Green screening at it's best

[Elena]

Well, at least for an amateur.

The song is Ombra mai fu and is the opening aria from the 1738 opera "Serse" by George Frideric Handel.

The opera was a commercial failure, lasting only five performances in London after its premiere. In the 19th century, however, the aria was rediscovered and became one of Handel's best-known pieces.

We went out to a fantastic Historic house called the "Swan House" in Atlanta and they don't let recording with a crew so we just used the camcorder and took a bunch of footage. Then came back to my trusty Green Screen room and put on the dress and make up and filmed away. Of course you have to look at the footage first to plan some things so you fit in the back ground correctly.

It's not supposed to look exactly "real" but perhaps surreal is the best way to describe it.

I hope you like it.

 

[PTravel]

Elena, you have a lovely voice. A couple of comments about the video (something I know a lot more about than audio ).

The green-screening is, technically, excellent -- no fringing, no ghosting, no green reflections. However, the color temperature of what was clearly an indoor shot does not match the plate shots. If you can't gel your green set lights to a higher color temperature, you can probably fix it in post, but you really should. It will make it look a lot more natural.

I'd also suggest that you add in shadows in the full-body shots. After Effects can do this easily. If you want to get fancy, apply gaussian blur to the shadow and pin its edges to a bunch of grass leaves -- this will give it a little texture and movement and really place you in the scene.

Finally, I did notice some artifacting on the long shots of the steps of the house. I can't tell whether that was something introduced by compression on YouTube, or it's the camera that you're using. You're obviously turning out highly polished work, so it might be worth investing in something better if it's the camera.

Really nice work, though, and a refreshing change from some of the videos I've seen that look like they were shot with 5-year old cellphone.