You really should just do a test. Ask them if you can get a small sample of the primer and paint (or you buy it for a small amount of money) and take it home. Paint a representative area and see what happens! 🙂 If it sticks, then shoot test footage and run that footage through your workflow to see if you can pull a key.

RARELY do any big movies just rush into production without testing occurring first. Test footage is shot for makeup and wardrobe. Footage is shot just to test different filmstocks and lighting styles. Stunts and Special Effects departments run their own tests and rehearsals before they even get to set.

Invest the time and money into testing everything you're not sure about and you'll SAVE time and money later on. It's easier and cheaper to do it right the first time than having to try to fix later on.

Brian Dzyak
Cameraman/Author
IATSE Local 600, SOC
http://www.whatireallywanttodo.com
http://www.realfilmcareer.com

It actually matters quite a lot, which shade of green. The main goal of your green is to pick a shade that contains nothing but green, and it as loud and powerful a green as can be. This is so that nothing else in front of camera could possibly be that same green colour. Your camera sensor captures images with three separate colour sensors, for red, green and blue. The green background should be so green that red and blue sensors don't capture anything at all. Now, this obviously doesn't only depend on the shade of that green, but also on the lighting in the room, but it helps if the shade of green is saturated enough, and it is lit enough that the green appears very green on that camera.

On another thread of yours, a few weeks ago, I had responded with this:

quote:

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On another forum, I recently found an interesting thread, with one of the participants describing his own research into this. He took some paint swatches for Benjamin Moore and Behr paints. He discovered that two particular shades of green (one from each brand) were giving extremely good results, absorbing almost ALL red an plenty of blue. They were:

Benjamin Moore 2032-10 ("Neon Green")
Behr S-G-440 ("Green Acres")

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Fake wood paneling may just be plastic self-adhesive foil, which you might be able to peel off. If the surface is in good condition (i.e. if it isn't damaged anywhere and if it is not peeling off), you may paint straight over it, without the primer, if the surface is not too glossy. Between Behr and Benjamin Moore, most seem to agree that Benjamin Moore, while noticeably more expensive, goes on better, with fewer necessary coats, than Behr, especially with saturated colours. Benjamin Moore sells small jars of paint sample for a few bucks, and these can cover about 1m x 1m (about 3 x 3 ft). This would let you test the colour shade, as well as how it goes onto your surface.

Good luck and have fun with it!

I do have to do a primer on this fake wood...I am going to paint it anyway because the basement is so darn dark with it. I bought a cheap primer but didn't buy enough so I went to the Benj. Moore place and bought a pricier one...its true. The cheap primer needed at least two coats and I can still see the dark wood under it. The Moore paint is so thick...it went on in one coat and covered the dark wood.
When thats done I have bought a sample of something called Easy Living Paint in Barbie green. I didn't know there was such a thing as barbie green but thats what the swatch said. However, easy living paint was the same brand I used for the first coat of base paint so I already know its going to use several coats. What I think I will do is paint a corner or something and try it out. From the swatch sample though, its looks pretty close to the bright green chroma key paint for over 50 dollars.
The thing is , reguardless what the results are...It will be an improvement as far as the dingy basement is concerned. So even if this doesn't pan out for chroma keying at least the basement will be brighter!
...and despite what I thought, I actually don't mind doing it.