ProPlates Launches Library of Multi-Angled and DoF Plates for Better Quality Comps
If you've spent any time searching online for budget-friendly background plates from the usual stock footage suspects, you know how tough it can be to find plates that look believable in comps with any number of talking heads shot on green screen. A newly launced site, ProPlates, is now selling attractively priced royalty-free chroma key video background plates created expressly for editors and compositors.
Ranging in price from $40 to $70, the plates come in multiple angles and with the kind of detailed production specs necessary to dial-in an exact foreground/background match to deliver higher quality composites, eliminating the need to use blur tools to artificially set background defocus.
Founder Walter Lowe, the owner of Orlando production company Blackburst Entertainment, essentially created his background plate library from scratch by locating, lighting and shooting traditional interview setups and removing the in-focus stand-in talent. The resulting 4K and HD plates, all acquired with Super-35 sensor cameras and in 4:2:2, include out-of-focus backgrounds primed for chroma key effects.
ProPlates is starting small, with about 40 plates styled as tech, home, office and outside environments. Those plates can be downloaded as a 4:2:2 PhotoJPEG file called a Quickplate ($39.95). Starting at the ProStandard level ($49.95), each plate also comes with detailed production specs for the comp-conscious and includes footage shot with different apertures to vary depth of field. For the higher ProDeluxe price ($69.95), you can select ProRes or DNxHD, focal length, and even shot framing.
Though the focal lengths listed in the specs are for 35mm lens systems, ProPlates includes helpful advice on its site about how to match distances to subject and shot composition when shooting with 1/3-inch, 1/2-inch and 2/3-inch broadcast-style lenses. Lowe's production company specializes in commercials and corporate video production and routinely produces complex chroma key effects for its clients.
The company is currently offering a launch discount on all of its products through May 1. The discount code "SPRING25," entered on the checkout page, will net you a 25% discount.
Crafts: Editing Post/Finishing
Sections: Technology
Topics: Blackburst Entertainment chroma key comp plates ProPlates stock background plates
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Here’s a better idea- GO out into the real world and shoot your interviews in real live places! Learn to set & light like a pro! Hone & offer the invaluable craft of well-done location videography! Give green-screen on a whim a bad name! I swear this business is getting more ‘chop shop’ by the day. Don’t devalue, marginalize & commoditize yourselves, people! Turn the tide!!!!!!!!!
Condescending much, John?! As if people who shoot green screen interviews don’t know how to ‘set & light like a pro’ and shoot location interviews… I shoot for several network shows and we do around 75 interviews a year, some chroma key and some on location. Our chroma key interviews are more cost efficient, often yield better results and we can shoot more interviews per day. Sometimes it makes more sense for a production than location shoots.
I think this is a smart idea and I hope you guys expand your selection of backgrounds!