Behind the Scenes of Homecoming: Crafting a Dance Film with VR, Holograms, and Green Screen Magic

This week, I had the chance to work on an incredibly fun and challenging shoot for Homecoming, an ambitious mixed-media dance project that combines live performance, virtual reality, and holograms. I was brought on as DoP for the project’s trailer, and I also created a short film of a solo dance performance that will be projected as a hologram in the performance space. Exciting stuff! Alongside me was the incredibly talented DoP Shivani Hassard, who was shooting a 360° film of the entire performance, which will play around the audience wearing VR headsets.

The hologram segment was deceptively straightforward: one continuous shot of a single dancer, well-lit in front of a green screen. The trailer, on the other hand, presented more of a challenge. Ideally, we would have shot outside of the green screen space, capturing something abstract that could encapsulate the performance’s essence while building curiosity and intrigue. However, due to time and budget constraints, we were limited to two days in the green screen studio, and shooting elsewhere wasn’t an option. My initial thought was to create a behind-the-scenes piece that highlighted the VR and 360° elements, giving audiences insight into the show’s unique mixed-media components. In the end, though, the director wanted a straightforward trailer that showcased segments from each dance scene. Since we had to shoot on the green screen, we planned for a simple Unreal Engine environment, a black-box theatre, to overlay behind the dancers.

Project Challenges

With this type of shoot, we had several major challenges to tackle:

1. Equipment

The studio provided us with a BMP6K Pro, which was ideal for green screen thanks to its high resolution and dynamic range. However, the camera lacked image stabilization and autofocus, which made it tricky since I was working solo and needed to pull off dynamic shots without a focus puller. In a green screen environment, precise focus is crucial for easy keying, so I had to carefully plan any camera movements to keep things sharp and steady. I also had to drag half my rigging kit up to Ipswich for the filming because I wasn't sure how the camera would be rigged out (it ... wasn't great haha) so bringing my own stuff to properly rig the onboard monitor and wireless transmitter really helped along with my trusty focus wheel.

2. Schedule

Over our two-day shoot, we needed to cover five dance scenes ranging from two to five minutes each—a tight schedule! The initial plan was for me to jump in for the trailer segments immediately after each 360° scene was wrapped. However, after discussing it with Shivani, we both saw potential issues with this. While the nature of the 360 filming meant Shivani could only light from above, I wanted to light each trailer scene with a bit more character. Also, the floor green spill from the floor bounce was pretty horrific so I wanted to bring in some fill and floor lights to help eliminate the spill on the dancer's bodies as much as possible because it can be a real hassle to remove in post. We managed to adjust the schedule to dedicate the first day solely to the 360° segments, with day two divided between shooting the hologram, redoing any 360° takes if needed, and capturing trailer footage. This gave me a lot of prep time on day one to plan the lighting setups for day two, though it did leave me with an excruciatingly tight window to finish the trailer shots - but it's all about compromise!

3. Lighting

Lighting was a challenge, especially for Shivani, who had to light the entire 360° space. With dancers moving across the stage, the goal was to keep the lighting as flat and even as possible, as our post-production budget didn’t allow for extensive cleanup. Ideally, we’d have had large overhead soft lighting, like space lights or a balloon light, but the studio’s setup was limited, and we only had one tech on a ladder adjusting the lights manually—slow and tedious! Soft, even lighting would have been great for me too, as it would have reduced the need for floor lamps and helped cut down on floor bounce for the green screen. Unfortunately, soft top lighting was not an option. Neither was bringing in any type of flooring to cover the green floor (no money, plus the dancers need to perform on certain types of surfaces that are safe for them and this studio is designed for dancing). So, for the hologram, I kept the lighting nice and flat from the same angle of the camera to make for a really easy keying job for post production and I eliminated green spill from the floor using some white bounce on the floor just outside of the frame. For the trailer sequences, I brought in lamps and tried to keep things relatively even with a little bit of negative fill just to add some contrast ratio on their faces. I made use of the bi-color lights on the ceiling grid to introduce some special lighting when I could. For example, one of the scenes portrays two lovers on a picnic blanket. I imagined a sunset and I used some warm side light and soft hair light to make them glow a little. It was a quick little something, but I think it looked beautiful.

4. Camera Movement

Given the setup, creating dynamic camera movement was difficult. The studio had a sturdy "dolly" (well they called it a dolly, it was essentially wheels on the tripod), but the floor was slightly uneven, and the BMP6K wasn’t quite heavy enough to prevent shake, even when I tried putting sandbags on the spreader of the tripod. Also, the editor expressed a lot of concern about needing to do too much compositing work. The trailers needed to be as simple as possible because a lot of the post budget would be need for the 360 pieces. In the end, we agreed to keep the camera stationary, which, though a bit of a letdown creatively, made things faster on the day and also made for easier keying and compositing later on. Again, compromise! But you make it work!

5. Green Screen Techniques

This wasn’t my first time working with green screen, so I kept the fundamentals in mind:

• Evenly light the green screen to ensure smooth keying.

• Keep the performer at a distance from the screen to avoid shadows.

• Use gentle backlighting to separate the dancer from the background for easier keying.

• Communicate with VFX: It was crucial to coordinate with the VFX team to ensure our lighting setup would match the final environment. For the trailer, I used various lighting setups to create subtle mood shifts across the scenes and provided detailed notes and photos on light positions and levels. This way, the VFX artist could replicate the lighting as accurately as possible when placing the dancers into the virtual black-box theater.

  Also, the environment was to be a simple, slightly stylized black-box theater—nothing too “real.” A minimalist background made it easier to blend real performers into a CGI world without breaking immersion, as audiences are more forgiving of people in abstract spaces than overly realistic ones where flaws stand out. I also gave the post team detailed notes about the camera settings, lenses (focal length and t-stops), as well as measurements of height, angle, and distance from performers. All of this info is really useful for them when building environments in Unreal Engine.

  
  

The Final Push

By day two, we were tight on time as the focus remained on perfecting the 360° scenes. By the time we got to filming the trailer shots, we had just under two hours left! Fortunately, all the prep paid off. I’d planned lighting setups meticulously, and with all hands on deck, we moved swiftly through each setup. Knowing exactly which parts of each scene to capture and which angles we’d use saved us a lot of time. I also discovered the studio had a second BMP6K Pro, so I prepped that while they were finishing the 360 scenes and with Shivani available to operate the B Cam, we set up a multicam shoot, allowing for different angles in a single take. As an extra touch, I mounted a 4K GoPro on the overhead grid to add an additional unique angle for variety—essential without any camera movement!

In the end, this project was as challenging as it was rewarding. Working alongside such talented filmmakers, VFX artists, and dancers was an inspiring experience, and I’m excited to see the final product. I’ll post it here when it’s ready, but for now, here are a few behind-the-scenes shots to give you a taste!