Professional Green Screen Video Works

Professional Green Screen Video is one of the most delicate maneuvers any videographer or video production company can perform, but everybody wants them. After all, who doesn’t want to appear standing over a great city skyline, surrounded by raging fire, or in a wonderful fantasy realm? Many people who shoot their videos with a green screen simply want to use the background for more visual assets behind the speaker or subject. While every green screen dream is legitimate, not all green screens are equal. In fact, many of them are blue.

What Does a Green Screen Do?

Professional Green Screen Video allows for something called chroma key, which makes it much easier for an editor to maintain the image of the subjects but fill the background with anything they want. This can be another place filmed elsewhere, a computer generated image, or even just a hypnotic swirl of colors and a floating logo. It does this by selecting every pixel in the frame and then replaces only those that are the color its looking for which is, in most cases, that distinct bright green.

Why Switch to Blue?

The chroma key is prepared to pick up and alter every drop of green in the frames you shoot, but this, unfortunately, means that it’s very hard to use greens in your costumes and props while green screen shooting. Unless, of course, you chroma-key with a different color. Green is the best color for chroma-key because it is the brightest of the digital colors red, blue, and green. However, when green simply isn’t an option, because you don’t want to chroma-key your character’s script-required green tie or some other directorial reason, it’s time to break out the blue.

When Should You Switch to Blue?

Any circumstance in which your non-chroma-keyed subjects and props include or even reflect the color green, it’s time to switch over. One amusing requirement is when you are shooting someone who is particularly blond. The yellow in their hair will pick up on the green of the screen and appear slightly green in the shot, which will, in turn, confuse the chroma-key. A blue screen, on the other hand, does not compliment blond hair in quite the same way so is safe.

The choices you and your subjects make on clothing, makeup, and general appearance also have a huge impact on which screen you’ll need to use. If green or even green-tinged items are absolutely necessary for the scene, be sure to bring a blue screen along for the shoot. Otherwise, the background mask will appear on their clothing as well, making it look like there is a dimensional hole in your subject’s wardrobe.

Blue is often the better color for shooting night shots, as it is much darker and therefore creates a darker effect on the environment around it. That said, it’s also important to note that proper illumination of a blue screen backdrop takes almost double the light as for green so it may be impractical for large sets with lots of motion or panning.

Get Versatile

If you’re not sure which backdrop you’ll need for a Professional Green Screen Video project before it begins, it’s best to be prepared for both scenarios. There are a variety of products and techniques for creating a green screen, but a frame is your best bet for versatility. Buy or create a wire, plastic, or wooden frame that can hold your backdrop sheet tightly without wrinkles. On one side, secure a bright chroma-key green stretch of fabric or sturdy seamless paper and secure a bright blue sheet on the other side. This will allow you to be prepared even if some of your subjects arrive in green and others in blue. All you’ll have to do is flip the screen.

Foundation Digital Media strives to be one of the best video production companies in the Washington DC area, serving communities throughout Maryland and Virginia as well. Our creative corporate videographers have produced everything from legal to hospitality videos. If you’re interested in making a Professional Green Screen Video, contact us today and we’ll be happy to offer our expertise and advice.