Green screen is a video special effect that allows you to place your subject in any location you have a visual for. If you have a still picture of Mars, then you can put your subject on Mars using green screen without leaving Earth. (Or even leaving your living room.)
Green Screen is a nick name; the technique is actually called CHROMA KEY.
CHROMA means color. In video, to “key” is to put two separate images together. So chroma key literally means to replace any one color in your image with a different image.
In other words, you take your subject and video them in front of a lime green background. Then, you can take out the lime green background and replace it with anything you want, a picture of Mars for example. This makes it look as if your subject was originally photographed with Mars in the background.
You see green screen on TV all the time. The most common example of green screen is the weather report. The weather-guesser stands in front of a lime green background and the different weather maps are chroma-keyed in behind him. This way, the weather-guesser looks like he is in front of a US map one second and a local map the next second. In reality, he is in front of neither; he is is front of a lime green background and the maps are merely video images chroma-keyed in.
The weather cast on the local news is one of the most common uses of chroma key technique.
WHY USE GREEN?
Green is commonly used because it is the exact OPPOSITE color of skin tone. This way, when you remove the green, you will not remove any face along with it. Using a color opposite of skin tone gets you the best results; on a technical level, any color can be used.
If you want to green screen a little green Martian, you might want to actually do a brown screen instead.
Put this child on Mars using Chroma Key technique!
Lime green and bright turquoise blue have been shown to function best when you are chroma-keying skin tones.
WHAT EQUIPMENT DO I NEED?
In order to do color-key, you have to have the right equipment. Generally, this would be a sophisticated video editing software program, like Final Cut. Simple, basic editing programs like Windows Movie Maker or iMovie do NOT allow you to color key.
You can also color key using a video switcher if you have a video studio.
To see a demonstration of me doing a green screen for the Stephen Colbert Show, watch the free video editing tutorial on the top of this page.
Green screen is very easy if you have the proper tools. You need to make sure the green background is evenly colored. so when you are videotaping, make sure your lighting is even and diffused. Shadows on your background will throw the effect off. Large items green screen better than tiny ones. Tiny objects tend to disappear.
Thanks for reading Video Production Tips
Lorraine Grula
Internet Video Gal
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I agree 100%