Green Screen - Changing Perspective Question

[Danno321]

Hello,

I am learning about green screen techniques. I am looking for advice on how to zoom and pan given that the camera has to be on manual focus on subject so software can cut out the green background. I am thinking I can handle the "zoom" in editing but panning has me wondering what to do. I want to show the actor turning around and running down a street with a pan LEFT to show the enemy approaching on the angle. Any starting advice?

Thx,
Danno

[david walsh]

If you zoom your lens in as tight as it can go on your subject (that you want to keep in focus), then focus up. You will always keep that item in focus through the full length of the zoom as long as you don't move the camera.

When panning while shooting a normal scene you need to pull focus from the starting subject to the new subject.

When shooting green screen, if you have objects/partial sets on your set that are to become part of the composite then you need to do this, but you need to shift your focus to,the required distance of where the new subject will be.

If you aren't including any objects in your scene then it's normally not a worry, just pan and remove all the green screen. If you want you can keyframe a blur over the subject in post to fit in with the backgrounds depth of field.

There are exceptions, if you are shooting a macro or very narrow depth of field subject then the pan could have more of an effect on the changing focus on the subject. In this case you need to consider what will work best.

If your panning/tracking it's good to put markers on your screen. This allows you to track the backgrounds changing perspective in relation to the movement. You can then match up the compositions background with the change in perspective of your subject as the camera moves.

David.