Capturing Plates for Poor Man's Process

[Garrett Schwindt]

I have a few questions regarding capturing background plates for a "poor man's process".

I'm planning on doing a nighttime car scene in an upcoming short that takes place on Christmas Eve. It'll be two angles, a two shot through passenger window, and reverse through driver's. I'll be adding in post the reflections of houses with Christmas lights passing by on the windows. The vehicle will either be a sprinter-like van, or a small box truck. I am shooting the plates from the bed of my truck.

I've done a test shoot done practically using a GoPro (ISO 100) and lit subject with diffused Titan tubes on a color fade. You can view it here: https://youtu.be/9iXaSFp8k9E

I want to recreate this look in the studio. My questions are:

1) I have access to a Epic Dragon DSMC1 and Komodo. I'm leaning towards shooting the plates on Komodo for the global shutter/light sensitivity. Would this be the right call?

2) Should I shoot these plates parallel to the houses/street from the truck bed and skew/warp it in post, or should I try and match the camera and film the correct perspective (If camera is pointing into vehicle at 45 degrees, then film the plates of houses at 225 degrees?)

3) Should I keep houses in focus, and de-focus in post? Also, should I keep the 180degree shutter to match what I'll shoot in studio, or shoot with a narrower shutter angle for sharper motion and add motion blur in post?

4) Should I shoot the angles WITHOUT the windows up, and add the window texture and reflections completely in post?

Also, I do have a 1080p projector, 4000 lumens, and 110in screen. Would it be a better effect if I tried to do this all in camera by projecting the plates onto the screen and let it reflect in windows practically? Or would this screen not be big enough, projector not bright enough, etc?

I've done a lot of car work, but I've always done practically. This'll be my first "poor man's process", so any advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks so much!

 

[David Mullen ASC]

1) no opinion
2) If you've shot the stage scenes already then you might as well shoot the plates from the correct angles rather than warp them in post. If you haven't shot the stage stuff already, I'd shoot the plates both ways, flat into houses and at an angle (which angle depends on what you plan on). BUT one thing I don't understand -- poor man's means black backgrounds and moving light effects, so won't it be odd to have the background windows be black but the foreground windows have passing reflections?
3) These days, defocusing software is pretty good so you can get away with sharp plates and defocusing them in post for maximum flexibility, however, if you're not sure how ell the defocusing is going to be, it wouldn't hurt to shoot the plates with the focus set for where the subject would be in the car, you'd just be committing to that. Yes, use the same shutter angle to keep the same degree of motion blur, though usually people sitting in cars don't move much so a mismatch would be hard to spot.
4) You'd normally have the foreground windows down since your adding all the reflections in post and you don't want any reflections on set to compete with. However I suppose assuming you black out all reflections, if the window is particularly pitted and you have backlights sweeping through the glass picking it up, you could shoot with the windows up to get that texture. At some point if the windows are particularly dirtied, pitted, or have rain drops on them, you'd be better off bringing in a large LED screen of some sort and doing the reflections live on the set. Of course, if you had a second large screen you could also have a background view going by...
Whether the 110" screen is large enough depends on how tight your shots are. Longer lenses help. Try doing a test!

 

[Garrett Schwindt]

1) no opinion
2) If you've shot the stage scenes already then you might as well shoot the plates from the correct angles rather than warp them in post. If you haven't shot the stage stuff already, I'd shoot the plates both ways, flat into houses and at an angle (which angle depends on what you plan on). BUT one thing I don't understand -- poor man's means black backgrounds and moving light effects, so won't it be odd to have the background windows be black but the foreground windows have passing reflections?
3) These days, defocusing software is pretty good so you can get away with sharp plates and defocusing them in post for maximum flexibility, however, if you're not sure how ell the defocusing is going to be, it wouldn't hurt to shoot the plates with the focus set for where the subject would be in the car, you'd just be committing to that. Yes, use the same shutter angle to keep the same degree of motion blur, though usually people sitting in cars don't move much so a mismatch would be hard to spot.
4) You'd normally have the foreground windows down since your adding all the reflections in post and you don't want any reflections on set to compete with. However I suppose assuming you black out all reflections, if the window is particularly pitted and you have backlights sweeping through the glass picking it up, you could shoot with the windows up to get that texture. At some point if the windows are particularly dirtied, pitted, or have rain drops on them, you'd be better off bringing in a large LED screen of some sort and doing the reflections live on the set. Of course, if you had a second large screen you could also have a background view going by...
Whether the 110" screen is large enough depends on how tight your shots are. Longer lenses help. Try doing a test!

It is a honor to get back such an informative reply by you David Mullen! Huge fan of your work and your online presence willing to help up struggling DPs like me!

I may be using the term incorrectly. What I intend to do is kind of a hybrid PMP. I'll use titan tubes to simulate the lights on their faces, but we'll add the reflections in post.

Your second statement is absolutely correct and something I am hopefully planning for. I think with the camera angle and box truck cab, the rear rear window will be obscured as much as possible if not completely. The 110in screen may come in handy to add that background in real time, or perhaps the use of a green screen.

Great advice all around though, I'll definitely shoot the plates both angles to have flexibility. Thankfully this scene goes by extremely quick, and I hope the combined processes won't be too jarring or read as fake. I wish I could have the thing cast and do this practically, but these are the problems we are tasked to solve!

Thank you so much for your thoughtful reply, and I apologize for such a late response. Hard to plan a movie shoot during the holidays!