Green Screen Technology

[KeithW]

I thought I would share my experiences with setting up a green screen for our latest DVD.

We shot a DVD at the end of last year (Praxis played the part of a slutty moll). I made a green screen to shoot against and we did a test shoot which turned out great. When we went to shoot the real thing a week later I could not get rid of a green halo around the edges of our subjects (us).

We tried everything, looked online at the tutorials, set up a three point lighting system, you name it we tried it. It turned into a dismal failure.

Last week we finished the script for our new DVD (OH&s Time Lords Chatting) where we play a couple of OH&s inspectors that have worked on some of humanities most important projects, Stonehenge, Leaning Tower of Pisa etc etc.

I really wanted to use a green screen for this one so thought I would give it another try. I threw out everything that had been said online, got a darker back cloth, set it up in my dining room with just natural light and the results are bloody brilliant.

I would recommend giving the green screen techmology a try when you shoot your next video, it's great fun, although don't take much notice of the online advice.

The DVD will be online in a few weeks at our website:

www.blackmansbaystudios.com (http://www.blackmansbaystudios.com)

This should have gone in the Geek forum but I missed.

[robertkd]

Ah the black art of lighting and chroma key setup,..

There is actually proper chroma key primary colour paints, failing that the local hardware can usually get kinda close. Usually light the chroma key screen separately and separately to your "talent" with some separation between green screen and talent also avoid shadows on the chroma key back ground.

Green(colour)/black halo is function of key size, key timing would cause either leading or trailing edge to have a green boarder.
So key (the whole cut out) timing and position need to be trimmed/adjusted.

Usually in association with key gain and colour null, digital keyers both hardware and software are fairly powerful and capable.

Always good fun,..:D

[KeithW]

I did a lot of reading up on the green screen issue including the different types of green to use. I also know the owner of one of the local video production houses here in Hobart and went and had a look at that.

The original green we used was pretty bright as that was suggested to me. However since I toned the green down and got rid of the lights it all fell into place.

I'm using Adobe Premiere Elements 8 to edit the videos and I'm getting some good results with it. I've dabbled with other programmes but always go back to PE 8.

On our original failure I tried everything to get it to work including all the software options, it was very very frustrating. Looks good now though and opens up a whole new avenue for us to explore.

My next project might be to place my dinosaur made grandkids into the path of a T-Rex.