In order to make my character appear as if from no where, as a ghost would, I want to start the piece by having the character walk out of a wall; and end with them walking back into it. When projected onto a wall, it will look like the Ghost is emerging from, and returning into, the wall rather than just appearing. To create this effect, a mask is used which grows/shrinks in order to make the person appear/disappear into the wall. Behind this is a clean slate of the wall to make them truly disappear. The first test shots can be seen here:
From this first experiment, I was able to determine that the desired effect could be created. However, these test also revealed some issues that would need to be overcome. The first of these issues was getting enough space between the projector and the surface to make the person appear at the correct size. This distance would effect the possible brightness of the video, but if it is too small, then the ghost will not look like a real person.
The second issue was that the background the ghost appeared from was too obvious, and broke the illusion. However, as these tests were shot on a green scree, I keyed out and removed the background, as this had proven to be a successful method from previous testing. The results of these second tests can be found here:
These were then projected onto the same wall to see if this looked more believable. The now black background was better than the green, and was much more believable. However, there is still some evidence that it is not the same location. Whilst this is passable, it is not fully ideal. Difference can be seen where the video is projected in a location different to the recordings source. In order to test the different this caused, I returned the video’s recording location, and projected the video there.
Projecting the green background into the green wall looked better than the other wall, however, this effect was still not ideal. Due to the bright lighting, the image was hard to see and would not work in a exhibition context. When the green was projected onto this wall in the dark, the green did not blend due to the difference in lighting between the wall and the video.
From these tests, I have concluded that a keyed-out background is the most optimal to be projected, as this blends in best with the surrounds. The projection is easier to see in the dark, and a black setting to match that is needed for the videos. Matching the footage to the surroundings it shall be projected in is the key part of making the video seem believable as a ghost in the room. Testing will be important to ensure that the video is displayed in the best way possible The wall walk technique itself creates the desired effect, and will be fine-tuned ahead of the exhibition.