2 questions about movie tricks

[j123vt_99]

1) On a blue or screen shoot, how is a character able to get away with wearing the same color as the background?



2) In a scene that is all black and white with 1 thing in color like Pleasantville, how is that done? Is the color added by 'hand' to every frame?

[majorjoe23]

For the first question: I believe if the character is wearing blue, they would use a green screen. If they're wearing green, they would use a blue screen.

[j123vt_99]

For the first question: I believe if the character is wearing blue, they would use a green screen. If they're wearing green, they would use a blue screen.

that's what i was thinking... but i'm sure i've seen a movie with at least 1 character wearing a shirt with blue and green.. or is it just impossible to have that combo

[Brent L]

1) On a blue or screen shoot, how is a character able to get away with wearing the same color as the background?



2) In a scene that is all black and white with 1 thing in color like Pleasantville, how is that done? Is the color added by 'hand' to every frame?

1) There are different screens, blue, green, etc...

2) It's called a color pass, I believe. I'm no expert, but even I've been able to do a test with "eh" results:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=rhkKssfDgXo

I understand how it's done, but only the most basics. As you can see as I move and the lighting changes, some of the blue goes away also.

[j123vt_99]

So for the different colors, it would not be possible to (for example) have a guy wearing a gay pride shirt (all the colors of the rainbow) flying thorugh the air?

[devilshalo]

1) On a blue or screen shoot, how is a character able to get away with wearing the same color as the background?
Most times, wardrobe will try not to have actors wear blue or green. It's a very specific color blue or green and its not like a live weatherman using chromakey. The blue or green is to help a digital artist find the outline of the actors and create the background behind them.

2) In a scene that is all black and white with 1 thing in color like Pleasantville, how is that done? Is the color added by 'hand' to every frame?
I believe Pleasantville was shot in color. Sin City was also shot in color (though digitally so color manipulation is a little easier.)

[Groucho]

devilshalo is correct. You shoot the film in color, and then strip the color from the areas you don't want colorized. Sometimes its done the otherway around, and it doesn't look nearly as good (the red dress scene in Schindler's List, for instance).

[Brent L]

Yes, you shoot in color and can then do a color pass for the colors you want to show up. I can do it with one color at a time, anyone here could if they really wanted to try it, but passing multiple colors is more tricky, but still simple once you know what to do. I've just never bothered with it, since I've never needed to.

If you guys remember, earlier this year I made a thread asking about movies that use this trick since I was so interested in it, and wanted to see how it was done.

EDIT:

Here is that thread:

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?t=458542

[dugan]

Sin City's credits list about 200 rotoscoping artists. Rotoscoping means tracing over each frame of film.

I would assume, then, that they filmed in color, traced over certain areas of each frame of film, and then said "the areas outside of these tracings will be turned black and white."

[The Bus]

If I see one more photo or film that colorpasses someone's eyes or has a rose or lips and everything else in B&W I will flip the fuck out.

[FinkPish]

Sin City's credits list about 200 rotoscoping artists. Rotoscoping means tracing over each frame of film.

I would assume, then, that they filmed in color, traced over certain areas of each frame of film, and then said "the areas outside of these tracings will be turned black and white."
Well that, and then doing the same for nearly every shot in the film, since it was filmed in front of blue and green screens, just to add backgrounds, props, etc.

[LilDears]

I'm sure someone here can answer... why blue/green? What is special about these colors that are used?

[Chrisedge]

If I see one more photo or film that colorpasses someone's eyes or has a rose or lips and everything else in B&W I will flip the fuck out.

http://www.jushhome.com/nick/Tutorial/MSPColorPass/s85_rose-final.jpg

[DRG]

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5 had a dream/kill sequence where it was b&w with a little color. They actually created a b&w set and props for it and used special b&w makeup for Freddy in that scene.

[obscurelabel]

I'm sure someone here can answer... why blue/green? What is special about these colors that are used?

It doesn't directly answer your question, but an early example of this technique was used in the original The Invisible Man in 1933 and utilized black velvet as a background. So it can be done with other colors (or non-colors).

Just a guess, but I suspect that any color on the red/yellow side of the spectum would have a greater possibiliy to interfere with human skin tones.

[Draven]

There's an effect in After Effects that lets you pull out all of the colors except the one you selected. It's easy to get the "red coat in Schindler's List" effect. And Hollywood has access to much fancier tools.

About the shirt colors and the green screen. Keep in mind that the green they use is a very specific color and not one that is common in everyday fashion. They would have to have the exact color on in order to have it key out. Plus, you can always mask the area of their shirt and not key it. I had to do that with an actor that had extremely blue eyes that picked up our blue screen color. I just laid another copy of the un-keyed clip over the keyed version and masked around his eyes.

[caligulathegod]

Sometimes they use different colors for clothing and "color correct" them back to the intended color. Check out pre-dvd versions of Superman (1978). Their are many scenes where they forgot to fix Chris Reeve's suit and the blue is very off-color

This is from the Wikipedia article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluescreen

The background footage was shot first and the actor or model was filmed against a bluescreen carrying out their actions. To simply place the foreground shot over the background shot would create a ghostly image over a blue-tinged background. The actor or model must be separated from the background and placed into a specially-made “hole” in the background footage.

The bluescreen shot was first rephotographed through a blue filter so that only the background is exposed. A special film is used that creates a black and white negative image - a black background with a man/spaceship shaped hole in the middle. This is called a female matte.

The bluescreen shot was then rephotographed, this time through a red and green filter so that only the foreground image was cast on film, creating a black sillohuette on an unexposed (clear) background. This is called a male matte.

The background image is then rephotographed through the male matte, and the bluescreen shot rephotographed through the female matte. An optical printer with two projectors, a film camera and a “beam splitter” combines the images together one frame at a time. This part of the process must be very carefully controlled to ensure the absence of “black lines”.

Blue isn't necessary.

Yellow screens were used in the Sodium Vapour Process developed by Disney for the film Song of the South.

There are some modern screens that at first sight appear grey, but are in fact coated with tiny half-silvered glass beads to give a significant degree of retroreflectivity. A ring of coloured lights (usually LEDs) is placed around the camera lens, and the screen reflects this colour back to the camera. This technique reduces problems from performers casting shadows on the screen, and allows operation at low lighting levels. As the screen colour is defined by the colour of the ring light, it is easier to change the screen colour quickly, and to use a colour with a narrow range, making it easier to distinguish between the colour of the screen and colours on the subject.

Other colours are sometimes used instead of blue, including magenta (The Matrix), yellow (some 1970s episodes of Doctor Who), orange (Apollo 13) and red (Air Force One). The choice of colour depends on the subject and specific technique used. Blue is normally used for people because human skin has very little blue colour to it. Green is used because digital camera retain more detail in the green color channel and it requires less light. Magenta screens are often used with model photography where the model contains both blue and green components.