Compositing TE updated

1Running head: COMPOSITING: HOLLYWOOD’S SECRET WEAPON
Compositing: Hollywood’s Secret Weapon; Definition, History, Live Action Compositing, and the
Future
Kathryn Olivia Lighthall
POLYTECH High School of Kent County, Woodside, Delaware

Abstract
Compositing goes further than just placing elements in a scene. It requires one to understand
how shapes and colors collaborate, and how to make scenes move seamlessly. There is more
to a scene than what one sees- it is more importantly, what one does not see. As a compositor,
one must understand the jobs of everyone working in the production of the project. Live
Action Compositing is now created by chroma keying out a (typically) green, well lit
background, with a subject standing in front. The green will then be replaced with a
background in post-production. Physical composition often involves “painted glass,” where
actual painted glass is placed in front of the camera, and the subjects move freely behind it, but
not intersecting unless desired. Compositing has come a long way, from Méliès’s first
composite of black matte on glass, to $2.99 compositing apps on a phone today. Compositing
has completely changed and improved the audience’s perspective on media, and experts in the
field were interviewed to support this thesis.

Introduction
Did New York City have to be demolished to get that shot? Can we really create mystical
clouds from the end of a wand? Do we have ten foot tall blue people on our neighboring
planets? Since when did dinosaurs decide to “chill” in our era? Film has the power to make us
believe that the answer to all the questions is 'yes'. Compositing has completely changed and
improved the audience’s perspective of media.
What is Compositing?
Compositing describes how shapes of different elements are combined into a single
image (Compositing and blending level 1, 2013, pg.1). In short, a compositor is responsible for
fusing together elements such as live action footage, 3D animation, stock footage, and other
sources into a single picture. Sometimes the goal is photo-realism for a motion picture and
other times the goal is to exaggerate the world for a TV spot (Kramer, 2009b, pg.1). Andrew
Kramer, Digital Juice’s prime editor, explains compositing’s elements through an acronym called
PERFECT.
Perspective: When compositing a scene, a person would want to consider the
perspective of their raw footage, and carefully mix elements that align with his/her shot. One
would not want to notice two characters in a dialogue sequence shot that is not aligned in
perspective with both character’s eye contact. A major perspective conflict can be a give-away
that the shot was poorly composited. Esthetics: Keep an eye on each element and balance
them in the scene evenly. Objects in the front of the scene should be brighter and in focus than
the objects behind it. Look at the composite as a whole and not just the area being developed.

Randomize: The world is unpredictable, so variations should be used in the compositing work.
One example is when creating a dance team from a small group of extras, it is important to
offset the individuals by time and depth so they do not look duplicated. The audience’s mind
should not pick up on a pattern. Feathering: The way elements are blended in a scene is a top
priority. Sharp features can be a dead giveaway that the object was inserted into the scene in
post-production. Edges must be feathered in order to blend and create an illusion of shadows.
The audience does not want to notice the elements as individuals. Environment: When
compositing an element for a scene, think, how would this affect the surrounding environment.
Does the bright light cast on the walls around it? Does the curtain in front of the window
diffuse the light seeping onto the floor? The compositor should be creative and think of clever
ways to make the effects blend with the real world. Color: Matching color and light are
important to realistic looking composites. Obviously the elements should match the color of the
scene, but the contrast levels should look real, too. The audience does not want to see a blue
tinted person in a red, warm environment. Timing: There is a rhythm to cinema and visual
effects. There is action and reaction. The composition should be allowed to flow and unfold as
if it was real; that is what the audience wants after all. If one forces things to happen in a short
amount of time, the shot may turn out choppy and fake (Kramer, A. 2009a, pgs. 1-2). The
audience wants to see realism, not falsely edited pieces.
The purposes of visual effects are not always to be seen, but typically to not be seen.
There are many different types of “invisible effects.” One essential effect is removing things
that were needed during the principle photography, but must be taken out for the finished
shot. This would include rig and wire removal. There are also invisible effects designed to

dramatically change how the shot looks, but still appear perfectly unaltered, such as monitor
replacement, speed changes, and shot stabilization. The audience does not want to pick up on
imperfections in the overall shot.
Live Action Compositing
Chroma keying is a technique used for combining two frames or images by replacing a
color or a color range in one frame with that from the another frame. It is often used in film
industry to replace a scene's background by using a blue or green screen as the initial
background and placing the actor in the foreground. The principle behind chroma keying is that
the color blue is the opposite color of skin tone, so a distinction between the two is very clear,
making it easier to select the color without worrying about any part of the actor being included
in the selection (Janalta Interactive Inc., 2010 – 2013, pg.1). During live action compositing,
elements such as reflections in windows and wires may get in the way. A professional
compositor knows exactly what to do. With reflections of cameras, crew members, etc., he/she
would look for hard edges in the shot, and draw a single matte for the entire area to be
replaced with very carefully aligned matte edges. “In an action movie there can be literally
hundreds of wire removal shots. A production technique called a “wire gag” is used where the
talent is rigged up with wires to either assist him to leap over a tall building with a single bound
or as a safety feature to save him from certain death” Wright, S. (2013). A background frame
must be created before removing an offending item. The new background frame with the item
removed is called a “clean plate.” The compositor must select “clean” areas from different
frames, and then align the clean plate with the original shot.

“Before the concept of using a double exposure on film known as a matte shot,
Hollywood used a far simpler method known as a glass shot” Marlin 55. (2013). Physical
composition is created when the separate parts of the image are placed together in the
photographic frame and recorded in a single exposure. The elements are aligned so that they
give the appearance of a single image. When using physical compositions, the cost of the
overall set is decreased dramatically. Instead of hiring a visual effects team and/or repairing
sets, painted glass can be used in some instances. Actual glass is painted and added to the
background, and if shot correctly, appears to actually exist in the scene. Partial models are
typically used as set extensions such as ceilings or the upper stories of buildings. The model is
hung and aligned in front of the camera so that it appears to be part of the set. Models are
usually large because they must be placed far enough from the camera so that both they and
the set far beyond them are in sharp focus (Clarke, 1964, pg. 152.). “It is important to know
exactly where the live action would be taking place. If any actor or actresses passed behind the
painting, they will be obscured by the painted structure and ruin the shot” (Marlin 55. (2013).
“Visual effects involve the integration of live-action footage and generated imagery to create
environments which look realistic, but would be dangerous, costly, or simply impossible to
capture on film” (Clarke, 1964, pg. 152.).
History and Future
Compositing has come a long way. Georges Méliès started the first “composite” in 1898.
The matte shot was the first compositing techniques employed by early filmmakers such as

Méliès. In his film, Méliès would black out parts of the frame using a piece of glass with some
black paint. No light would reach that part, and therefore it would not be exposed. Then, the
film would be rewound and matte out all that was previously exposed. “The resulting double
exposure could combine two or more different shots into one frame all done inside the
camera” (Hollywood’s history of faking it/the evolution of greenscreen compositing, 2013, pgs.
1-22). The glass shot was a technique of painting elements on a piece of glass and placing that
glass between the subject and the camera – a sort of real world compositing which was refined
by early filmmaker Norman Dawn, using it to augment sets making them look much bigger and
more elaborate without the costs of construction.
In 1903, Edwin S. Porter needed to get a train moving outside the window of a train
station in his movie, The Great Train Robbery. A pane of glass was painted and added to the
front of the camera to create a larger, more realistic world. Using this painted glass, the
window and the train outside appeared to actually exist in the scene. “Early orthochromatic
film needed a lot of light and the technology for efficient electrical lighting for film was still a
decade or two away” (Hollywood’s history of faking it/the evolution of greenscreen
compositing, 2013, pgs. 1-22). In the 1900’s and 1910’s, painted glass was used to “make sets
look much bigger and more elaborate without the costs of construction” (Hollywood’s history
of faking it/the evolution of greenscreen compositing, 2013, pgs. 1-22). The traveling matte’
was patented by Frank Williams in 1918. Subjects were photographed against a pure black
background. A black and white silhouette would emerge after the film was copied to
increasingly high contrast negatives. With painted glass, any shadows casted off of the subjects
would be lost.

An alternative to travelling mattes emerged in about 1925; this alternative would
eventually be called the “Dunning Process,” named after its inventor, C. Dodge Dunning. The
“Dunning Process” required a blue background screen, and the subject lighted yellow. “Using
dyes and filters, the blue and yellow light could be split apart to create travelling mattes’”
(Hollywood’s history of faking it/the evolution of greenscreen compositing, 2013, pgs. 1-22).
The drawback with the “Dunning Process” was that it only worked with black and white film.
Once color film came on the scene, the Dunning Process faded away, as color became more
prominent. The three strip Technicolor process recorded three colors separately, red, green,
and blue, and displayed them back on one larger combined color. was done by shooting a
subject on a blue background. Blue was the furthest thing away from skin tones, and had the
smallest grain of its time. The silhouette matte’ was created when the blue separated from
three Technicolor negatives. The three strip Technicolor process involved too many steps and
was time consuming. A thin blue line was also visible, and fine lines were keyed out.
In the 1950’s through the 1970’s, the Sodium Vapor Process was very new and advanced
for its time. Actors, lit normally, stood in front of a well-lit white screen. An old three strip
Technicolor camera captured black and white, which created its own travelling matte. The only
Sodium Vaport Prism camera ever made was owned by Disney, who would not share for cheap.
We now use green screens, because green is easier and cheaper to light than its relative, blue,
and it also registers brighter on electronic displays, and is less common on costumes than blue
is. Modern digital cameras are much more sensitive to the green part of the color spectrum,
making green screening more effective. Blue is still used, but it is less common. (Hollywood’s
history of faking it/the evolution of greenscreen compositing, 2013, pgs. 1-22).

There are already basic compositing applications such as Juxtapose. For just $2.99,
someone can create multiple layers and combine them into one image (Juxtaposer, 2013, pg.1).
3DVIA Mobile, a $1.99 app, allows one to create digital models, add them to real photos, and
edit them to appear to actually exist in the photo. One is available for iPhone and iPad users for
about $6. There are tutorials and tools to allow them to create titles, visual effects and
complex composite shots. Cynics today believe that we should return to a simpler form of
filmmaking, but this era never really existed. Special effects have always been around, in a
complex or simpler form. We have simply evolved (Hollywood’s history of faking it/the
evolution of greenscreen compositing, 2013, pg.19).
Method
As part of my primary research, an on-camera interview was conducted on September
4, 2013 at 1:00 p.m. with Scott Shaw. Mr. Shaw is the chairman of Gaming Design Development
& Studio Production at Wilmington University. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree at Wilmington
College. The second person I interviewed was Brian Windle at O.K. Video in Wilmington, DE on
September 17, 2013 at 1:30 p.m. Mr. Windle studied at Mount Pleasant High School. My third
interview was set up here at POLYTECH High School with the Visual Communications teacher,
Robert McMullen. The date was set up for 7:00 a.m. on September 26, 2013. Mr. McMullen
holds a BFA from Ohio University in Graphic Design, a MSEd from Bank Street College with a
focus in Arts Administration, and an MFA from Syracuse University in Illustration. My fourth
interview was with Vincent Chelli, the Technology Manager for Department of Mass
Communications and Instructor at Delaware State University on September 26, 2013 at 12:30

p.m. He graduated from Temple University with a Bachelor of Arts degree for communication.
I asked the following questions to my four interviewees:
• Could you state your name and occupation?
• What is compositing?
• What software is used for compositing?
• What else is used for compositing?
• What are some reasons as to why compositors are needed in the media industry?
• Why is perspective so important when shooting for a single composite?
• Why is timing shots important to the end result of a composite?
• How often is painted glass used to manipulate an image?
• What are the downsides to using painted glass?
• From an audience’s perspective, do you think they prefer in-camera effects, or post-
production effects?
• Is it true that the only thing that matters in film is what’s shown on the screen?
• In what ways has compositing impacted the media industry as a whole?
• What are some of the challenges compositors face? How do you overcome those
challenges?

• In your opinion, what are some key soft skills that are essential as a compositor?
• Does traditional painting and illustrating skills help you as a compositor?
• Why is it better to color correct footage before adding it to a composition?
• What was one of your first experiences with compositing?
• Where do you see compositing heading in the years to come?
• How has the internet affected the market in a positive and negative way?
• How are the visual effects professionals and compositors collaborating between people
all around the country?
• How has the internet affected people’s inability to find jobs in this field?
• Do you feel that the increase in the Global Box Office has anything to do with the
progression of compositing?
• Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Interviewees:
[1] Scott Shaw
[2] Brian Windle
[3] Robert McMullen
[4] Vincent Chelli

Results
Out of my four interviewees, these were the best responses to my best questions. I first
asked, “What is compositing?” [1] answered “Compositing in our world, that means taking
several different images, maybe video footage, computer generated objects, such as creatures
or buildings, and putting them all together in a finished piece to where it doesn’t look like it was
staged. My second question asked was “What are some reasons as to why compositors are
needed in the media industry?” My best response from [1] was “If you look at any major
motion picture recently, like, X-Men, Transformers, Harry Potter, you name it, even common
television shows, you need people to pull off some complex shots. Whether that’s to keep an
actor from getting hurt, to make the scene look more believable, or to just pull off something
that isn’t feasible, like the magic in Harry Potter how it can make people disappear in real life.
You need those things. As viewers get more used to those, the ability to pull those types of
shots off more believable, it increases just as much.” My third question asked was “From an
audience’s perspective, do you think they prefer in-camera effects, or post-production effects?”
The best response from [1] was “Yes. I think the audience prefers what they most see as
believable, whether that happens in the camera, on set, or in post-production. It’s what really
gives them the feeling that they are in the movie or in the story, that’s really what matters.” My
fourth question asked was “In what ways has compositing impacted the media industry as a
whole?” The best response I received was from [1]; “Well, if you look at things like Star Trek,
and you look at what was there in the television show, what is there in the recent movies, there
is an enormous amount of growth. So, I think the visual effects industry, compositing, and the
technology, and everything else that goes into that really has come a long way, and really starts

to sell what stories the authors have in mind, rather than trying to get close. “The fifth best
question I asked was “What are some of the challenges compositors face? How do you
overcome those challenges?” The best response was from [1]. He said “Probably the biggest
challenge that compositors face, is not getting enough information, or not having enough pre-
production done on the shot that they want to get, and things like poorly lit green screens,
where they just throw something up, and they don’t light it properly, or they don’t know how
to light it, or they use the wrong format to acquire that footage, then they expect the
compositor to work their magic. We’re very technical artists, but we’re also not magicians. It
goes back to that saying, garbage in, and garbage out.” My sixth best question was “In your
opinion, what are some key soft skills that are essential as a compositor?” The best response
from [1] was “Being able to communicate your ideas effectively. Whether that’s written,
verbally, interpersonally, team-based, visually, that’s key. Also, not being married to what you
create. It’s very hard. If you’re an artist, and you’re selling paintings, yeah, get connected to
that painting. But you’re paid to do a job of making your supervisor happy with what the shot
is that you’re tasked to do. If you come up with reasons as to why you did what you did, and
adjust what your supervisor asked you to do, you’re slowing the production process down. You
have to really separate what you create, from what you’re actually paid to do. So you just have
to do what you’re supposed to do, and do your work. If your supervisor says to make it purple,
then make it purple. Don’t be like ‘Well, I chose red because blahblah *trails off*’. Just, do
what he asks.“ Next, I asked “Does traditional painting and illustrating skills help you as a
compositor?” My best response was [1]. He said “Traditional art skills will help you as a
compositor. Knowing how light, shading, shadow, and composition, all those things come from

the fine art basic skills.”
Discussion
My interviewees helped me get a broader understanding of the topic of compositing.
Compositing has completely changed and improved the audience’s perspective on media. My
primary research has shown me that compositing goes further than an editor’s trick. It is what
makes modern movies what they are today. As tools and technology have improved, so have
the end results. While painted glass used to amaze audiences, it is by today’s standards, an
antiquated tool. Compositing has evolved from environments created by hand, to worlds
created through a click of the mouse. I have also learned that I cannot become attached to my
work, and compositing goes way further than just placing elements in a scene. It requires one
to understand how shapes and colors collaborate, and how to make scenes move seamlessly.
There is more to a scene than what the viewer sees- it is more importantly, what he/she does
not see.
References
Compositing and blending level 1. (2013). Retrieved from
http://dev.w3.org/fxtf/compositing-1/

Del Barco, M. (2013, March 19). Visual-effects firms having trouble seeing green. Retrieved from
http://www.npr.org/2013/03/19/174703202/visual-effects-firms-miss-out-on-a-films-
success
DigitalFire Media. (2013). 3D Perspective- After effects tutorial. [video] United States: DigitalFire
Media
Harris, P. (2012). Television production & broadcast journalism. Tinley Park, Illinois: The
Goodheart-Willcox Company, Inc.
Hollywood’s history of faking it; the evolution of greenscreen compositing. (2013).
Retrieved from
http://filmmakeriq.com/lessons/hollywoods-history-of-faking-it-the-evolution-of-
greenscreen-compositing/
Juxtaposer. (2013). Retrieved from
http://www.pocketpixels.com/Juxtaposer.html
Kramer, A. (2009a). Perfect compositing. Retrieved from
http://www.videocopilot.net/blog/2009/06/perfect-compositing/
Kramer, A. (2009b). What is a compositor?. Retrieved from
http://www.videocopilot.net/blog/category/quick_tips/

Mullis, S. (2013, February 26). Amid Oscars fanfare, visual effects industry faces difficult times.
Retrieved from
http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/02/25/172910128/among-oscars-
HYPERLINK
"http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/02/25/172910128/among-oscars-
fanfare-visual-effects-industry-faces-difficult-times"fanfare-visual-effects-industry-faces-
difficult-times
Wright, S. (2013). The importance of invisible effects. Retrieved from
http://library.creativecow.net/articles/wright_steve/Creative_Cow_Magazine_VFX_Invi
sible_Effects.php

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