Thank you Lucy, if you'd posted that initially you'd have got a completely different reception.

A trawl through the forums will show that we get at least one "wanted, someone to work for nothing" post per week. Nearly all of them are for commercial jobs. A lot of people claim all sorts of things to get people to reply. there's no way we, in your initial post, could tell that you weren't yet another firm looking for mugs to work for free.

So now that you've taken the time to tell us who you are, what you're doing and why you're not in a position to pay a wage....

Welcome and I hope that you find what you're looking for.

Edit: I've got to agree with Nikosony about the miming, didn't work for me I'm afraid, but I like the sounds, and now that you've shown yourself hopefully you'll find some video-makers to help you out.

And everyone lived happily ever after....

Phew - glad that is all sorted !

Thanks for that advice - most constructive and helpfull!
As you can probably now tell - video isn't my strong point which is why I came here.

The Song I've been looking for the CGI help with is called The Followed. I only cameo in that one for about 3 - 4 seconds and the shot is turning out to be a pig!

Basically, I stand on the edge of a mountain (grand canyon type affair), throw back my arms and scream. We've nick named it the neuclear scream, because from that shot it tear arses away from me at a million miles an hour, the forests crush, mountains collapse and ocean parts, screaming to a dead halt where the Star of the Film and his co-star are embracing on the (dry) ocean floor.....phew!

The bulk of the main footage has been shot in Lincoln City Centre, a ruin, a forest, and many deserted roads....It'll make sence when you see the story board.

So there we have a groovy movie idea, and...ermm...me, with (sharp cough) - ShowBiz movie maker and a camcorder.

I'd still like any advice or anything at all to go with just in case I get let down...again!:-(

And yes, I know this is ambitious, but it's probably going to be my signature song, and I don't want film fessy critics to slate it just coz my vids are..well, pants!


What you reckon?

Instead of cgi why don't you try and do your mountain scene using just greenscreen and either use still images of a mountain or some royalty free video. This sounds familiar as I'm trying to get one of my nephew's to jump off a cliff (no not really) but as I live out in the stix (countryside) and a local farmer has allowed us to use his land I've got a few elements together.

Once it stops raining for long enough we plan to transport a homemade greenscreen (10 feet wide by 6 feet tall) to the field and on a raised part prop it up against two poles and shot with the tripod lower so it points up. The background will be replaced with a still image (mountains and sky) and I'm undecided at the moment as to whether I should use a cliff face still or get some animated water like a small river going past and this will be masked in using either Photoshop or GIMP using and alpha channel to hide/show certain parts.

WOW! CORKING IDEA!! THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!

Now.......stupid question coming on.............................light or dark green? Which is best and does it actually matter in the slightest?

Only asking this as my corridor walls are sage green.......Plan coming on!!!

Neither light nor dark, it has to be somewhere inbetween. The best advice is to do a search on Google for greenscreen and look for any images of greenscreen setups that show the colour green as they will give you a better idea of what shade of green works and what doesn't. After the shade of green is sorted, how is the corridor lit? A greenscreen has to be lit evenly from top to bottom with no dark areas or highlights when using a wall or no creases when using material.

My suggestion would be to use a bluescreen rather than green if you're filming on grass. Your editor will curse you if you give him someone on grass with a slightly different screen to key out!

My experience is that chromakey (green/bluescreen) in the open is "easier" than in a studio if the sky is overcast and a bit more difficult if the sun is shining.

You can use any colour for chromakeying although primary colours work best. Red is seldom used since it is present in skin tones and some camcorders have a problem with reds "bleeding" into adjoining pixels. The main consideration is to have the screen evenly lit to the same levels as your forground, too light or too dark can cause problems in post-production.

Thanks Guru, I only realised that later, yes bluescreen would be better if part of the foreground is green also.

Okay Guys, Thanks.
Will have a play about and let you know what happens!!

Incidently, what is the most useable programme for me to do this?

Thanks!

Guess what?
You were all right. No one does owt for nowt (except me), so now that I have no clever and knowledgeable person to edit mi vid - don't expect anything too clever....back to movie maker for me!

Lu