FILMING ON GREEN SCREEN CAN CREATE ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES TO HELP TELL YOUR STORY
When trying to reach your audience, sometimes you need to have compelling visuals to go along with your message, especially with video productions like television commercials or web videos. Telling your story should be an experience that your audience will remember – in a good way. Our motto at Focal Point Marketing & Multimedia is to shoot for the moon, and sometimes green screen can take us there. Whether it’s flying to the moon in a NASA-issued rocket ship, climbing a lava-riddled mountain on an exotic island, or maybe you want to make someone disappear? You can do those things, through the use of the all-mighty, deceptive green screen.
With the correct video software and camera, everything that’s green in a scene (or any bright, singled out color) can be changed to whatever you can dream up. This is the same technology and tools that help bring Hollywood movies to life. Take, for instance, this great visual effects breakdown from the movie The Great Gatsby:
The possibilities are endless – but to correctly pull it off, these four items are crucial:
- Camera – high-def, nothin’ less
- Green Screen – there are lots of choices here, the trick is to have no wrinkles (as they cause shadows). The goal is for a solid green that doesn’t change in brightness from top to bottom. We use a foam backed green screen that is easy to keep wrinkle-free.
- Lights – again, lots of choices here. Having very soft lighting helps because soft lights produce the least amount of shadows. We use fluorescent lighting in our studio as they are soft and provide good results. Another option is to shoot outdoors on a cloudy day where shadows aren’t an issue.
- Software – most modern video editing software comes with a tool for eliminating the green background and replacing it with your choice of image or alternate video. There are a 1001 tricks to master to make the scene more believable, but these are the essentials.
Focal Point Marketing & Multimedia has created a variety of video productions for our clients utilizing our green screen. For television, web, training videos, you name it. Some clients have chosen to use a spokesperson speaking directly to their audience, while others have used actors or employees interacting with each other in a virtual environment to create a narrative. Whatever helps tell your story. Here are a few examples of our work that utilizes the green screen…
So when you’re ready to approach your next television campaign with an outside-the-box method, give green screen a try and we’ll help you create some magic of your own!
