Green screen training?

Hey,

(sorry I don't know your name, so that's the best intro I can use).


Ok I've just gotten into this myself this past year. I'm not a pro, but I did my homework and figured out how to make green screen technology work.

Your Flip camera will give you crap audio compared to something that takes an external mic. So consider getting an external recorder and synching your audio to the video, or get another camera. Kodak's Zi8 has an external mic input. AudioTechnica has a very low cost ($20ish) mic. I think it's the ATR 3350. Something like that.

Anyway - for green screen you need:

1) Green screen (duh). Use green fabric or just paint a wall / plywood sheet with a green colour. Google it and you'll find color recommendations.

2) Lighting is ESSENTIAL. Softboxes and such are nice. You can get away with cheaper if you like. You want even lighting so there are not "hot spots" on the screen. Check for shadows that you cast on the screen. You don't want obvious shadows. You should be standing 5 feet from the screen, not directly (1 foot) in front of it).

3) Software - Camtasia and most screen capture programs won't remove green, i.e. ChromaKey. iMovie on a Mac, and Adobe Premiere are both examples of programs that WILL remove it. You need something that will take out the green.

That's really all there is to it.

Search the phrase green screen tutorial on You Tube... there are
tons of instructional videos available.

Check out this YouTube video, it will give you some great tips, tricks and ideas about how to use the green screen the right way.

Its really not that hard, just a matter of getting the lighting right and then cropping out your background using the Chroma Key settings/filter that come standard in programs like Adobe Premiere or iMovie.

Hi Charity

To try to do chroma keying on the cheap (i.e free) you can try Wax for Windows, it's old software and has a confusing user interface but it will work even for HD videos.

If you have the older (i.e Windows XP or Vista but not Windows 7) version of Movie Maker it is possible to add chroma keying to it, unfortunately matching the color is very difficult. I spent a day trying and gave up.

I have had great results with Open Shot Video Editor, unfortunately it only runs on Linux. You can dual-boot your Window box with Ubuntu, it's relatively painless and will give you access to a lot of great free video and audio software. And the price is certainly right!

Pinnacle Studio and Sony Vegas have already been mentioned, and they both work well, I've used them both. And I'll also repeat what has been mentioned and say the the lighting is critical to making this work - any shadows on the green screen will defeat you before you get started. I have already seen the video Matthew posted and its good, YouTube actually has a wealth of information on the subject.

Best of luck and Happy Holidays!

Bill

Hi there,

Mike over at webvideo university has an excellent course on all aspects of green screen.

Green Screen Secrets : WebVideoUniversity.com

I signed up a while ago and virtually everything is covered, even tips on doing everything for free. It's $79 but well worth the investment if you are in any way looking for tutorials and tips on setting up and getting the best out of green screen.

Hope this helps.

Jeff

You can do it on an iphone too...( and use and external mic)
Its the lighting and your edit software that's key (excuse the pun)

Doing the white background look is a lot easier, trouble with greenscreen is it takes more rendering time and you have to think about backgrounds.. adds time too when you edit especially if you don't get the lighting spot on, but if you love the look go for it.

I've been doing green screen for a while and one of the best tips I have to share is to throw on a magenta gel and use that as a hair light on your subject (pointing at the back of the head where you would imagine a bald spot to be).

Since magenta is in the opposite spectrum as green, it help with keying out hair, especially blond hair.

As a side note, you don;t need to use a green screen to key out a background, any solid color will work. The most important thing is to make sure your background is lit evenly.