30 May 2023. A brief from Prodigious UK for Subway’s Love Island campaign: key out the talent and composite them into a Subway background. It was already shot on green. What could go wrong?
Another job inherited from someone else, with 72 hours on the clock. One of the talent had blonde hair against the green screen, and the previous studio couldn’t pull a clean key. Fine, light hair picks up green spill and falls apart the moment you key it.
- 01
Split the shot into several composite layers instead of asking one key to do everything.
- 02
Pulled a main key for the talent, then isolated the hair and recovered it with a different technique.
- 03
Brought the recovered hair back onto the footage and slowly reintroduced the fine detail.
Delivered by end of day on 31 May. Done in 36 hours, with half the deadline to spare.
When one key can’t do it all, don’t force it. Break the problem into layers and solve each one on its own.
