VIRTUAL SCENERY
A new take on rear projection.
'Virtual Scenery' is an ongoing project of myself and John Thorborg to shoot complicated and expensive scenes under controlled, creative and affordable circumstances.
Introduction
Some 10 years ago I started using rear-projection to shoot extensive car-scenes under controlled circumstances in a studio for the movie 'TBS'. Since we were pleased by the results and audience, other directors and cameramen thought the 'reality' of the scene's was very convincing, I stayed on this path for quite a while. I kept shooting car-scene's with rear-projection in a studio, making efforts to optimize the workprocess and make the quality of the images that I shoot even better.
I used this low-budget technique of shooting carscenes for several projects including the feature films
'Bloed, Zweet en Tranen', 'Hemel op Aarde' and three seasons of the series 'Hollands Hoop'.
In close collaboration with colorist John Thorborg and gaffer Uwe Kuipers I decided to take the rear-projection a 'big' step further.
In 2015 I shot the television-series 'Trollie' and we created an outside world with snowcovered mountains in a studio. We projected landscapes (moving images and photographs) on an 8x20 meter canvas with foreground art-direction and special-effects such as fog, falling snow and wind.
Since the film was a fantasy children's series, we dared to create our own world. We were able to control and shape this world by projecting its backdrop, altering the decor in the foreground and deciding on weather-conditions with only pushing a few buttons. It goes without saying that we did not have to travel to locations, we did not have to shoot in the nighttime and we did not have to wait for the sun or to look at the weather forecast for storm, sun or snow.
We also saved a lot on VFX by doing everything in camera without using greenscreen. Greenscreen would also have made it immpossible to shoot with live snow, rain and fog.
In 2018 director Lodewijk Crijns offered me his beautiful script 'Bumperkleef' to shoot.
Half of his film would take place on the road in a car. The story concentrats on a man, his wife and their two daughters traveling in their car to visit the grandparents. In the story there is heavy traffic on the highway, there are car chases, near collisions and dangerous driving. We talked a lot about how to overcome a lot of potential problems like safety of the actors and crew and the discomfort of directing scenes in the car on moving and noisy vehicles. We also had to work around a tight budget.
Already in our first conversations I introduced to Lodewijk and the production the possibility of using rear-projection in the mix of technique that we could apply to get this film shot.
I got everyone convinced and we decided on rear-projection as the preferred tool instead of green screen. I started to get John Thorborg involved once again and we came up with a plan to create a more sophisticated rear projection by using
LED-panels instead of a beamer.
We also created a 270° camera-rig to shoot the action that later became our playback on the screen in the studio as a backdrop for the scenes inside the car.
Since we did not use greenscreen we had dirty windows and reflections of the actors in the car-window. We were able to shot a lot of takes by simply 'rewind' and push the 'play' button. Everyone was comfortable and safe in the 'fast driving scenes'
We finished 'Bumperkleef' on time, on budget and with most visual-effects done in the camera!
If you have any plans of using rear-projecting for your production, make sure you contact me through this website.
BUMPERKLEEF Behind the Scenes
Bumperkleef
Filmstills from the movie Bumperkleef.
Shots that were shot in the studio showcasing our Virtual Scenery Technic.
Bumperkleef
On set:
3x8m 4K led panel background
Control over background through Scratch. Actors-replay with sync background (Scratch).
Lighting sync with background image (Scratch).
Additional options: Sync vehicle movements with background (Scratch)
Trollie
On set:
8x20m HD Beamer 20.000 Ansilumen
Control over background through Blackmagic Software and Photoshop.
Projecting still-photographs or moving images. Foreground action (falling snow, flair, rain) is allowed other than with greenscreen.
Visual-effects in background created prior to shooting or live on set.