Green Screen for Fiery Scene

[Infinity Sirius]

Remember in "The Making of the Labyrinth" documentary that shows the muppeteers shooting the fiery scene aganist a stage of black velvet and later the scene was superimposed on a forest background?

It occured to me while watching the "Down at Fraggle Rock Behind the Scenes" that the green screen was invented at the time Labyrinth was made. So why didn't Jim use a green screen to shoot the Fiery scene instead of the black velvet stage?

 

[MrsPepper]

Hmm. Probably because, unlike Fraggle Rock where the puppeteer is underneath, with the Firerys their whole bodies would be in view, since they had to move the heads around, etc. And maybe it's easier to make everything black velvet (to clothe the puppeteers, the backdrop, etc) instead of everything being the same shade of green or blue.

That's just a guess on my part.

 

[Infinity Sirius]

That is true but the black velvet stage did exactly the same thing either a blue or green stage would have done. They have also done other movies where an entire person is being shot and other parts are blocked out later on when the images are superimposed on the correct background. They used this technique in the late 1990s Disney movie My Favorite Martian with the Zoot Suit.

 

[GelflingWaldo]

The Fiery scene was done with black velvet. Blue screen technology was around (it was used on Fraggle Rock and tons of other productions Muppet & non-Muppet), but having the performer who had to be in frame be removed (having them wear a flat blue full body suit) was not as good back then (you would see an outline of the person, and the edges of the characters and performers would be "fuzzy", not to mention shadows). On Fraggle Rock where the performer was out of the shot, it was just replacing the blue background with a background (but replacing a blue background and a dozens of blue people was harder). Using black velvet was the easiest way to go then - it worked and look just as good (if not better) than if they went with blue screen.

An interesting note for all you Muppet/Film history/trivia buffs: The Muppet Christmas Carol is credited as the first feature film to use a green screen instead of blue for its visual effects. The green screen allowed for clearer visual effect against a rich blue "evening sky" lighting, and hue with out distortion or interference with the picture quality while keeping the effects realistic looking. Green has since become the norm for special effects films rather than the blue (however blue is still used depending on the shot or effect).

 

[Infinity Sirius]

Ah ha! So that's why. Thanks for clearing that up for me!