Creating an urban scene with a UFO :-)
 

hello, people.
i've got a video footage of a town and a toy-like model of a UFO. the task is to create a natural-looking video of a spaceship flying about above the town. although i've got a few ideas of my own, i'd be interested to hear your advice as to how to do that - either in Adobe Premiere or Final Cut Express. thanks.

Get a chroma screen and shoot until your hearts content with the toy. Then in post you can manipulate the UFO however you like. You can simulate speed, size, depth, etc and make it very real looking.

thanks, Marco.

you mean shooting the object against a blue/green screen and then adding a layer to the town video footage?

and what did you have in mind when writing about simulating the object's size, depth, speed etc? how exactly do i manipulate it?

also, what would be the best way to hold the object? if by hand, should i be wearing, for example, a rubber glove of a certain colour in order to key that colour out in post?

Precisely, blue/green, whatever you can get that will work with your UFO. As far as size, depth, etc. - in post you can easily change the size of the UFO, speed up the footage, slow it down, put it in front of some other objects or make it appear to go behind things, etc. It depends on your NLE, but is is usually as easy as keying size variations, speed variations, changing angles, blurring, streaking etc. Since you'll shoot only the object in front of a green/blue screen and key that color out in post it gives you a lot to play with.

As far as holding the object I would try several different methods, who knows, you may end up using shots from a few different ways. - chroma strings, chroma glove, laying it flat, -so many different ways, (insert imagination here). Detonation films website has some great pre-made chroma objects, flares, flashes, explosions, etc you can utilize as well. http://detonationfilms.com/

thanks for the extra advice and the link. that's a very cool website.