Realizing that most people are impatient--especially
in this business, we're now going to give you all the deepest trade secrets
of shooting for maximum impact in Ultimatte composites.
- Imagination comes first, and is the most important factor.
Nothing beats a deep, primal, good idea.
- It's not the equipment that does the work, it's the people.
It's experience, not chips and wires, that makes the magic.
- Thorough prior planning is absolutely crucial to success.
In any highly technical shoot, you just can't wing it without putting a
torpedo into your budget.
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| Now for some details...
We'd first like to draw a distinction among several different
Ultimatte styles or situations. Your idea can be surrealistic, placing
live actors in a cartoon world, or a computer-generated imagery background.
In our opinion, Ultimatte is at its most powerful in forming
absolutely realistic final scenes. Maximum use of all the visual tricks
of lighting mood and motivation, and fully three-dimensional thinking,
combined with blue set pieces for stairs, walls, and other physically interactive
environmental factors, will make for a final frame that engages the cognition
and satisfies the credibility of the audience.
In the best cases, even we can't tell where reality begins
and ends. Naturally, this can become a bit complex to shoot for reasons
we'll shed some light on shortly...
Often, a simple "weatherman" situation will
fulfill the needs of the script. Using our "Ultimatte To Go"
method of highly streamlined production techniques, this kind of thing
can be done easily on location anywhere at all. In fact, with a little
forethought, even somewhat complex blue-screen scenes can be shot in this
cost-effective simplified road mode, needing only an adequate shooting
space, and not a fully equipped video studio situation at all.
Especially in a simplified shooting situation, the most
important single factor in a successful Ultimatte shoot is a fresh, creative
idea. It doesn't need to be a blockbuster, just clear, simple, and appropriate
to the script material. It's far better to do something simple and elegant
that works, than to over-reach what's available and make some second-rate
visuals.
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