Green Screen shots in Land

[Philly_SWAT]

For whatever reason, I never watched the special features on the Land disc until just the other day. They have a segment on there that shows all of the green screen shots. Man, I had no idea that so much of a movie nowadays in green screened. Has anyone else watched this? I mean, not just zombie heads blowing away, but just regular shots of people walking down the street were green screened in a studio.

[Danny]

yeah a lot of the scenes in hellboy had green screen to add like another turn off into a stret that didnt exist and stuff, they got nowt to do with the plot but they just gotta get the mise-en-scene right, and cgi is the easiest way to do it.

[SymphonicX]

Just for the record, this "green screen" thing is actually called ChromaKey.

And I don't mind the use of Chromakey for atmospheric shots, backgrounds and general zombie population shots....

,,,but I hate it for headshots and gore....keep it prosthetic people!!

[Danny]

ah but a combiation of them as was used in shaun of the dead works incely too.

[SymphonicX]

I can't remember who said it, could have been Romero himself but it went something like

"i don't care if they use CGI to enhance the visual elements of a movie, but when it becomes the movie, when it can't exist without CGI or CGI characters and backgrounds, is when the focus of the film changes and becomes irrelevant."

[DjfunkmasterG]

Green screens aren't used that much for Zombie Head-shots. I think the only time it was really used was in Shaun of the Dead when they killed Pete. Most Headshots splatter is just 2d/3d CGI without the green screen.

Green screens are mostly used like you all mentioned, as atmosphere backdrops. The technology today has become better and better and sometimes you can't tell what is green screen and what isn't green screen. Dawn 2004 had much better Chromakey work than LAND. LANDs zombie masses coming out of the water was horrible, consider the height of the water on Bigdaddy then look to the farthest zombie silhouette, the water is in the same place if not lower. Wouldn't it stand to reason most of those Zeds would still be underwater?

The best example of Chroma Key work in Land was RIley and Charlie's walk through the vacant city during the day. Even I was shocked to learn it was Chroma Key. However, other CGI used in Land was horrible and easily stuck out like a sore thumb. I thought DAWN 2004 had much better Chroma Key work and CGI all around. The only shots you can tell are CGI in DAWN 2004 is the Mall when they first see it looking through the fence, and the close-up of Ving RHames blowing a zombies head off with his shotgun during the raid on the gunstore.

Land had so much poor CGI... Preist Zombie (Flip Top), Zombie in dump, Headshots on zombies at fence, Zombies coming out of the river, and the Zombies lined up at the river.

Granted DAWN 2004 had $10,000,000 more dollars to play with, but some of the zombie duplication work on LAND was piss poor. That VFX supervisor should have been fired.

[SymphonicX]

Green screens aren't used that much for Zombie Head-shots. I think the only time it was really used was in Shaun of the Dead when they killed Pete. Most Headshots splatter is just 2d/3d CGI without the green screen.

Green screens are mostly used like you all mentioned, as atmosphere backdrops. The technology today has become better and better and sometimes you can't tell what is green screen and what isn't green screen. Dawn 2004 had much better Chromakey work than LAND. LANDs zombie masses coming out of the water was horrible, consider the height of the water on Bigdaddy then look to the farthest zombie silhouette, the water is in the same place if not lower. Wouldn't it stand to reason most of those Zeds would still be underwater?

The best example of Chroma Key work in Land was RIley and Charlie's walk through the vacant city during the day. Even I was shocked to learn it was Chroma Key. However, other CGI used in Land was horrible and easily stuck out like a sore thumb. I thought DAWN 2004 had much better Chroma Key work and CGI all around. The only shots you can tell are CGI in DAWN 2004 is the Mall when they first see it looking through the fence, and the close-up of Ving RHames blowing a zombies head off with his shotgun during the raid on the gunstore.

Land had so much poor CGI... Preist Zombie (Flip Top), Zombie in dump, Headshots on zombies at fence, Zombies coming out of the river, and the Zombies lined up at the river.

Granted DAWN 2004 had $10,000,000 more dollars to play with, but some of the zombie duplication work on LAND was piss poor. That VFX supervisor should have been fired.

Yeah nice post DJ....

I particularly get annoyed at those hanging zombies....and the shocked "look" of Big Daddy etc, that whole scene looks awful.....The duped zombies look good but only when you glance and glance away, or blur your vision - otherwise yeah it doesn't look perfect....t'would have been nice if there was no CGI at all really...

[Trin]

I think the movie would've benefitted from more CGI. Lots of people talk about how stupid the characters were and how bad the plot was - personally I think that those problems were created in a large part because the scenes in Romero's head didn't make it to the screen.

Example - When the zombies came for the city it just didn't seem like there were enough of them to be a threat. The military should've handled them with ease. Yet all the characters panicked in ways that didn't reflect what we saw. They reacted like there was an overwhelming number of zombies. I was just left shaking my head over and over again.

The LOTD poster showed an endless sea of zombies surrounding the Green. If we had seen that wall to wall sea of zombies approaching the city, or at the guardposts, or in the streeets, I think it would've made a lot more sense. In the face of that I could understand people getting trapped and panicking.

I understand Romero's comment about the movie becoming all about the CGI, but in this case I'd say the movie wasn't what it was supposed to be with without it.

[bassman]

Interesting theory you've got there. I think it's a first round these parts.

[rawrOTD]

I think the movie would've benefitted from more CGI. Lots of people talk about how stupid the characters were and how bad the plot was - personally I think that those problems were created in a large part because the scenes in Romero's head didn't make it to the screen.

Example - When the zombies came for the city it just didn't seem like there were enough of them to be a threat. The military should've handled them with ease. Yet all the characters panicked in ways that didn't reflect what we saw. They reacted like there was an overwhelming number of zombies. I was just left shaking my head over and over again.

The LOTD poster showed an endless sea of zombies surrounding the Green. If we had seen that wall to wall sea of zombies approaching the city, or at the guardposts, or in the streeets, I think it would've made a lot more sense. In the face of that I could understand people getting trapped and panicking.

I understand Romero's comment about the movie becoming all about the CGI, but in this case I'd say the movie wasn't what it was supposed to be with without it.

I thought the zombie numbers were one of the few things Dawn 04 had over Land
the shot of zombies swarming in that parking lot
and all over the buses!
man that was so incredible, that was zombie numbers you can only get in dreams
I thought Land could only have even more zombies
I mean its Romero isnt it? Pour on all the ghouls you can get!
but it seemed like the zombies in Land were much less mindless swarmy, more spread out
its a slight dissappointment
but still
he beat the crap out of Dawn 04's plot and terrible slew of characters

[ProfessorChaos]

Even with all the flashy CGI stuff, I still feel that Dawn '04 has way better looking undead folk and special effects than Land. In some scenes, the crappy CGI makes Land almost look like the opening intro to Resident Evil 2 for the Playstation.

[Danny]

and theres something wrong with resi 2?:D

[ProfessorChaos]

No, but when you are talking about a film with Romero's name in the title and have a big-time Hollywood budget of dozens of millions of dollars, your kill scenes shouldn't look like anything from a first-generation Playstation title.

[DjfunkmasterG]

See I thought the make-up was fine, but I do agree with Trin. The number of undead didn't make me feel scared or properly reflect the amount of panic the residents of fiddlers green had.

I agree that we should have seen way more zombies. The threat wasn't believeable in the least bit. EVen when they raided the town in the beginning it could have benfeitted from at least 500-1000 more corpses. I think had Romero shown a mass amount of zombies the film would have been more terrifying. Hell even his DAWN had more zombies in the mall than what was shown invading the green. Even Day of the Dead felt more apocalyptic than LAND did.

[Griff]

The CGI stunt zombies getting hit by the truck in DAWN 04 looked pretty cheap to me, too.

I know someone here once said that Chris Romero had told them that LAND's production budget was actually about 12 million which would put it below half of the DAWN remake. Land seemed to have alot more ambitious effects and alot more effects shots in total. Its obvious they couldn't afford the best and I'm sure the rushed schedule didn't help, either.

One thing that annoys me in LAND is how they chose to 'enhance' all the physically performed blood effects - like when the Nicotero zombie loses its head on the bridge. The test footage looks great but the finale tinkered product comes off too phoney looking for my liking and may as well have been done 100% CG.

Hopefully DIARY is a little more subtle.

[SymphonicX]

The CGI stunt zombies getting hit by the truck in DAWN 04 looked pretty cheap to me, too.

I know someone here once said that Chris Romero had told them that LAND's production budget was actually about 12 million which would put it below half of the DAWN remake. Land seemed to have alot more ambitious effects and alot more effects shots in total. Its obvious they couldn't afford the best and I'm sure the rushed schedule didn't help, either.

One thing that annoys me in LAND is how they chose to 'enhance' all the physically performed blood effects - like when the Nicotero zombie loses its head on the bridge. The test footage looks great but the finale tinkered product comes off too phoney looking for my liking and may as well have been done 100% CG.

Hopefully DIARY is a little more subtle.



when has a GAR movie ever been subtle!??! hahaha

[HLS]

For whatever reason, I never watched the special features on the Land disc until just the other day. They have a segment on there that shows all of the green screen shots. Man, I had no idea that so much of a movie nowadays in green screened. Has anyone else watched this? I mean, not just zombie heads blowing away, but just regular shots of people walking down the street were green screened in a studio.

HUH. wow. I thought I watched the extras on my DVD. I guess not. I will check it out.

off topic. But I like spotting Bloopers in movies. I was just watching The Day After Tomorrow. Abd I noticed when The lead character, what his name, fell off the ice ledge that before he did not have an ice pic then magically as soon as he falls he is shown hanging from an ice pic off the ledge. Just a little blooper I noticed. Sorry for being off topic and such.:rolleyes:

[frequentc]

Yeah, I was not a fan of the CGI in Land. Considering some of the footage they showed before they added it (particularly on the head shots and blood effects) it looked better without it. Remember when Charlie shot Chihuahua? Well, he was wearing a hat. There was absolutely no blood on the hat, the hat did not effect the way the blood sprayed out in any way, and when Chihuahua fell down, the blood remained stationary in air, totally uneffected by any kind of logical physics. Stuff like that happened way to much in the film. They should have just left the blood specifically to KNB and lots of squibs.

I felt the chromakey looked pretty good. It definately improved the atmosphere of certain shots. Particularly that shot of the docks when mouse was down there. Beautiful and quit creepy looking.

The thing that irks me the most however, is that one overhead shot of all the zombies swarming the city after the initial raid. Did not look real at all. For one thing, there were hardly even that many involved in the raid to begin with. I don't think they used one real zombie in that overhead shot. It was obviously just a CGI character copied and pasted over and over again.

Considering the overhead shot of the zombies in the opening scenes in Day Of The Dead (one of the most terrifying scenes in a zombie movie... EVER), you'd think they could have done better 20 years later in Land. I was highly dissapointed on that one.

[capncnut]

There are many gripes I have with Land. The CGI is far from top of the list.

[bassman]

Romero interview on the subject of CGI and the most obvious use of it in "Land"....

From "twitchguru.com"


Romero primarily used CG to add more zombies in crowds, and to put a building where he needed it on a skyline. He also had to use it for another effect that couldn't be created with conventional make-up, a zombie with a huge gaping hole in its head. "It just looked so CG, I hated it," he says. Not being a big fan of CG myself, I told Romero the effect came out much better than I expected, and I actually liked it. "You did?" said a surprised Romero. "Well that's your problem."

As much as he hated it, Romero left the scene in. "We had to keep it because it was in the storyboards. They couldn't get past this zombie if they couldn't drill him," he said. "When you see something that can't possibly be, then you say, 'Okay, somebody did that with a [CGI] effect.' In my mind, it takes you out of the whole movie. We had to leave it in because you had to get rid of that guy. What are you gonna do?"

This is a good one about Romero's stance on film makers today...:lol:

Romero himself saw "The Da Vinci Code" recently, and it's a bad subject for the director. "I thought it was garbage," he said. "I think Ron Howard has absolutely no passion towards what he does. We had passion, we didn't have the skill. He has the skills, he doesn't have the passion. It's like $100 million dollars wasted as far as I'm concerned; you could feed Zimbabwe with that."

Ouch. It's not just Howard and "The Da Vinci Code" that Romero dislikes. He has a lot of criticism to go around for some of the new directors in Hollywood these days. "Who's going to remember "Saw III" in 20 years? Forget about it," Romero said. "Here's the thing, man: I think that most filmmakers today, they shot music videos," Romero said. "They shot Faith Hill's last music video, and they think they're hot ****. Do they know how to handle it? No, they don't. Put 'em at an editing table, and they're clueless."

:lol: True......true.

[Neil]

Interesting!

[MinionZombie]

The man speaketh the truth. While I'd prefer many more practical effects in Land, the CGI, over the piece, was fine with me. The one zombie effect he mentions though (if I'm thinking of the right one), did look a bit hokey ... but I've seen many worse, so it's not all bad - the darkness of the film overall certainly helped matters.

As for comments on new filmmakers, agreed, there's too much preppy-boy music video director arrogance these days, all flash in the pan and no bollocks to back up those snazzy trousers they're sporting.

While I enjoyed Saw III (2 was a bit naff, 1 was excellent and I feel stands out), the sequels probably won't really be that noticed in the future. They'll certainly be mentioned a lot, but a classic? Nope ... SAW 1 will be the one of that franchise to stick out though, I believe.

[capncnut]

Great interview Bassman. It's nice to hear GAR slagging off other people's movies. :D

[DjfunkmasterG]

I agree with him. If you can't edit your movie or at least convey the message to the editor how you wants and needs then you probably should tsick to Music Videos.

I love editing, I had more fun editing than I did making the movie. I would love to be a full time editor.

[coma]

I love editing, I had more fun editing than I did making the movie. I would love to be a full time editor.
well, thats when it all comes together. Its make or break time.
The logistics with making a film can sometimes make it a big pile o' stress. Editing is "leave me alone, Im busy" time

[Mutineer]

The best example of Chroma Key work in Land was RIley and Charlie's walk through the vacant city during the day. Even I was shocked to learn it was Chroma Key. However, other CGI used in Land was horrible and easily stuck out like a sore thumb. I thought DAWN 2004 had much better Chroma Key work and CGI all around. The only shots you can tell are CGI in DAWN 2004 is the Mall when they first see it looking through the fence, and the close-up of Ving RHames blowing a zombies head off with his shotgun during the raid on the gunstore.


... and the Helo, and the several explosions throughout the film, and the sailboat going off into the sunset.

[MinionZombie]

... and the Helo, and the several explosions throughout the film, and the sailboat going off into the sunset.
Of course, Yawn04 had a bigger budget and more time...partly helped also by the stark contrast and 'must be on drugs' intense colour palette.

[acealive1]

For whatever reason, I never watched the special features on the Land disc until just the other day. They have a segment on there that shows all of the green screen shots. Man, I had no idea that so much of a movie nowadays in green screened. Has anyone else watched this? I mean, not just zombie heads blowing away, but just regular shots of people walking down the street were green screened in a studio.

the walking up the steps shot going into the city could have fooled me. i ahve a really good eye for it and couldnt tell it was greened. they used a lot of CGI for no reason though

[darth los]

Just for the record, this "green screen" thing is actually called ChromaKey.

And I don't mind the use of Chromakey for atmospheric shots, backgrounds and general zombie population shots....

,,,but I hate it for headshots and gore....keep it prosthetic people!!

i've been preaching that since like,,, forever. An example of a movie succesfully pulling off cgi for population shots is when they bust out of the mall garage in the dawn remake and we see thousands of zombies. I think they pulled it off pretty well imo. But the blood and headshots still look computer generated and detract from the scene.