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Due to Zoom and other live stream platforms, the knowledge of green screen technology is in high demand. Changing the background to a virtual scene using a green screen has become extremely popular during the pandemic.
This intern’s first experience with a green screen was during a journalism internship program at ‘The News School’ located in Chicago, Illinois.
There are movies, television, and online special effects showing people flying through the air and even walking on water that get their visual effects from a green screen.
This highly technological fakery also has its foundation in green screen technology and a green screen process called ‘chroma key.’ The chroma key process gives one the ability to easily separate green screens from the individual standing in front of them and replacing that background with any desired jpeg image or mp4 video footage.
The News School has added this type of technology to its journalism curriculum, broadening its interns’ knowledge and understanding of journalism’s full gambit.
For this green screen effect to work, the green areas must be evenly illuminated using high-powered umbrella lights. The chroma keying process is not just for backgrounds. It is also used on animated objects. For example, an individual can in a scene hold a large bag of potato chips, and in editing chroma key is used to change that bag of chips to a large cat.
Digital technology has become less expensive over the years, and using chroma keys and green screen technology is now within reach of everyone with a smartphone or iPad. Software and applications such as Photoshop, After Effects, and iMovie can quickly turn an amateur photographer and videographer into a master manipulator of green screen images.
Written by Omari Jahi
Edited by Cathy Milne-Ware
Sources:
LiveScience: How Do Green Screens Work? Mindy Weisberger
Wondershare: How Do Green Screens Work? A Complete Beginner’s Guide, Liza Brown
Studiobinder: What is a Green Screen Used For and How Do They Work? THEO FRIEDMAN
Images by Gricelda Chandler Courtesy of Frackle Media Group -Used With Permission