Behind the Green Screen

As we mentioned before, we've started using green screen for our press shoots - the photography shoots that take place a couple of weeks before opening night and capture press preview images.

And while this process does reduce stress on our scenic shop, as we no longer pester them for set pieces two weeks early so we can use them as backdrops, it would be a mistake to call it "easy."


The process requires a great deal of care from our photographer, Chris Bennion. He has to be conscious of not just the light on the subject, but must also the green screen to get it as close to flat in appearance as possible. The more folds and texture we can see in the screen, the more time I'll be spending dropping it out in Photoshop later.


But it takes more than Chris and the actors and I - a lot more. The costumes are usually still being finished and sized, so we usually have at least Rana Webber, our Costume Shop Manager, and a draper on hand, and often a second draper and a make-up artist. Because our shots are often tight and close, and stray hairs or oddly-curled bits of costume will make the finish work much harder, all of these folks are constantly fussing over the actors between shots, trying to make sure we capture the perfect look.


The actors are troopers. They show endless patience as Chris asks them to move a half-foot forward, now three inches back, twist slightly toward the light, not too far, now hold that pose, longer, longer, a little longer, ok, got it, relax. The photo shoots aren't long, but between the blazing lights and constant posing, they can be grueling.

In the past, we've used a couple of different sources for the images we drop in to the background. For The Wizard of Oz, we used stills taken from the projection design, and for Pharaoh Serket and the Lost Stone of Fire we used shots of the model of Jennifer Lupton's lavish set. A Tale of Two Cities doesn't have any projections, and the set is highly-functional but not visually compelling as a backdrop, so we turned to the Public Domain.


This painting is called "Prise de la Bastille" or "Storming of the Bastille" by Jean-Pierre Houël (1735-1813). The copyright expired long ago, meaning we can use the images as part of the Public Domain without paying a royalty (which our budget demands).


Once Chris drops off the raw images, like the one above, it's time to put in some earphones, crank up a little NPR and spend a couple of hours with Photoshop. We drop the majority of the background out using Select>Color Range, which does a good job but can leave a green "halo" around the subjects. It can also, if you aren't careful, drop out bits of green from the actors' costumes.

After the big drop, there's all the detail work. Hair and wigs present the biggest challenge, as you want to get out all of the green but leave in the stray strands and wisps so the hair looks realistic - not a round hair helmet. We use a combination of some Magic Wand selections, pencil and airbrush erasers, and subtle manipulation of hue, usually working at super-high magnification.



The results are very stylized images - more movie poster than preview clip. But they do a great job communicating the look and tone of the play, which is, after all, the primary job of press images.

We'll post more of the images from this shoot, including an "outtake," as soon as we get the finish work done.

A Tale of Two Cities opens Friday March 20th in SCT's Charlotte Martin Theatre and runs through April 12th.