The Beast Within - Shot One
My challenge was twofold. First I had to try and wrap the actors into the still shots taken in Germany. I did this by matching as much as possible the studio camera height, angle, and lens to the camera that took the background shot. I also had to try and match the studio lighting to the lighting in the still. Secondly, I had to try and achieve film-like lighting quality within the latitude limitations of Beta SP.
Unfortunately, the background stills I used in production were later altered for a "graphic novel look" without consultation. Sometimes this negated entirely my attempts to wrap the actors into their environments. Lessons learned. The examples you'll see here are setups that turned out pretty well anyway.
In this shot of King Ludwig of Bavaria in his coach, there is no coach in the studio. Everything is in the background still except the four actors. The coach was shot at a ranch in California and then digitally added to the background plate taken in Germany. The actor playing Ludwig is sitting on Ultimatte-blue apple boxes, and is partially in back of a piece of Ultimatte-blue foamcore. The coach driver and shotgun are sitting on stacks of blue apple boxes and platforms. We used a studio monitor and a half-dissolve as a tool for positioning the props so that their edges would match edges in the photo.
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