Friday, January 08, 2010

There's a lot more Green Screening going on than you'd think...

Stargate Studios Virtual Backlot Demo from Stargate Studios on Vimeo.



Blimey. What I find interesting about this is how television and film acting must be becoming increasingly abstract - like performing in some kind of theatrical experiment in minimalism.


ALSO: what's interesting about this from a writery point of view is that one mistake you can make when you start out is to write certain scenes because you imagine they'll be easy to shoot, and avoid others because they might be too expensive. Whereas in fact it's often the simple things (lots of extras, night-time shoots) that cost a lot, and the apparently difficult (exploding cars, shooting in big stately homes) that can be a lot easier than you think.

8 comments:

Boz said...

The mimes have it! Who knew they'd be needed after all..

Anonymous said...

Great find.
I stumbled across this on YouTube and was amazed to see how far green screen work has progressed and that it can such a useful filmmaking tool, especially for television.

James Henry said...

Boz: indeed. Also Live Roleplayers.

drettworldlb: Interesting innit? And has others have said, when there's all this stuff you never notice, makes you wonder about the craply overt OMGSFX!!! stuff that's all too blindingly obvious.

I wouldn't have thought green screening was used to quite this extent in UK TV though, as there just isn't the budget for it (would certainly make my 18thC thing a lot easier to write, for a start).

Unknown said...

If it's not for budgeting reasons, why is it that US TV makers seem to go for green screening so much? I was always under the impression that SFX were really expensive, explaining the huge budgets of so many SFX-overload Hollywood films and the crappy look of low-budget shows trying to make monsters.

Although I suppose it can be pretty expensive and a bureaucracy nightmare to shoot on location.

But fascinating stuff anyway! Never would have guessed!

James Henry said...

I think the last bit: green screen type FX aren't cheap, but certainly cheaper and easier than filming on certain locations. Bear in mind many US shows have almost feature-level budgets - the pilots anyway, where audiences now expect the sort of scale of concept and FX you would get in a movie.

Unknown said...

WHOA... am feeling slightly, just slightly, cheated. So that means that while I, as a poor student filmmaker, am calling rough all the places begging/grovelling/bribing for locations, other people are just green-screening it!

I need to get into that racket.

Unknown said...

I can't believe this. My whole world view has just shattered. Is this real life? That Ugly Betty one was mental.

9/10ths Full of Penguins said...

I agree Khyan, I couldn't believe that they green screened walking into a bus stop. Surely it would have been easier to film her walking into an actual bus stop...