Green Screen

Hello again, 


Today in my Mass Communications class I am looking at the concept of green screens. The use of green screens is a relatively new concept. Green screen, also known as chroma key is a method used by filmmakers which mixes two separate pictures to create and entirely new picture. This works by making the blue or green background transparent in order to show the images on a final product or a third screen. This technique of filming is also known as color keying, blue screen, and color separation overlay. It's initial purpose was weather reports. Green screen originated in the 1930's and has been used ever since to recreate and create realistic screen shots that were previously unachievable. The creation of the green screen opened new doors for special effects crews and was the beginning of a new era for movies and television shows alike. 


In an article by Marshall Brian from the website How Stuff Works, Brian summarizes the green screen process, "The two scenes might be shot separately on two pieces of film and then brought...to be combined onto a third piece of film using a technique called optical composting. The two pieces of film are projected onto the third piece of film in a composting machine...in a digital shop, the two pieces of film are digitized, combined frame by frame in the computer's memory and then written out to a third piece of film with a film printer." I am not an expert on modern or even recent technology but it seems that using a green screen is a very in-depth and drawn out process which requires focus on minor details. I have seen the use of green screens on shows such as local weather, sports shows, comedy skits, and I am sure I have seen numerous movies that use the green screen effect. With this kind of technology out in the open it makes me wonder… How many videos are real? 


Thanks for stopping by,


Brooke