Production Notes: Santa Barbara Isn’t Real

I just posted Santa Barbara Isn’t Real, a short sci-fi comedy I wrote, directed, and edited. I filmed the footage of the actors in Studio B at TVSB in about three hours. I then took a few shots around town to use for the background.

I filmed everything with my Canon C100 and EFS 17-55 f2.8 lens along with an Atamos Ninjastar to record straight to ProRes 422. ProRes is a better codec for greenscreen work than the C100’s built-in AVCHD codec. You get better edge detail and it’s easier for After Effects to process.

For audio, I used an Audio Technica 4053B mic, and a Zoom H5, and synced in post with PluralEyes. The 4053B does a good job in eliminating some of the echo I used to get in studio B when using my Rode NTG2.

To get rid of the greenscreen in After Effects, I used the technique described in this Film Riot tutorial.

I ended up cutting the pre-keyed footage then keying each cut individually using Dynamic Link with Premiere Pro and After Effects. In hindsight, I think it would have been better to work on the entire clip in After Effects first, then cut in Premiere. I’ll try that next time.

For the smoke effect, I used the smoke from Video Copilot’s Action Essentials 2. For the yoga bubble, I used the CC Sphere effect in After Effects. For the train shot I used the basic motion tracker in After Effects. For the teleportation, I used Video Copilot’s Energy Ball Tutorial.

Last, I applied the FilmConvert plugin to the entire sequence via adjustment layer to give the foreground and background elements some color consistency.