really did anything with it. About 18 months later I decided to use it as a miniature and see how well I could composite it into a background.

Unfortunately the only digital camera I had at that time was the one in my video camera, so the picture quality wasn't the best. Regardless it still turned out alright, probably because I shrunk the tower right down so small any major discrepancies weren’t noticeable.

I also managed to create a reflection by flipping the tower image vertically and reducing the opacity. Furthering the effect I managed to have a bird fly over the reflection and remain visible the whole time. The footage already contacted a bird flying over the water, so I simply duplicated the bird’s flight path, keyed its background out composited it over the reflection.

The effect is quite rough but I think it’s alright for my first effort – I can only improve!

It appears YouTube has shrunk the movie size and compressed it further vastly reducing its quality, but you'll still get the idea.