Greenscreen Planning

This time on Tips & Tricks, we are going to take a look of how to put together a small story, with the use of a green screen. [Music Playing] First off, in our story, we wanted someone to be home enjoying a quiet winter evening. A fried comes over to invite him to a party, which he probably drives to and then, he dances the night away. We had to use a green screen in every shot, since we could not drive at night, did not have the proper weather, and needed a dance floor. Let us take a look how it worked out. First off, we grab the portable green screen, since we wanted a look of a nice winter like scene. So, we had to decide where we want to place the green screen and how we would composite the shot, in order to eliminate any distractions from the illusion. We decided to use a medium shot, so that when we look out the window, we wanted to see anything that would lead us to believe that we actually shot during the day-time in the afternoon. The things that we had to consider were: how would we react to the winter scene, based upon what the subject would see; how would we composite the subject and with the background play; and at what angle the scene would be shot, so we knew how to scale down the video that would be inserted. Our next segment of the video, centered around our subject being invited by a friend to the big dance off. First off, we have to post up the green screen outside the door, giving us enough room, so that when our subjects came in the door, it looks natural. We have problems dealing with the sunlight, as well as posting up the green screen itself. The big issue is making sure that when we recreated the scene that the depth of field was just right. First off, we grabbed a couple of different takes of the talent opening the door and his reaction. Then, we shot the same person entering the door, infront of a green screen; this allowed us more freedom, when compositing both shots together. To shoot a drive, we needed to set up the shot, so that we can later add moving video, to make it look as if we are heading to our destination at night. [Music Playing] We first set up the shot inside the car, compositing it, so that only the screen would be visible. We simply laid the green screen on the hood of a car and place the camera directly behind the driver. After shooting in night time road trip, we were able to insert the shot into our window, to give off the illusion that we were taking a late night drive to the party to go dancing. The last segment required the use of some disco lights and the amazingly sick moves of the talent, as they cut a rug in front of the green screen. [Demo] First, we needed to make sure that we could separate the talent far enough away from the background, so that the disco lights would not interfere with the green screen lights or else we will go into the problem of bleed through, when we put the video together. Again, the main concern was knowing how far away we needed from the green screen, to make sure if the video did not bleed through unto to the talent. Now, let us take a look at our final video. [Demo] So, there you have it, preparation is key, when you are trying to maintain your illusion, when using a green screen. [Music Playing] Videomaker Your guide to creating and publishing video. High quality copies of these video, as well as additional DVDs, books, and digital downloads, and more are available at videomaker.com/vstore. [Music Playing]