Next thing to think about is lighting. For a proper screen, you need a well lit consistent shade of green. Shadows are your enemy! If your screen is not well lit, it will create shadows which will result in darker shades of green which will then result in weird fuzzy stuff appearing in your final keyed out video... No good! Again, you don’t need to spend thousands on lighting equipment, a few construction lights aimed properly will work fine. (although you may have to diffuse construction lights since they are REALLY strong!)

There are many videos on YouTube showing you various guerilla tactics for creating your own green screen studio. Here’s a good one.

Filming your Green Screen

The easiest way to film a green screen is using a tripod, your subject will not be moving so your background will look good. If you choose to use a hand held camera for style or because your shot requires movement, your screen will require track markers. Usually little cross marks forming a grid on your screen, track markers allow you to track your footage in post-production so that your virtual background will follow the same motion path. **remember that since your track markers are not green, they will not screen out, therefore don’t use large markers.**

 

Keying your footage

Most video editing software will offer a chroma keying tool, and for basic use, they work just fine. However, for a more professional look, you need a chroma key tool with lots of options, because every shot is going to be unique (screen shade, lighting, camera settings, etc...) I use the Keylight function which ships with Adobe After Effects. It’s a great chroma key tool with plenty of settings and options for getting your screen just right.

Here’s a great tutorial from VideoCopilot.net for chroma keying using Keylight.

 

Don’t just be a talking head in front of a green screen!

 

Green Screen are a great way of adding an exciting look and feel to your video. But remember, a cool background only adds flare to your video, it doesn’t make your video! If your message is boring... your video will still suck and no one will watch it!

The IMX green screen studio is a fully lit 30’ x 24’ screen able to shoot large scenes with many actors and props. We've shot everything from interviews to party scenes to full on action sequences!

 

In our video productions using green screens, we often place our actors in virtual sets using 3D animation as opposed to static background. Depending on the desired look, this can give your video a realistic feel or something more fantastic and surreal.. the choice is yours!

 

 

 

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