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Originally posted by Bababooey

I have a scene where a guy is driving an ambulance. Should I film with the camera up front with the driver as he actually drives, or as a friend suggested, film the driver sitting in a still video, and use the green screen effect to fill in the background later?

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Well, it depends on what you need from the shot/scene.

If the ambulance is meant to drive in an "unsafe" manner (unsafe for the cast/crew and other motorists and pedestrians), then definitely use a visual effect (green screen). You'll have to cut these close-ups of your driver in with the shots of the ambulance driving erratically to match.

If the scene is relatively calm and you have the hardware to mount the camera safely (so that the driver can drive safely and so the camera won't fall off the vehicle), then you can save yourself a lot of trouble by shooting practically. It's likely that you'll want multiple angles which will require different hardware and time built into your schedule to allow for rigging.

You'll also need to rig lighting inside and outside of the windshield as the exterior light on the background will create a massive contrast difference with the cab interior.

If you shoot with a greenscreen setup, you'll save yourself a lot of effort and money by creating the setup outdoors where the sun will give you an even light on the large greenscreen you need. You'll have to bring in large enough lights OR use shiny boards/reflectors to put light into the cab, but take care to control the quality of light so that it changes accordingly as the scene progresses (ie, your vehicle goes through shadows in the wide shots means that the cab interior should go a bit darker as well at that time).

You might need a combination of these techniques. Remember, the whole point is to create a new reality that isn't really real, but the audience buys as real. Often, shooting something practically (not a visual effect) is the best way to do something because it is in a real environment. But sometimes you can't create the movie-reality you're looking for practically, so a visual effect is necessary.

There is no "best" way per se. The "best" way is whichever method best tells your story within the parameters of time, budget, and safety you have to work within.

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

Thanks for the response!....which leads to my next question. What exactly do I need for the whole green screen set up, and how much will it cost? And do I need to pre-record footage from the inside of the ambulance driving down the street to match with the driver sitting in the still ambulance? That may sound like a simple question, but I'm not too familiar with the whole green screen thing?

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Originally posted by Bababooey

Thanks for the response!....which leads to my next question. What exactly do I need for the whole green screen set up, and how much will it cost? And do I need to pre-record footage from the inside of the ambulance driving down the street to match with the driver sitting in the still ambulance? That may sound like a simple question, but I'm not too familiar with the whole green screen thing?

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Shooting green screen means having a green background behind your main action, covering EVERY part of the frame that you intend to replace later with something else.

So, for a van interior, the camera is facing the driver from the passenger seat, you'll need a large flat green surface to light evenly. That can be a wall painted green or a large cloth that is chroma-green (for examples of what chroma green looks like, look here: http://www.filmtools.com/sss-54.html )

So once you have a large enough green background, you need to light it evenly. This can mean placing it outdoors where the sun will naturally light it evenly (although you won't be able to control the footcandles on it, meaning that you MUST match your Interior van lighting to whatever the sun is forcing you into). Or, you can place the entire setup on an interior stage, which means using large enough lighting units to enable you to light the entire green screen bright enough and evenly. The green MUST be placed far enough away from the main action so that A) no shadows are thrown on the green from your key lights and B ) so that no green light is kicked back onto your actors and/or vehicles.

If you haven't done this before, I urge you to shoot tests on a set and then to run that footage through the post process so that know that you're doing it all correctly. If something is wrong, you'll be able to run more tests until you do achieve success before you bring in the actors and other crew. The other thing to consider is to convince a qualified Cameraman to help you with these shots. You'll still want to run tests all the way through the post process, but having a qualified experienced Cameraman there will take a lot of the guesswork out of it and you'll be able concentrate on the action and the story instead of worrying about the technicalities of the process.

For MORE on the finer points of lighting and shooting greenscreens, go to http://www.cinematography.com and type "greenscreen" into the SEARCH feature.

Good luck!

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