RedLED Productions have invested in green screen facilities to further extend the options available to clients. Green screen (or Chroma Key if you want to sound technical) enables a background to be applied to a filmed scene. The background can be moving (such as the time-honoured “in-car” sequences where it looks like the actors are driving) or still (TV stations use this method for “virtual newsrooms” and weather maps).
Keying
The real key (pun intended) to successful keying (the process of swapping out the green for your chosen background) is good lighting. The background needs to be lit evenly but not so bright that green is reflected onto the talent in front of the camera! Typically the background lighting should be half the intensity of the foreground lighting – you’re aiming for an even colour across the background.
Lighting
When it comes to lighting the talent, consideration of WHAT your background is going to be is very important. If you have a beach scene then the light intensity will need to be high to match the output of the sunny day, equally a room background would dictate a more subdued light.
When thinking about light placement consider the talent to be at the centre of a clock face with the camera positioned at “6 o’clock”. The first light, the “key light”, is the brightest and should be placed at either “4 o’clock” or “8 o’clock” (selection is dependant on favouring the talent’s “good” side). The “fill light” should be at “4 o’clock” or “8 o’clock” (the opposite of the key light) and is run at about half the intensity of the key light to take out the shadows. The backlight would normally be located at “1 o’clock” or “2 o’clock” but with green screen you want a backlight either side of the screen (or from above). Crucially, the backlights should be concentrated on the screen, with no bleed onto the talent (that’s what those flaps you see on production lights are for – aka “barn doors”).
The key to a great green screen production
The physical keying process is post-production and thus carried out on your video edit software of choice. Apple Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere and Blackmagic Da Vinci Resolve all provide keying facilities though their methods are all different and therefore beyond the scope of this article. There again, if you have a green screen production in mind, save yourself the time and get RedLED to produce it for you! Our green screen and lighting is portable so can be set up in your chosen location – just call or email to discuss your needs.